Lotte Hotel Moscow
This ultra-swanky, highly polished hotel offers 300 spacious and luxurious rooms and suites, a couple of upscale restaurants (Italian and Japanese), and a fabulous Balinese spa. Service is meticulous throughout and there’s a dapper Club Lounge too.
Location
8 / 10
The hotel is located on Novinskiy Boulevard in the heart of downtown Moscow. Old Arbat Street is 300 metres away, the Lotte Plaza mall is right next door, and cultural sights abound: the Moscow Zoo, the Planetarium, Red Square and the Kremlin are around a mile and a half away. The closest metro, Smolenskaya, is a 10-minute walk.
Style and Character
9 / 10
The impeccably opulent interior of the 10-floor building was designed by HBA and Wilson & Associates, who have skillfully merged the classic and the contemporary with an emphasis on various types of marble, natural woods and highly polished gold surfaces. There are also some striking Chinese artworks dotted throughout the public areas and suites including the striking large canvasses that hang behind the reception in the swish lobby.
Service and Facilities
9 / 10
One of the highlights of the hotel is the vast (1,500 square metre) Mandara Spa, which merges Balinese spa traditions with contemporary cosmetic lines like Elemis and Bellefontaine. Oozing tranquility via an earthy brown and beige colour scheme, it offers a range of treatments with exotic titles like Oxygen Therapy Massage and Vitality River Bed, as well as a fitness club with a decent-sized pool, and a hydrotherapy area with whirlpool tub, silk bath, hammam and sauna, and a brand new Russan banya opened in 2019, which includes a tea ceremony and honey body scrub.
The hotel also has a generously sized third floor Club Lounge (which includes a summer terrace) accessible to guests on the Club Floor, plus workstations, a book, DVD and CD library and free underground parking. Service is as manicured as the hotel.
- Bar
- Fitness centre
- Laundry
- Parking
- Pool
- Restaurant
- Room service
- Sauna
- Spa
- Steam room/hammam
- Wi-Fi
Rooms
8 / 10
The 239 rooms and 61 suites span a variety of sizes and shapes filtered through categories like superior rooms and generously-sized suites. All are notably spacious, certainly among the biggest in Moscow, and luxuriously appointed with king-sized beds, generous living areas and marble bathrooms with fluffy gowns and slippers as standard. Technological amenities include large (recessed) televisions and DVD players, music docking stations and digital control panels; bathrooms, also marble and wood, have Molton Brown or Bvlgari toiletries (depending on which level you book), and suites feature extra elements such as hand-made crystal ceiling fixtures and furnishings designed in the style of Russian antiques. The top floor houses the largest – and most expensive – Royal Suite in Russia.
Food and Drink
8 / 10
The hotel has two very good restaurants. The bright and vaguely baroque OVO by twice-awarded Michelin-star television chef Carlo Cracco serves contemporary Italian cuisine – foie gras terrine with caramelized figs, steamed sea bass with zucchini, white beans and mussel sauce, ravioli with smoked salmon and red caviar; plus a three, five, or seven-course tasting menu by head chef Emanuele Pollini – and offers a pleasant summer terrace with bustling downtown views.
MEGUmi offers a seductive interior of natural stone and antique kimono fabrics, and an impressive menu of Japanese cuisine featuring rare ingredients such as fresh wasabi flown in weekly from Izu, Shizuoka and Kanzuri chilli paste, and dishes found nowhere else in the city such as Wagyu Steak served on a hot lava stone from Mount Fuji, and crispy baby corns served on a Bizenware plate, as well as an aquarium from which customers can pluck their Kamchatka crab, oysters, lobsters, scallops, and mussels directly, a sushi bar and a great wine and sake list.
In addition, the Lounge hosts a chic bar with a varied menu of light bites and top-notch beverages, and has a pleasant summer terrace to boot. Breakfast is lavish, with over 100 items spanning European, Russian and Asian dishes: blinis with homemade jam and honey, salmon caviar, and Aperol sorbet, with the added option of Krug champagne.
Value for Money
7 / 10
Double rooms (Superior) from 25,161 Russian Rubles (£311) in low season; and from 37,200 Russian Rubles (£460) in high. Breakfast not included and costs 3,000 Russian Rubles (£42). Free Wi-Fi.
Access for guests with disabilities?
There are four adapted Superior rooms, as well as two adapted loos in the lobby and on the second floor. Wheelchair ramps are also available.
Family-Friendly?
There’s a Family Luxury room category as well as rental items in the shape of baby cots, toys, kids bathrobes and slippers and nappies. A children’s menu is available in the hotel restaurants.
8 bld.2, Novinskiy Boulevard, Moscow 121099, Russia.00 7 495 745 1000lottehotel.ru