Urban Brasserie awarded AA rosette four months after opening

The Crowne Plaza at London's Heathrow Terminal 4 has been awarded an AA Rosette for its restaurant, Urban Brasserie, just four months after its official opening in October 2018. Executive head chef Sam Tekkle leads the restaurant, which serves modern British cuisine including heritage beetroot salad, lamb Scotch egg with lovage mash and pan-fried sea bass with shimeji mushrooms. AA inspectors said the restaurant offered “an eclectic selection of dishes for its local and transient markets.” They continued: “From grills to the more innovative dishes, expect big flavours and accurate cookery from the skilful team.” Sam Tekkle said: “I am delighted that Urban Brasserie has been awarded an AA Rosette, within such a short time of opening. We work hard to provide a destination restaurant experience here at Crowne Plaza – with a relaxing ambience and inventive food cooked using classical and modern techniques and the freshest British ingredients. We are now developing our second rosette with a new spring menu to be launched soon.” Andrew Brown, general manager, added: “We are thrilled that The Urban Brasserie has been recognised with an AA rosette. Our dual-branded hotel has received great feedback since opening, and the food and beverage offer, which also includes the fashionable Destinations Bar, never fails to impress. The AA rosette highlights the work that Sam and the team do to ensure that guests receive an experience which goes above and beyond what you would expect from a typical airport hotel.” The hotel, which forms part of a dual-branded property with Holiday Inn Express at London's Heathrow Terminal 4, was the largest hotel to open in the UK in 2018 and the largest hotel complex directly connected to a British airport terminal. The Crowne Plaza at London's Heathrow T4 has 304 bedrooms and offers a range of business and meeting facilities including ﬁve meeting rooms accommodating up to 100 people. The hotel features three food and beverage outlets, including the classically-styled Urban Brasserie restaurant, the Destinations Bar, serving street food and sharing platters as well as innovative and classic cocktails and Tea 4, the lounge setting in the lobby The two hotels will operate under a franchise agreement with IHG and will be managed by Arora Hotels, a division of the Arora Group. The construction of the hotels has been managed by Grove Developments, the construction division of the Arora Group.