Sunset, from corner suite 3101
A favourite room at the Worli area’s top luxury hotel, Four Seasons Hotel Mumbai, is 3101. Why? It is a corner suite where everything is where you expect it to be – the gal does not waste time trying to find sockets and/or trying to fathom out light switches or how to open and close the curtains or blinds. Being on the 31st floor, too, gives some of the best sunset views, looking out to the ocean. This would be a busy stay, as always, but a lot would be fitted into too-few hours (so what is new, you might ask?).
One view of San-Qi’s open kitchens
Dinner was in San-Qi, which means ‘three energies’, and the menu offers Chinese, Indian and Japanese. There are several glass-fronted open kitchens, so actually it is a theatrical experience as well as a dining delight. I had a Pacific sashimi platter, on a little wooden board, followed by a vegetarian soba noodles bowl and then a mango sorbet. We drank Boekenhoutskloof The Chocolate Box 2011, from Franschhoek, a Marc Kent blend of Syrah (70%), Cabernet Sauvignon (13%), Grenache Noir (10%), Cinsault (6%) and the remaining one percent of Viognier. Frankly I did not know one of those vines existed – one learns something every day.
Eternal elevator mirrors
And then it was time for bed, before yet another early start. In the elevator down to the third floor gym, an eternal tunnel of mirrors seemed to pan out on both sides – I often wonder how owners can sign off elevators, in so many parts of the world (especially North America) that are so boring. I love elevators that have little velvet seats, as at Hotel Sacher Wien, or wall panels of pressed flowers, as at Park Hyatt Zurich. The elevators at Andaz Amsterdam start, at ground level, seemingly surrounded by bookshelves but rise into an open vacuum so you can see designer Marcel Wanders’ stunning mobiles hanging from the lobby ceiling.
First-class room service breakfast
But here we are, of course, in Four Seasons Hotel Mumbai, and I return up to 3101 in time for breakfast. To me the sign of a really good luxury hotel has always been its room service breakfast.
Here, as you can see, it was magnificent, with honestly the best yoghurt of my entire Indian trip and enough of it to bathe in, or at least for a magnificent face mask – which reminds me I must rush back down to the third floor, for what turns out to be a real, and memorable, Ila face mask in the spa.
