Hunter 486 Restaurant London Review
Hunter 486
Marble Arch, London
Reviewed by Emma Rogers
I thought I knew nearly all the boutique hotels in London, grand and small, but the Arch Hotel, just behind Marble Arch and Oxford Street, is the best of both genres. From the outside, the hotel looks like a small townhouse, but as you venture inside, it seems to expand Tardis-style into a rolling mansion, complete with outside mews space, restaurant and bar and even a gym. The hotel boasts over 80 rooms over several floors, all of which are comfortable doubles or suites.
Each room comprises of a full bath ensuite, tea and coffee making facilities and free soft drinks. US-style safes are in every room and unlike lots of London hotels, there’s plenty of hanging space and double front doors to keep out the noise. You’ll be impressed by the touches. Lovely touches like proper tea and coffee cups, real milk (none of those little Milk Maid pasteurised cups you get in service stations!) and get this – there’s a TV in the bathroom! A real TV to watch whilst you’re in the bath!
The rickety-splikety of this Grade II listed property means that the meandering floors and walkways lead to rooms of difference sizes, hence the range of suites available. Families can choose from rooms, to joining rooms that act as suites or as meeting rooms.
The entrance to the hotel opens like a modern-day Sherlock Holmes story. There are umbrellas at the doors. The walls are decorated with eclectic, yet very fashionable, London art work. The furniture is classic-shaped but natty cheque colours and odd patterns. It’s more what I would call ‘contemporary classic’. There are private dining rooms on this floor, including the library which we couldn’t go into today because the room was hired out for a filming company. The library is used for private parties and dining, which is especially useful in this room as it has an adjoining lounge area, leading onto the dining area which overlooks the prestigious houses across the road. (Note- one of the houses across the road from the hotel is Madonna’s private London residence!)
Our meal tonight was in the Hunter 486 Restaurant. The name rather cleverly plays on the ‘contemporary classic’ theme as it is the old-fashioned Post Office code for the telephone district and number. This petite restaurant holds only 40 people, including the champagne bar at one end. The stone oven is visible in the open kitchen at the other end, and the view from the seating is over the mews right next to the hotel.
Rebecca, our waitress, brought out homemade bread and butter with the menus. There are 23 wines which can be ordered by the glass rather than the bottle, making it easier to choose, or indeed swap wines halfway through the meal! The restaurant has an Express menu, which has very reasonably priced 3 course meals for just £21.00 during the week until 7pm. We chose crab and salmon to start, followed by steak and cod then surprised ourselves with how much more we could eat by finishing with lemon posset and chocolate fondant with ice cream! These dishes all looked so innocent on the plate, but were super-filling with rich peppercorn sauce for the steak and a lovely buttery sauce for my cod. The desserts came recommended. We asked Rebecca what her thoughts were and she came up with the chocolate fondant. My tastebuds had been on overload by that point so I went with a more modest lemon dessert but I did try the chocolate – it was scrummy!
The restaurant itself is also in the contemporary style, with booths that can be curtained-off. As I looked around, the restaurant had mothers and daughters, business colleagues, friends meeting for dinner and a couple of family gatherings – not your normal business type of hotel and restaurant you would imagine in this part of London. The cosiness of the decor makes it feel like a real home-from-home. I would love to stay at this hotel for a family gathering, during a winter weekend when all of the fires are lit and the rush of the business visitors has died down, and where you can walk to Oxford Street and back to do your Christmas shopping.
And I would certainly recommend the cod, if you happen to be staying. And the steak, and of course the chocolate fondant and ice cream…
Rating: 5/5 
For more information, to view menus or to make a reservation visit www.thearchlondon.com/wine-dine/hunter-486.
The Arch London, 50 Great Cumberland Place, Marble Arch, London, W1H 7FD | 0207 724 4700
