CITY TRAVEL TIP, MADRID:

HOTEL UNICO

Hotel Unico is not a hotel that really does ‘understated’. The hotel (until recently called the Selenza) has got a double Michelin-starred restaurant headed up by Ramon Freixa, a wonderfully grand former 19th-century apartment block in as swanky a corner of the city as you’ll find, and wall-to-wall lavish interiors.

And lavish they certainly are, too: as you walk into reception you’re greeted by concentric circles of beautiful black and white tiles and a wall feature of brilliant white roses. Behind you the main stairwell corkscrews round the centrepiece of a tumbling red ribbon mobile (by Zaragozan artist Jacinto Moros). Follow it as it coils upwards and you eventually find yourself on the roof terrace – a real hotspot for the great and the good to gather on sultry Madrileño summer nights.

The rooms are laced with Rococo flourishes offset with ultra-modern twists such as laser-cut Perspex wall mirrors, gleaming marble-topped writing desks and black droplet chandeliers flanking the beds. Add to this green, vintage-style flock wallpaper on one wall and 70s plastic on another, and the overall effect is incredibly playful, tactile and sensuous. Only the bathrooms – stark, white-on-white spaces – hold back. With a huge bath, a walk-in shower and plenty of Molton Brown toiletries, they more than make up for it by being very luxurious indeed.

All this is really a sideshow to the main event, though, which is of course Ramon Freixa’s restaurant. The prices are pretty serious – tasting menus start at €70 per person, while dabbling with the a la carte could quite quickly spiral out of control – but then so’s the food.

WEBSITE HERE

Im Madrider Stadtteil Salamanca bietet das restaurierte Stadthaus aus dem 19. Jahrhundert kostenloses WLAN, einen modernen Fitnessraum und einen charmanten Garten im Innenhof. Das Restaurant Ramon Freixa Madrid des Hotel Unico verfügt über 2 Michelin-Sterne.