You can’t miss the M by Montcalm. Shoreditch hipsters discuss it in trendy cafes, London’s taxi drivers do a double-take as they drive down City Road in Old Street and passers-by peer in and whisper about how cool it looks from the outside.
The futuristic 18-storey hotel, began a soft opening period on 20 May, that will last until September. The formal restaurant on the 17th floor, promising food by a Michelin-starred chef, is yet to open but Tonic & Remedy, the bistro and bar on the first floor, more than makes up for it by serving unique and inventive cocktails, as well as food that has all the qualities of a Michelin-starred restaurant but without the price-tag.
I’d highly recommend the octopus starter, served with rice dyed black by its ink, followed by the lemongrass smoked sea bream and a side order of devilled fries.
The food is truly amazing and the service, relaxed and friendly. It’s run by Searcys and led by executive chef and star of The Great British Menu, Paul Welburn. The bar is run by Jeremy Pascal. He has big plans for playing with the medical theme to come up with weird and wonderful cocktail flavours and concoctions.
The hotel’s Wellness Retreat in the basement has a Versace-designed swimming pool, treatment rooms and a 24-hour gym. The illuminated pool and jacuzzi are both decorated with mother of pearl tiles.
M by Montcalm’s conference and event facilities opened in June. Located on the dedicated second floor, there’s five private meeting rooms as well as one larger conference and events space.
The key element to these spaces is that they can all be combined with each other, thanks to flexible partitioning of the rooms, offering great flexibility to clients with the possibility of hosting meetings for five people as well as receptions for 200.
Once you’re inside the hotel, you barely notice the distinctive architectural shape which has got everyone talking in the streets below. What’s impossible not to notice however is the emphasis on technology and the hotel’s brand alignment to London’s Tech City.
Our room had the largest plasma TV on the wall I’ve ever seen. It was controlled by two iPads, which also managed the lighting, the curtains and other in-room functionality such as music and access to on-screen apps. Although it doesn’t feel gimmicky, we would have appreciated one of those old-school hotel instruction manuals to save on a lot of trial and error, and that was us just trying to find BBC1!
Behind a new hotel that is intent on driving forward the guest experience through the use of technology however, are some of the friendliest staff I’ve ever come across.
The service is impeccable, right from the moment of booking, when you get to choose a room scent and then receive a personalised email from the Guest Experience Manager, through to every member of the Montcalm team who couldn’t do enough to ensure our stay was pleasurable.
Currently everyone is talking about the look of this new addition to the London hotel scene. But when word gets out about how good Tonic & Remedy is along with the overall visitor experience, M by Montcalm will have a very bright future indeed.
Article by: Mike Fletcher