The Concorde Room at London Heathrow is pitched as the best lounge the airline has to offer. You only gain access if you are flying in First, or if you are a very high level Gold Guest List frequent flyer in the Executive Club.
I’ve visited exactly once before, when I flew in First from London to Washington using Avios. Since that was six years ago and before the refresh, I was looking forward to visiting again.
An Invitation I Couldn’t Refuse
A friend of mine from University was flying to Australia in First with his fiancée. As they were able to bring a guest each into the lounge, another friend and I received invitations to join them.
We planned trips around their dates so that we could tag along. I hadn’t seen these people since before the pandemic, so it promised to be a lovely catch up, and it was!
Visiting the Concorde Room
Upon my arrival, I was duly guested in and immediately ordered a glass of the Laurent-Perrier Grand Siècle Champagne. A quick online search reveals this retails around €160/£170/US$180 per bottle.
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- Entrance to the Concorde Room.
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- Laurent-Perrier Grand Siècle
When the third member of our party arrived, we decided to order something to eat. Since that sweet tooth of mine just won’t quit, I decided on the afternoon tea. How British!
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- I have all the love for this afternoon tea!
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- Heritage tomato and Laverstoke buffalo mozzarella.
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- Soup of the day.
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- Is it the Chicken liver & Brandy parfait?
The others had various things and in due course the final person arrived. After eating, we decided to decamp to the terrace as we were in high spirits and wanted to avoid disturbing people around us.
The Bar, Those Lamps And More
One of the main features of the interior is the bar, complete with models of Concorde. It’s very precisely laid out so that everything looks very elegant. Since the booze is generally top shelf stuff, it makes sense to present it well.
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- Can you spot the Concorde models?
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- A Porta Romana duck feet lamp.
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- Dining tables in the centre.
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- Set and ready!
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- Another view towards the terrace.
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- Looking the opposite direction.
You can elect to dine at the tables in the centre of the lounge, which we did not end up doing. Many people did eat there though, so it was used and is popular. By the way, that duck feet lamp retails for £1,676… I kinda want one!
Exploring The Lounge
Since it’s an airline lounge, the Concorde Room unsurprisingly contains many places to sit. There are many little nooks and crannies, with some set out a little bit like the living room in a home.
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- Seats at one end of the lounge.
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- Is this where you and your boss discuss your performance?
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- Plenty of relaxing options.
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- Your own personal living room!
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- Another look.
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- The worst seats are these, under the flight information screens.
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- Need to work? Go here!
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- Comfy chairs.
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- Looking in from the terrace.
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- Another one!
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- See a pattern here?
Privacy is the main theme that they seem to be going for here. The well heeled clientele can hide away quite unobtrusively if they so desire, which makes a lot of sense.
The Toilets
I was frankly not expecting anything different in the Concorde Room toilets compared to the ones in the Galleries First Lounge. Naturally I was wrong and found these ones feature a bidet.
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- Well, that was unexpected!
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- Your hand wash and hand cream.
There are Elemis products here, which have been supplied to BA for as long as I can remember. I wonder if they will ever move away from that brand?
The Concorde Room Terrace
Outside is the terrace, and as mentioned we headed out here for quite a bit of our stay. In a fitting tribute to the supersonic aircraft, the nose cone of one of them is situated here.
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- You can dine on the terrace too.
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- What’s this then?
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- It’s a Concorde nose cone!
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- This was on G-BOAF once upon a time.
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- Terrace seating.
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- Some art on the wall.
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- Another view.
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- Comfortable and private.
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- Cushion detail.
It’s rather nice and airy on the terrace, and it’s also where I sat when I visited back in 2016. It was never particularly busy either, which was also pleasing.
Sampling Some Drinks
While out there, we sampled some of the drinks on offer. We also ordered all the bar snacks – Truffle & Pecorino nuts, Sea salt & Balsamic vinegar crunchy corn & broad beans, Nocellara del Belice olives and Kalamata olives. In for a penny, in for a pound!
