Bloomsbury Street Review- From Times Online, 4th June 2009

Nice decor, decent room and an excellent restaurant in this refurbished hotel near the British Museum- Gareth Scurlock

Formerly the Radisson Edwardian Marlborough, this newly refurbished four-star deluxe hotel is shiny and squeaky-clean.

The outside is nondescript, but when you walk through the door the first noticable thing is the bold interiors and classy design.

Retaining an air of Edwardian grandeur but with modern touches, there's dark marble effect throughout the lobby, lounge bar and dining room, with subtle lighting making for a relaxing environment despite the very business-like feel of the entrance and reception.

We arrive late in the evening and just about catch the last sitting in the restaurant and it's quite busy - which can either be reassuring or reflect the convenience of eating in for hotel guests.

We wait quite a few minutes to catch a busy waitress's eye, and from then on the service is excellent. The food, surprisingly, is as well - it's hard to find a good restaurant in a four-star hotel, many are bland bistros, but the Bloomsbury Street Bar & Restaurant really comes up trumps.

For starters the roast butternut squash soup with nutmeg and rosemary oil is colouful and rich and at only £6 a bargain for this standard of food. My terrine of ham hock, capers with pea and mint dressing comes in at a very reasonable £8.50, and the mint and capers perfectly balance the pea and ham flavours.

Main courses are just as good - the steak fillet with oxtail (£21) is nice and thick and perfectly cooked, while the guinea fowl (£16) is complemented perfectly by a leek mouse and madeira sauce.

For dessert bread and butter pudding is good traditional fare, but it's not too heavy and as good as I remember it from my youth (don't tell mum). Passion fruit panna cotta with raspberry coulis and shortbread is as good as the title sounds, all washed down with excellent house wines for the price.

Retreating to our room, the standard double is not too big but it has a generous bathroom and I've stayed in less space at 5-star business hotels in the capital.

The bathroom has a large walk-in shower and light tiles with a diagonal roof window - we are on the top floor but our room window looks out onto the back of offices - decent views are hard to come by among the office blocks and grander tall buildings of Bloomsbury.

The bed itself is very comfortable and backed by a luxurious padded leather-effect wall, extra comfort and style points there.

Usual mod cons are there - a flat screen TV with some freeview channels, free wi-fi in every room.The location is excellent, a stone's throw from the British museum and near Tottenham Court road for a quick escape by London Underground to all the other sights of the city.

We headed down for a morning feed towards the end of breakfast before 10. The waitress in the restaurant then night before had tried to warn us about not getting there too late - it's Saturday, the hotel's full of tourists who've had a lie-in and there's a queue from the restaurant right back into the lobby.

It seems everone wants their breakfast at that time - or perhaps the restaurant area is not big enough for the number of rooms. Not willing to queue for 30 mins to eat we complained and a helpful member of staff walked us next door to the Radisson Edwardian Kenilworth, where we were allowed to eat in the partially empty dining room. The buffet breakfast was decent enough, though I wouldn't have enjoyed it after a long wait.

I wonder if everyone who complains would get the same treatment? That aside, an excellent value hotel in central London that ticks nearly all the boxes.