What is the best place to spend one relaxing evening and where we could also invite friends for dinner .

A large quiet room, king size bed and an above average airport hotel restaurant is our goal.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

The Paddington Hilton Hotel would suit your requirements. The Heathrow Paddington Express train is about 2 minutes from the lobby. It is a 15 minute ride to LHR with a possible connection at terminal 1,2,3 if you are departing from terminal 4. The Express runs from 06:10 every 15 minutes through the day. I recommend that you buy your ticket the day before so you don't have to wait in the ticket line on the morning you leave. Tickets are 16.50 pounds. The slower "Connect" train costs 6.50 pounds.

The Paddington Hilton has a great all-you-can-eat buffet dinner for 20 pounds, plus beverages. It is quiet and has a good ambience in case you are tired of pub atmosphere eating.

But the Paddington Hilton is in London and the question was for an airport hotel. However, yours is a good suggestion, but if you really want an upscale hotel you can do a lot better than the Paddington Hilton. Could the terminal be an important consideration?

We were perfectly happy with our superior room at the Novotel, which is the first stop on the Hotel Hoppa shuttle. There is a dining room, but we opted for eat-in Indian food delivered by a local restaurant.

The superior room has a king-sized bed, modern bathroom, and sitting area with a sofa and coffee-table; there's also an interesting desk that swivels around to look at the computer monitor.

The Heathrow Marriott has recently refurbished its rooms--decent decor and comfortable beds. Rooms are not huge but average size, certainly not tiny. Mine have always had a small sitting area.

There are two restaurants, a coffee/snack bar and a lobby bar. The higher end restaurant is Italian, sort of, and all right.

It's the nicest hotel I've experienced right at Heathrow, but there may be better ones. The Radisson Edwardian is also good but rooms can be very, very small.

We always stay at the Hilton at Heathrow, nice rooms, good restaurants.

Thank you for those suggestions. Previous threads a few years back have also recommended Radisson Edwardian and Holiday Inn etc. has anyone visited recently ?