Great hotel and restaurant in London for celiacs - Hilton Metropole Hotel

[Guest guest]

I just got back from a fantastic 2-week vacation in Europe. I will go into more detail of which restaurants you can eat at while visiting Rome, Sorrento, Pompeii, Edinburgh and London in another e-mail, but in this e-mail I just wanted to share with you the most welcoming and endearing hotel and restaurant a celiac could ever stay and eat in while visiting London. Please feel free to send this e-mail to any celiac website you wish to. That is how great the Hilton Metropole Hotel is. If I ever go to London again, this is the ONLY hotel I would consider staying in!

We had booked a Globus Monogram London tour and the Hilton Metropole Hotel was the hotel that our touring group would be staying in. I e-mailed the hotel about my dietary requirements, and they forwarded my e-mail to their head chef, Nigel Frost. Chef Nigel e-mailed me that I would not have to worry at all, and that they would even have some gluten-free bread and muffins available for my stay.

We had toured Italy first before going to London. Unfortunately, my experience with restaurants and g-f food in Italy was not the best (even with all my research!). I was pretty depressed food-wise by the time I got to London (I will explain in a subsequent e-mail). When we entered the Fiamma Restaurant in the Hilton Metropole Hotel for dinner the first night, the waiting staff and chefs had already been informed of my dietary needs. Within 5 minutes of seating, Chef Pascal appeared at my table asking me what I would like for dinner. I am embarrassed to say that I started crying! I had been denied quite a few wonderful dining experiences the entire week before in Italy, and it was like a dream to have this smiling chef in front of me asking what I would like him to make me for dinner! I was so overwhelmed and that is why the tears came so quickly!

Chef was an absolute sweetheart. He understood the cross-contamination issues, the marinade and sauce issues, etc. We decided on a roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and GRAVY (a reduction sauce with no flour in it!) and vegetables. I had a salad and used my own Kraft ranch dressing individual packets that I had ordered before my trip. These individual salad dressing packets really came in handy during my trip. I know he would have made a salad dressing for me, but I really liked these salad dressing packets. This hotel also had a dessert buffet every night that included the most exotic desserts (the cost was 5.95 pounds). My husband would enjoy the dessert buffet while Chef whipped me up a creme brulee for my enjoyment. Another chef, Chef Vivian Pedrihina, was also there on the nights that Chef or head Chef Nigel wasn't. If you bring your g-f pasta, they would gladly make you spaghetti. They will do anything for you there! One time at breakfast, I saw a gentleman at the breakfast bar with the same g-f bread that the restaurant offered me. When I asked about the bread, he said he was celiac also and loved staying at their hotel.

Breakfast was included every day in our stay. Their breakfast buffet was incredible. Of course there was all of the pastries you could imagine - very nice to look at and my husband sure enjoyed them. They also had tons of fruit and yogurt, cheeses and meats, and a hot breakfast, including eggs, bacon, ham, potatoes, etc. Chef had fresh oil set aside for me so I could have fried potatoes at any time I wished. There was a cook who made fresh eggs any way you would want them. They had also ordered gluten-free bread for me and toasted it somehow without any cross-contamination (I brought my little toaster bag but they didn't need to use it). The thoughtfulness of them ordering the gluten-free bread for me touched me deeply, however, I didn't like the taste of the gluten free bread. I had brought with me my Kinnikinnick english muffins and they toasted those for me every single morning instead (I put two bags of Kinnikinnick english muffins in my suitcase and had the hotel restaurants in Rome and London put the bag in their restaurant freezers). Chef would also have the foresight to take a Kinnikinnick frozen english muffin out of the freezer the night before so it would be defrosted for breakfast for me. Also, they gave me TWO gluten-free individually packed muffins with my breakfast every day! Everything from poppyseed, lemon and chocolate muffins! The breakfast chef who was in charge of me in the morning - his name is Chef Ulli Halufe. He is the most sweetest man in the world. He would come out every morning to see me to make sure I was taken care of. On our last day, he even came out and walked my husband and I to the door as we left the hotel.

When we went to Paris for a day, I picked up four little gifts for these chefs that made my London trip a trip I will remember for the rest of my life. The chefs names again are:

Chef Nigel Frost (head chef)

Chef Pascal

Chef Ulli Halufe

Chef Vivian Pedrihina

Just e-mail either Chef Nigel at nigel.frost@... or Chef at michael.pascal@... that you are coming to stay at their hotel. Tell them that Sue recommended that you eat at their restaurant. I guarantee they will take care of you. I do not know how much I paid for the hotel because it was part of the tour package. However, I asked the front desk, and they said that it really varied - it could be anywhere from 95 pounds a night to 200 pounds a night, depending on the season, etc.

I will send another e-mail later regarding other restaurants that I ate in and little hints I picked up while traveling.

Sue