The Oberoi, New Delhi unabashedly calls itself the city’s favorite hotel. And why not: With its 220 luxurious guestrooms and suites, five food outlets and verdant courtyard and pool area, it certainly ticks all the right boxes, added to which service comes with such beaming smiles and old-world graciousness that guests are made to feel truly welcome and valued.
Then there is its location in the heart of New Delhi, the beautiful garden city with wide tree-lined avenues and colonial-era buildings built by the British in the early 20th century as the new capital of India. Old Delhi, on the other hand, was the 17th-century Mughal capital and has narrow winding streets, even narrower alleyways, bustling markets, and historic monuments like the Red Fort on which the Taj Mahal was modelled.
As we checked-in after dark, it was only the next morning that we realized how extraordinary this hotel’s location is, when we looked out from our window on the thick canopy of lush greenery that wraps around the property. From the vantage point of The Oberoi’s rooms the view is of the hundreds of acres of towering trees and impenetrable plants and shrubbery on the New Delhi Golf Club and of Humayun’s Tomb, a magnificent UNESCO World Heritage site, with historical Old Delhi just 20 minutes away and the urban skyline of New Delhi etched in the distance.
Rooms start with the 350-square-foot Deluxe and Premium accommodations. Our Premium Plus Room measured 550 square feet and had a relaxing couch area. Like all rooms, it also had a walk-in closet, a marble bathroom with a tub, a rain shower and two wash basins, polished teak floors, furnishings with an Art Deco feel, and an iPad to control the curtains and lights, choose pillows and order room service.
We liked the peacock blue carpets and curtains in No. 627, a Luxury Suite (1,800 square feet), which has a separate living room with a dining table and a desk and, like all the suites, 24-hour butler service. The 21 Oberoi Suites can interconnect with Premier Plus Rooms, and the six Deluxe Suites have a powder room and a pantry for in-room dining.
The presidential Kohinoor Suite, measuring a massive 3,399 square feet, has a sitting area in the bedroom, a separate study, therapy room and personal gym, and a magnificent white marble bathroom with a standalone bath.
Just off the lobby, which has elegant black and white paving tiles, and the Oberoi’s Tree of Life motif on the end wall, light floods into the 360° Restaurant from floor-to-ceiling windows on three sides. The extensive menu has Indian, Thai, Japanese and international evergreens, and our bottle of chilled Riesling from the wine cellar of 1,200 bottles hit just right spot.
The next morning at breakfast we were amazed to count 14 chefs wearing white toques moving around the food stations at the lavish buffet. The Club Bar and Cigar Lounge, located just off the entrance corridor and beside the fashion shopping mall, is an intimate corner with personalized lockers where guests can store their cigars.
The Dhilli restaurant has a menu curated by Michelin-starred chef Vineet Bhatia featuring Indian family recipes and Delhi’s traditional street food. At lunch, we opted for the tasting menu with small plates of spicy chaat street food snacks, and a delicious Punjabi Butter Chicken of tandoor-roasted chicken simmered in a rich, buttery tomato-based gravy with cream and aromatic spices.
The Oberoi Patisserie, with café-style seating and glass cases of sweet and savory delicacies, is also popular, we noted, with non-hotel guests who drop in for working lunches and coffee breaks. On the top floor the Baoshun Chinese restaurant, helmed by Chef Andrew Wong of the 2-Michelin-starred London restaurant, specializes in shared plates like Peking Duck and Crispy Lamb as well as dim sum and vegetarian dishes. Next door Cirrus 9—by day a must-see for the 360-degree views—comes to life at night with a Josper open grill, cocktails and curated music.
We prefer to discover a city rather than stay at the hotel, but by midday the October weather was hot, so we did take breaks at the pool, and appreciated how the attendants appeared from behind the greenery with chilled water and face towels, addressing us by name. Yet another fine example of the Oberoi’s focused and discreet service! When we stayed, the days were happily crystal-clear, but Delhi, which has a population of 33 million, is a heavily polluted city and The Oberoi, which had a three-year total makeover in 2016, introduced cutting-edge air purification systems to provide global-standard clean air, and has transitioned from plastic to recyclable products.
Hotel Manager Ibrahim Magdum ([email protected]; +91-98712-86092) told us the monsoon season runs from June to the end of September, that January and February are the coolest months, and suggests staying at least three days to enjoy Old and New Delhi. He also advises to book three months ahead for the best selection of rooms.
Ibrahim left us in the capable hands of Clefs d’Or head concierge Albert John ([email protected]; +91-98100-40733) who set up a guide and car, and sat down with us to talk through the best itineraries.
Local Shopping
One morning Albert sent us off on a whirlwind, foot-pedal trishaw ride through the narrow winding alleys of Old Delhi to the Chandni Chowk market where we bought spices, and then to the Red Fort, once home to the Mughal emperors. Another day we toured New Delhi, stopping at Hanuyam’s Tomb, the model for the Taj Mahal, and the Gandhi Smriti, now a museum, where Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated in 1948.
We did one-stop shopping in the large Padma emporium (www.padmabazaar.in) which has a vast selection of carpets, arts and handicrafts. Tip: Ask for Mr. Ali (+91-8899-473801) who told us about the workmanship of the goods on display, many of which are vintage and from all over India. He said purchases can be shipped to any part of the world.
Another must-do is Sanduq (www.sanduq.com) where the pashminas are the real deal, and eye-wateringly expensive. But when manager Firdous (+91-11-4302-5218) told us how the exquisite shawls and scarves are made from the combed wool of the rare Changthangi goats, and hand woven at elevations of 14,000 feet in the northern region of Ladakh, we realized just what a priceless heirloom a genuine pashmina is.
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