Review of The Stanhope, by The TI Review Team

If a veddy old English fix in the heart of the European Parliament is your thing, then The Stanhope is the Brussels hotel for you. A five-star gem with the decor of an opulent country retreat (but a dead-central situation for business, and pleasure, in Europe's capital), The Stanhope holds its own against the newer Amigo and Dominican with grace and style.

The facilities

There are two sleek, vaguely Zen, 75-square-meter apartments for rent by the week or month. The Stanhope also has a gorgeous Ambassador's townhouse, fully kitted out with two boardrooms and three telephones in each of the suites. Brighton, the Stanhope's restaurant, rates three fourchettes from the Guide Michelin (you'll dine in a lush drawing room, with Chinoiserie recalling the Brighton Pavillion, overseen by a portrait of George IV), and in warm months you can eat alfresco in the hotel's lovely interior garden. There are is a fitness center and gorgeous teak-lined sauna -the latter can be booked out privately on request. A full-service business center, with WiFi, faxing and printing, and conference facilities rounds out the picture.

The rooms

Of the 108 rooms and suites, ranging in size from Standard Doubles to Royal suites, the 50-odd located in the Heritage wing have recently undergone a top-flight renovation under the practised eye of no less than Viscount Linley. Expect fine English antiques and reproductions, yards of lovely chintz in calming hues of peach and dusty blue, plenty of tufting, master paintings-and a slew of Molton Brown products in the bathrooms.