The London EDITION, London, UK

I always love trying a club sandwich served in a 5 star hotel lobby lounge. There’s a great excitement in the anticipation of what the chef has curated for patrons of the establishment. My expectations are high.

The London Edition was just a few steps from my hotel for the night, The Sanderson, and while The Sanderson was only a 20minute walk from where I stayed a few days prior, The Chesterfield, my goodness the vibe of both The Sanderson and The London Edition, as well as this neighborhood… it felt like a giant leap from the classic British hospitality and elegant richness of Mayfair.

Trendy, cool, crisp, and a sort of weird luxury meets some overly modern interior designer attempting to mesh W hotels with marbled magnificence, I really couldn’t tell where I was. This lack of identity bothered me, but I had an hour till my next meeting and decided this would be the perfect settlement for a club sandwich.

With two options on the menu, I opted for the vegetarian, and caught up on emails while awaiting my early lunch to arrive.

“Would you like brown or white bread?” I wasn’t very familiar with brown bread, so I opted for that.

It was a bustling hotel lobby complete with active pool table, and I watched groups mingling quietly while two lads chastised each other over their approach to pool shots, missing many yet always critiquing the other.

Finally, my food arrived… at least part of it. They brought the sandwich out, letting me know my French fries would be delayed. That was a first, and a really weird way to serve a meal. Equally puzzling, as I stared at my club sandwich, was the giant egg white clinging onto the side of the meal for dear life. A bizarre ratio and approach to layering a club sandwich.

Decent flavors, albeit nothing really stood out besides that chargrilled courgette, also known as zucchini in “American” English.  Loved the grilled courgetti, an absolutely fantastic “protein” and a unique item the chef was clearly proud about. The rest of the sandwich? Total meh. Decent tomato, creamy yet lacking flavor avocado schmear, a totally plain hard boiled egg that should have been shingled, and very bland hummus.

Dry, powdery Egg yolk mixed with smeared smashed avocado, and bland hummus… it doesn’t mix well, and you don’t need to try this sandwich to know this.

Meanwhile the service – I was gobsmacked how poor it was, both at this property and The Sanderson.

Needless to say, I was missing Mayfair in this moment…

And extremely surprisingly, they comped my whole meal. They apologized about a delay, but that shocked me and was very unnecessary. A nice gesture on their part, which, doesn’t influence my rating of this club sandwich, but definitely entices me to come back… maybe… probably not, but maybe…