Best Western President Hotel, Berlin – review written 2 June 2014

Berlin is a great city and its greatness begins when the plane comes to a halt at the gate at Tegel airport. 


I found it odd, having said goodbye to the BA crew and stepping on to the jetty that links the plane to the terminal building, that I was already stuck in a queue of some sort. I soon realised that the reason for the hold-up was passport control, which was quite literally at the end of the jetty.

Behind passport control was the baggage reclaim, behind that the customs, and then, no more than a few yards from customs, I was on the taxi rank. In other words, from the plane to the taxi was no more than a matter of yards. And the closeness of everything continued as I soon discovered it was only 25 Euros by cab to my hotel, the Best Western Hotel President.

Talk about a perfectly located hotel! The Best Western Hotel President had a metro station no more than five minutes away (Wittenberg Platz); it had shops (including an Apple Store and all the big brands you can imagine) no more than 10 to 15 minutes away (on foot) and there were a fair few restaurants too.

The front desk is, arguably, the most important place for any hotel as it's where the customer gets his or her first impressions of the place. My first impression was that the Best Western Hotel President was going to be good. Why? Because the check-in was not only friendly, but efficient and soon I was standing in front of the elevator waiting to take myself and my suitcase to room 416, which was a pretty standard room, but nevertheless a perfectly functional room with decent WiFi, a decent TV, perfect bathroom – a kind of wet room – and a comfortable bed.

It was, however, another hotel without a restaurant and I know that, in previous reviews, I've mentioned this and have been in two minds as to whether 'no restaurant' is a good or a bad thing. I think, in fairness, that it's a good thing as it gets you out on the streets sampling the delights of the city and in Berlin's case it's all good. From the hotelier's point of view it's a good thing too as why should they have to compete with those who specialise in being restaurateurs? There has, as I've also said before, always been a stigma attached to the hotel restaurant. Many people don't use them because they dislike dining and breakfasting in the same space. So why have one?

I'm not going to criticise the Best Western Hotel President for not having a restaurant as it meant that I got to experience a decent Italian restaurant (Antica Roma) and an equally decent Vietnamese restaurant (Lien in Berlin).

In fact, the only confusing thing about the President's 'restaurant' was the fact that it did exist and was available to large parties, but not individuals like yours truly. Confusing because I was told there wasn't a restaurant (and there wasn't) but then, in the evenings, I could see people dining there. It wasn't a big problem and it also doubled as the breakfast room. Breakfast, incidentally was good as there was plenty of choice for all tastes. I always had cereal, yoghurt and fresh fruit, but everything else was available too.

Another great thing about the hotel (although it was by no means rare in Berlin) was bicycle hire. Yes, there were 'Boris Bikes' but why bother with them when most hotels offered their own bikes for hire and Berlin is an extremely bicycle-friendly city? I hired bike 3113 for 12 Euros and rode through the amazing Tiergarten to the Reichstag and the central railway station and back.

Check-out was as easy as check-in, all the front desk staff were impeccable and the hotel was ideally located bang in the centre of the city, not a million miles from anywhere.

I would definitely stay at this hotel again should I find myself back in Berlin and I would recommend it to anybody.

Best Western Cutlers Hotel, Sheffield, UK – review written 17 December 2015

A short cab journey brought me to the Best Western Cutlers Hotel on George Street in Sheffield. The receptionist was friendly and soon I was checked in to my room (room 203 on the second floor). The elevator was slow and I wished I’d taken to the stairs instead, but soon it arrived with a dull thud and I quickly found my room.

Room 203 was fine: a huge bed (two singles pushed together) a decent bathroom with proper taps – none of that designer rubbish offered by so many hotels, but proper taps with 'hot' and 'cold' written on them AND a plug on the end of a chain. Perfect! I wouldn't have to spend hours working out which was hot and which was cold and I wouldn't need a degree in mechanical engineering to figure out how to depress the plug and stop the water from leaving the sink.

WiFi was free, there was a flatscreen television on the wall – after dinner with a colleague in Bill's near Millennium Square I watched the BBC news – and then, after a broken night (I rarely sleep well in hotels) I began to look forward to the breakfast room, which was located in the basement. I'm so glad I didn't have dinner in the hotel's restaurant because it completely lacked atmosphere and, because of this, there was nobody else dining there. Bill's provided much-needed hubbub, and by that I mean other diners, people, music, laughter, everything that my hotel restaurant lacked.

I was hoping that the hotel breakfast would deliver something special, but it didn't. For a start the room was horribly bright and white and there were supposedly 'trendy' distressed park benches and tables and a meagre self-service option at the far end of the room. Brightness of this magnitude simply doesn't work in a hotel breakfast room, in my opinion. It was like being in the garden furniture section of a large garden centre – not an ideal place to enjoy the first meal of the day.

Boxed cereal, tinned fruit and a banana-flavoured yoghurt: that was the offering in front of me, but a waitress eventually appeared and took my order from a small menu on the table: scrambled egg, toast and fried mushrooms. I realised that fried mushrooms were no longer my thing. I don't mind them raw in a salad or as part of, say, a cheese salad sandwich, but fried: ugh! Greasy and slippery mushrooms are simply not pleasant.

The most irksome thing about the breakfast was a dirty cereal bowl. Without my glasses on I mistook the dried food stuck on the inside of the bowl for some kind of logo – how foolish and stupid am I? It turned out to be dried food. Unfortunately I had already tipped my bran flakes into the bowl and added the milk, so I persevered, but vowed to check everything else that came my way. Fortunately it was a one-off mistake, but it made me feel doubly relieved that I had opted for Bill's last night and not the hotel restaurant. In fact, I should have gone to Bill’s for breakfast.

Right now, rather than use my own lap top in the room, I am sitting at a wooden table just off the main staircase using the hotel's computer (a PC). Other than the aforementioned dirty bowl, the Cutlers Hotel was pleasant. I get the feeling that it was once an office building, and not a purpose-built hotel, as the main staircase screamed 'office block'. There's a large stained glass window that runs from the top to the bottom of the main stairwell and a carpet matching the window's design.

This isn't a 'grand hotel' but it's fairly pleasant, and bang in the centre of Sheffield. Despite its central location, it's quiet and peaceful and 'off the beaten track' but only minutes on foot from the Crucible Theatre and Millennium Square where all the decent restaurants are to be found: Cosmo, Smoke Barbecue, Piccolino's, Cafe Rouge, Brown's, Pizza Express and, of course, Bill's.

A brief word about Bill's. I remember visiting the first ever outlet in Lewes, East Sussex, back in the days when Bill's was simply an independent restaurant – circa 2010. I went there with Miles Jenner, head brewer and managing director of Harveys of Lewes, a fantastic, traditional brewer of fine English cask ales (my description, not theirs). Harveys of Lewes brews a beer specifically for Bill's – or it did back in 2010. The outlet in Lewes, East Sussex, was everything one might expect from an independent restaurant: pine tables and a traditional but quirky menu catering for all needs and meal occasions. I was surprised to hear that expansion was on the cards for Bill's, but a few months, possibly a couple of years later, I visited Bill's in Leamington Spa and then yesterday here in Sheffield, and all was well. Last night I ordered roast chicken with sweet potato fries and a couple of glasses of Merlot, rounded off with a light pecan pie and a cup of tea. My colleague enjoyed a rack of ribs. Why they thought I would be capable (alone) of drinking a huge pot of tea just before bedtime I don't know, but I do know that it contributed in some small way to my broken night's sleep. That comment about 'catering for all needs and meal occasions' rung true of the Sheffield Bill's as, in addition to dinner there were lunch and, indeed, breakfast offerings on the menu.