wonderful notion, this....

(+ a few recent ones of mine...)

park hyatt dc - 5 deerpoints. blue duck tavern is really very fine (cherry blossom sorbet, astonishing apple pie, obamas + secret service, one michelin-star if michelin did a dc guide), but breakfast service brings it down considerable.

park hyatt paris - 6 deerpoints. michelin-starred restaurant (though trying too, too hard to please the inspectors), and very good breakfasts (kougin amann, proper parisian hot chocolate).

claridges, london - 4 deerpoints. ramsay's restaurant started off well, but went downhill fast. lately lost its michelin star.

umaid bhawan palace - 6 deerpoints. (though getting local spicing is sometimes a challenge... 'like the chef's mother would make it' usually does the trick.)

mandarin oriental london looks very promising, from recent buzz - heston blumenthal's place + bar boulud getting excellent notices. + after reading gallivanters' rave on the food (which put it at two-star michelin quality in the main restaurant), i'm also looking forward to grand hyatt berlin in november.

Hotel food is inherently different from destination restaurant food; the latter is a meal to be savoured, maybe a once-a-year or even once-a-lifetime event. Hence the emphasis on creativity and theatre. By contrast hotel food is to provide sustenance for the weary traveller. It is meant to be nutritious and healthy, rather than creative and astonishing. I ate at Michelin 2 star restaurants for 5 consecutive days once -- and my liver couldn't take it any more! It is not food that you can eat every day.

My PA judges the quality of a hotel's food by a simple test: order a club sandwich. It has never failed to indicate the true quality of room service at all hotels that I've stayed. I'm no fan of club sandwiches, but it can really hit the spot and cure jet lag.

So my reaction to this thread is that it is pointless, trying to rate hotels as destination restaurants when that isn't the food most of us eat at those hotels (or want to eat). The R&C approach (where it is a destination restaurant, and the hotel operation is merely a convenience for the diners) is telling, and of course results in fine dining. But most of the time I don't want fine dining when traveling, but comfortable and convenient dining.

I am glad that many fellow FTalkers agree regarding the high food quality at Relais & Chateaux properties in general. The marketing group itself is based much on the quality of their restaurants, and one of their "5 C's" is in fact "cuisine". The others being charm, character, calme (quietness) and courtoisie. Luxe is not included and many if not most properties do not match to what people discussing on this board would consider luxury hotels.

Not all of us have the same preferences and myself will be more than happy with a simple, but comfortable room as long as the restaurant is Michelin starred. I find FS and sometimes even Aman boring with their overpriced rooms and standardized food offer.

To identify the best food quality within the Relais & Chateaux group they have created a label "Grand Chef" (formerly this was "Relais Gourmand").

Some Relais Chateaux luxury properties which serve excellent food come to my mind anyway and thank you Kagehitokiri for her/his PM:

Oustau de Baumaniere in Les Baux de Provence with 9 deerpoints, their lamb, red mullet and also vegetarian menu is unbelievable.

Manoir des Quatre Saisons, Oxfordshire with 9 deerpoints

Inverlochy Castle in Fort WIlliam, Scotland with 8 deerpoints

Auberge du Soleil, Napa Valley with 8 deerpoints.

Many others do not match the luxury definition on this board.

http://www.gallivantersguide.com/Club_sandwich_book.pdf

if i had known re FS GVA i would have stopped in while i was there. hope it doesnt change before next trip. (although i guess resort wear wouldnt cut it would it...)

forgot about this >

Voting from my experience last October:

The Metropolitan Bangkok:
glow: 6 deerpoints
nahm: 8 deerpoints

Amandari: 5 deerpoints
Como Shambala Estate: glow: 6 deerpoints
Alila Soori: 6 deerpoints
Amanusa: Italian Restaurant: 5 deerpoints
Kayumanis Ubud and Jimbaran: 4 deerpoints
The Bal�: 5 deerpoints

After your first load of comments & points, I did a big update of the threadstarter - including flyer talkers points in brackets, and some changed and/or new points by me:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/luxur...ry-hotels.html (click for threadstarter)

So the list is really longer and filled with much more hotels & opinions - please be so nice and add even more hotels and points now by replying!

Here are my personal new points from last year (which I also included in the threadstarter):

4 deerpoints for Amankila - upgraded from formerly 2,5, since they are much better now

4 deerpoints for Grand Hyatt Berlin

4 deerpoints for Peninsula Bangkok

9 deerpoints for Ritz Carlton Wolfsburg

4 deerpoints for Ritz Carlton Berlin (without closing their gourmet restaurant they would have 7 - but Brasserie Desbrosses is a very good experience on it's own. By the way my favorite breakfast place in Berlin...)

4 deerpoints for Brown's Hotel, London

4 deerpoints for Hotel de Russie, Rome

3 deerpoints for The Charles, Munich

1 deerpoint for Hotel de Rome, Berlin

8 deerpoints for Regent Berlin

6 deerpoints for Alila Villas Soori

4 deerpoints for Six Senses Yao Noi, Thailand

I think I'd give The Peninsula Bangkok 5 deer points, and Rayavadee would probably get 3 overall (but maybe I am being too generous).