The Ned, Soho House’s new £200m flagship hotel, boasts all of nine restaurants. Are they any good? Our award-winning restaurant critic finds out
The only possible reaction when first walking through the doors of The Ned is a gasp. Wow! The soaring height, towering windows, the many African verdite columns, the plush upholstery, the acres of polished oak and cherrywood and marble. People who dislike London will welcome it as an avatar for all that’s wrong with the bloated, metropolitan elite-germinating capital: at a reported cost of £200m, it’s a hosanna to consumption, to pin-striped hustlers, to bears and bulls and money, money, money. (Of course, to me and my fellow Scots, the name is pant-wettingly funny. Look it up.) Still, by any standard, it’s mighty impressive.
This extraordinary development – 252-bedroom hotel, nine restaurants, roof terrace bar, two pools, a spa – comes from Soho House & Co with US boutique hotel group Sydell (NoMad, Saguaro). In an interview, Ned supremo Nick Jones – yep, still chortling – said that after his “art house” Soho Houses, this is “my chance to do a blockbuster”. And blockbuster it most assuredly is, this Edwin “Ned” Lutyens-designed, grade 1-listed former Midland Bank headquarters beside the Bank of England. My task is to eat at every restaurant from breakfast to late night; one that, after two days in the place, starts to feel more than a little Sisyphean.
As befits anywhere aimed at masters of the universe, there are places shuttered to the likes of you and me
The most striking thing about the various outlets is that they all look exactly the bloody same
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