Three ways to eat at the Arlington: formally under eleven thousand crystals, informally among the palms of the winter garden, or in a dressing gown, which we consider the most civilised of all.
Chef Hélène Marchetti cooks the classics as if they had just been invented: sole meunière boned at the table, a pressed duck for two, a soufflé that arrives exactly as the conversation needs it.
Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm to 10.30pm. Jacket preferred, never insisted upon.
Breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea beneath a glass roof and a century-old kentia palm. The croissants are laminated at four each morning; the tea trolley has right of way.
Daily, 7am to 7pm. No reservation needed, except for tea at weekends.
Anything from the Salon Ferdinand menu, brought up on a linen-dressed trolley with silver cloches, at any hour of the day or night.
Twenty-four hours. Dial 2 from your room.
Prices in euros, service included. Please tell us about any allergies; the kitchen would rather know.
Eight cocktails, one of them unchanged since 1931. Read it slowly.
