Serra at Chancery Rosewood review: dining at the US Embassy
The most high profile hotel opening of 2025 has arrived with Mayfair’s Chancery Rosewood. Adam Bloodworth eats at Serra
Terribly wealthy international visitors must be excited by the prospect of London right now. There has been a sprint of uber-luxury hotel openings where rooms cost north of a grand per night, and the Chancery Rosewood is the last of these behemoth properties to open, following The Emory, The Peninsula and The OWO over the past 24 months.
That isn’t to say it’s been plain sailing for restaurateur or guest. Hotels have been struggling with the economic downturn. Claridge’s, The Savoy and The Dorchester have declared losses, but there is no sign of that at the Chancery Rosewood, where on some nights the 262 room hotel has been at capacity. Cheapo rooms are going for £1,600 per night.
The hotel occupies the former US Embassy on Grosvenor Square. The iconic golden eagle statue remains on the rooftop, and from the street the gleaming bird is quite a fabulous sight, but it is the only piece of brash US sentiment remaining at the building, which has had a restrained revamp. There is polished stone everywhere and a quadruple-height gold chandelier in the atrium. I’m told by one staff member that the hotel tested 30 pieces of marble flooring before they decided on the stone I was standing on, even if beneath my feet was an indistinguishable shade of beige.
Serra at The Chancery Rosewood: punchy taramasalata and Middle Eastern bean stew
The hotel is bringing the money in, but such destinations want to appeal to locals too, for clout, and the way they do that is through launching buzzy restaurants.
At the Chancery Rosewood, the Italian-American restaurant Carbone has welcomed everyone from Victoria Beckham to Piers Morgan and Joan Collins, and another of the hotel’s restaurants is Serra, which has had less buzz but serves some very nice food.
For Londoners a huge amount of the appeal of going into the Chancery Rosewood is experiencing the formidable former US Embassy building. The concrete exterior columns remain, as do interior pillars wrapped in gold metal panelling, but the Serra interior design features emerald green banquettes, rattan panelling and mid-century wooden tables, none of which can contend with the majesty of the high-ceilinged space. It all feels quite disposable: the kitchen has pots and pans lined up on shelves like the set of Saturday Kitchen.
Though if you are into good food you might detour to Grosvenor Square for this, which is labelled ‘south Mediterranean’ but really feels broader than that. Punchy taramasalata and hummus bowls, the latter with a hollowed-out lake of herbs, are commanding warm-ups. Piled into pretty little multicoloured mounds, they are the sort of artistic statements I was hoping to find in the restaurant’s decor. Pita bread slathered with bacon from a long list of interesting-sounding breads is pillow-soft and full of flavour, and cured red mullet with almonds and pickled radicchio is a brilliant colour and flavour wash, even if the dish was overpowered by blood orange segments when the essence would have been enough.
A gnocchi with mussels was straightforwardly good, as was a ribeye of beef where the marbled veins popped with flavour against the sinewy flesh. Most interesting was that it was served with a Middle Eastern bean stew called fasolia, a triumph of flavour and texture and something new for the table (I’m bored to tears with creamed spinach). A third of the desserts are for two, which isn’t great if you like trying different things, but my guest and I landed on the tiramisu (for two). Luckily this riff on the Italian masterpiece was decently moist because there’s nothing worse than double helpings of dry, boozeless sponge.
The whole place didn’t feel very cool, my guest said, and then we got into the lift and Louis Walsh walked in. Walsh confirmed her suspicion, but the Eagle Bar, with its 7th floor terrace next to the great bird on the rooftop, with warming fires and decent cocktails, is more like the type of place you’d actually want to hang out. It’s also the closest you’ll get to the former identity of this arresting Modernist building. Given current US politics, perhaps that’s best.
Go to rosewoodhotels.com