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- All the bar snacks!
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- A Marmite Martini.
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- Whiskey.
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- English Sparkling wine.
The Marmite Martini was interesting to say the least, but hey, it was worth trying. Everything else was very good as well, as you would expect from a high end lounge such as this.
Concorde Dining
Before we departed on our flights, we headed for the dining room and had dinner together. This is a really nice part of the lounge and there is plenty of food on offer.
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- A welcoming dining room.
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- Food menu.
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- Desserts and afternoon tea.
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- Bar list.
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- Beverages.
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- Cocktails.
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- Champagnes and Wines.
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- Red wine, Dessert wine and Port.
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- Soft Drinks and bar snacks.
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- More drinks.
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- More cocktails.
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- Online ordering.
By this stage I wasn’t taking photos of the food, but what we had was just as delicious as everything else we had eaten. Once done, we headed off after a lovely lounge interlude indeed.
Overall Thoughts
The British Airways Concorde Room is a very nice place to spend some time before flying. During our visit it never felt busy, though there were people passing in and out regularly. That made it feel very relaxing indeed, a calm oasis in the airport even!
Service was very attentive throughout and we never really ever had to find someone to bring us drinks. In fact, most of the time we were proactively offered top ups and so on without having to ask. The attention to the service was exceptional, as should probably be expected.
With delicious food and a wonderful selection of drinks, there is nothing to fault here. Everything was good, clean, comfortable and well presented, so I was happy all round.
Have you visited the British Airways Concorde Room at London Heathrow Terminal 5? What do you think of it having seen the pictures? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Thanks for the very comprehensive review. The lounge overall seems nice enough but a couple of things seem incongruous considering the reputation:
The food menu has a shortage of restaurant style entree options. A hamburger is fine but I’d rather expected a steak or veal option, as an example.
They offer 4 different vermouths but zero bourbon or Canadian whiskey options.
I guess it might be difficult to cook steak or veal correctly in a fast enough time, as a lot of people would only be there an hour or so before their flight. That’s my guess anyway! Interesting on the drinks. Maybe someone will see this and take it into account. Thanks for the comment!
Visited the Concorde lounge in June 2023 and still as good as the review describes. Friendly and professional staff. We had a delayed flight so enjoyed the a la Carte dining and a little too much fizz. Yes, lot of passenger flow but so much quieter than the club lounge which can be super busy with code Share and one world card holders. Great afternoon tea selection and cocktails were great. I’m miss the magazines which have vanished from all lounges post pandemic.
Thanks for sending through an update – it’s good to know that things continue to be similar to what’s written here. Sounds like you had an enjoyable time there!
Was there in January after not having been since pre-pandemic. The dining choices were-and look like they still are- considerably curtailed. I’m not a Champagne maven like my wife, but I preferred the English sparkling wine to the LPGS. She stuck with the LPGS after trying mine but admitted that the Brit bubbly was very good. I actually prefer the smaller CX business lounge in terminal 3 when flying AA as their noodle bar is nearly as good as The Pier at HKG.
Yes, I agree, the CX lounges are my favourite of all at LHR. The whole deal is just fantastic all round 🙂
Those departing in F on AA from T5 are supposed to have access to the Concorde Room, although recently all AA flights were switched back to T3 as BA wanted to use all the T5 gates.
Yes, I didn’t include that as AA are currently in T3, so people wouldn’t really have access at the moment as their flights aren’t from T5, as you rightly point out.
Was last there maybe 6 years ago and your pictures certainly show the updating that has been done. Glad to see the food and beverage menus have been improved as well.
It certainly is fresher than before. Hopefully you’ll pass through again soon.
Quite an eclectic assortment of interior design styles. Seems like the only vibe missing was Sarasota Strip Club.
I’m sure they’ll rectify that oversight sooner rather than later 🙂
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