Hospitality By The Bay

Bhisham Mansukhani checks out the refurbished Taj Lands End

Taj Lands End Bandstand, Bandra (West), Mumbai - 400 050. Tel: (91-22) 5668 1234 Fax: (91-22) 5699 4488 Email: landsend.mumbai@tajhotels.com, Website: www.tajhotels.com

Very few Mumbai hotels have the privilege of being supplanted in front of the sea and the Taj Lands End is presently the most buzzing of this clique. A recent bouquet of facelifts encompassing the atrium, which has received an urbane understatement, menu overhauls for two of the speciality restaurants and a Club Floor of rooms replete with plush comfort and facilities for the business propah has made it one of the most sought after properties in the suburbs.

Clearly, checking into The Taj Lands End is an experience tucked in with more than one unconventional surprise to look forward to, the first of which is the check-in itself — either a casual sit down formality or filling out the form in the comfort of one’s room.

The hotel, it’s evident, was designed to put its best foot forward — the sea face. The L-shaped construction gives each room without exception a sweeping sea view and for some, Mumbai’s South and Central skylines are a fortuitous bonus. The hotel boasts three speciality cuisine restaurants, Masala Bay, Ming Yang and Vista as well as watering hole, Churchill Bar. Two of these play this trump card even better with uninterrupted glass walling the exterior from incoming drafts, providing a sweeping view of the horizon. Reservations for best possible tables would have been a recommendation only if allowed!

Vista, the 24/7 food and beverage set piece, overdelivers with New Yorkish minimalism and swank, helped no end for effect by the sea view. The cuisine rounds off the many natural elements that make Vista an endearment among hotel eats. However, shoring up praise for location does not take away from the essential profile of the Taj Lands End as a congruent business hotel.

All of the 334 rooms are equipped with ubiquitous wireless connections, with studies packed into rooms and a butler service for all of the lodgers on the Club Floor. A dedicated business centre, a level up from the lobby, offers Internet and breakaway rooms for conferencing. There are many forthcomings that current guests hazard missing out on like a spa tower of unprecedented extravagance and a complementing Spa Cafe by international cuisine icon Michel Nichan.

Not that there isn’t enough to do, guests can also enrich their sommelier skills poring over the open wine cellar, learn culinary skills hands on by observing Masala Bay chefs in their element and vie for the guest of the week spot. With the gathering Bandra Kurla business hub closer to it than to any of its competition and equidistant from South and North Mumbai, the Taj Lands End combines a classic business focus and dressed down comfort, capturing an appeal for variegate profiles.