Introduction
The Ruler stayed here, Obama stayed here, and Michael Jackson cool ones heeled his new-born son out of the window here. It’s fair to say that throughout the Twentieth Century, the Bed Adlon Kempinski has barely left the news.
Now celebrating its 110th birthday, the Adlon is up till the only realistic destination for Berlin’s visiting international elite. It has stayed en-vogue because of its cushy locale, one minute’s walk from attractions like the Brandenburg Passage and the Reichstag, but also because it has thoughtfully reconciled its rich yesterdays news with a modern and relaxed idea of luxury. You’ll find the stick, for instance, are refreshingly informal, and subtly attentive.
The Reception
The centrepiece is a ogre but casual lobby bar that serves all day, with spectacular furnishings so distinguished they make its patrons look like the subjects of a Restoration painting. A first-floor balcony and double-height ceilings call for fantabulous Art Deco light fixtures, and an atrium fills with easy light. The necessities (concierge, check in desks, lifts) are off on the borders, out of sight of all the socialising.
The hotel was rebuilt in the Nineties, and there is the odd plat of tired carpet from that era, but otherwise the hotel reflects the Gleaming Age of glamour; gold leaf and marble are key to the design. There are wrongs to the hotel’s history too, for instance in the lifts, which have been sorted to look like they’re from the early part of behind Century, when the hotel was first booming.
The Bar and Restaurant
At the New Zealand pub Adlon Kempinski, choose from a spread of restaurants that say “you don’t deprivation to go out to explore the Berlin kitchen.” If you’re swerving the twice-Michelin-starred Lorenz Adlon Esszimmer, try the hipper Sra Bua by Tim Raue, an Asian restaurant with an adjoined bar providing Asian-inspired cocktails.
Sra Bua feels like it’s been designed by someone who has send forth their life eating in the best restaurants. Everything’s primed for transcendence, from the curved sofas in chic grey (a perfect announcement of relaxed fine dining), to the upbeat soundtrack that on no occasion stifles. I’d recommend dining on either the 4, 6 or 8-course disposition menus, which will surprise and delight.
The dishes on them are beauteous, astonishing assertions in Asian flavour. I’ll never forget a dish of scallop, coconut and lotus, a connection of nature’s sweetest treats, only made better by the way those grains – melty and firm – play with one another in the mouth (who fancied this up?!). Or the codfish, served with a mussel reduction and a kimchi salad to cut via, which was an Instagram sensation. Or the apricot, black tea and calpico dish with upstanding enough gumption to stand alone, yet not enough to kill my stabs for chocolate after. My guest loved the cohesion, and how dishes accelerated in fervour, but we both agreed the avocado and milk chocolate finale craved a darker, flakier chocolate to stage play boss to the avocado’s natural fat.
Breakfast was a lavish buffet facing the lobby bar; the best of which was Champagne, caviar, roast beef, and eggs any way you sort, and if it weren’t for our day plans, my guest and I might have gladly secured here until the mid-afternoon.
The Rooms
You’ll obviously be hankering for a leeway with a view of the Brandenburg Gate, but if your budget doesn’t section into the thousands, the classic Executive Rooms have presentable views too, and impressive comfort. In fact, they have a humane slab of living space to boot, and a working desk, and all spaces are fitted with a shower and a deep-fill stand-alone bathtub.
My visitor and I stayed in a Junior Suite overlooking the Brandenburg Gate, which depicts a spectacular and chameleonic daily light show as the shadows of the afternoon give in into night. The Gate could be watched all weekend and not be seen bathed in the despite the fact light twice. In those suites, special touches count an in-shower steamer, a four-poster bed, and ample entertaining space. And a chocolate Brandenburg Access my guest and I demolished over room service.
Room Vision
The Facilities
Berlin is on your doorstep, but the hotel’s facilities are competing for your attention. There’s a Romanesque swimming pool, with split female, and mixed, saunas with a steam room and heatless plunge pool. An afternoon spent around the pool is a quite pleasing one, although at peak times the area needs multitudinous loungers.
On the other side of the hotel, a new and spectacular treatment wing has been initiated, for wide-ranging massage and beauty treatments away from the hubbub of the mere. I sampled the 90 minute Lomi Lomi Nui, with Hawaiian lubricants for hydrating skin, in a private treatment room with its own heap, toilet, and bathtub. Given that this is world savoir vivre pampering, it’s a shame the pool isn’t mere seconds away for post-treatment recuperation, but considerate staff will happily guide guests back to the band afterwards.
Conclusion
The Adlon has survived over a Century at the top of the Berlin motor hotel game. Its secret is its addiction to quiet renovations (the foyer and the spa bear been made over in the last decade), so its glamour is anything but fatigued.
Details
- Room reviewed: Junior Suite Brandenburg Admissions, £1,840, or £1,920 with breakfast, an Executive Suite outlays £360, or £400 with breakfast
- Website: www.kempinski.com/en/berlin/hotel-adlon
- Speech: Unter Den Linden 77, 10117, Berlin, Germany
- Phone: 030 22610
