Malmaison London

Not as impressive as other Malmaisons but still nice enough. Friendly staff and comfortable rooms if a little dark… Really rather ‘porn palace’. The continental breakfast delivered to your room is delicious. Its nice enough, but to be honest, I’ve stayed at nicer places that have been cheaper. Very nice toiletries in the room!

I can't really comment on the rooms as I've only been at the Malmaison for food, never to stay.

The bistro is situated downstairs which makes it a bit dark, but the interior is spacious and airy so it doesn't feel too dark.

The burger here is excellent. 250g of succulent, perfectly cooked meat with bacon stretched across melted, semi-runny cheese. It is massive though, I could barely walk back to the office afterwards and that was with almost not touching the fries.

They also do a great deal currently with 2 courses, a bottle of wine and coffee for £30 for two people. I had the soup of the day, mushroom soup with a deep mushroom flavour and wafer thin slices of roasted bread accompanying. This was followed by the roast pork with mash and prune and mustard sauce which was really tender and well cooked.

I just had the most delicious meal at the Malmaison... we chose the special 2 courses plus bottle of wine and coffee for £30 between 2 - although by the time we'd had various extras it came out at £54 - still really good for what we had. I nicked a bit of my friend's starter of blini with a generous amount of smoked salmon and thyme creme fraiche - then they let me subsitute a different pasta dish for the one on the set menu as my main course - a really fantastic pumpkin ravioli, with a drizzle of balsamic reduction and pine nuts. My only grizzle - the sage leaves would have been better fried. I had a side of steamed spinach - my friend had seared John Dory with a thyme risotto which he polished off pretty smartly. After the pasta triumph I thought it would be hard for dessert to trump it - but the waitress, who was brilliant, said we'd definitely made the right choice with the chocolate marquise and shortbread - and it was absolutely delicious. In fact, and I am a chocolate dessert fanatic, it was one of the best I've had for ages. A very thick, rich scoop of dense chocolate mousse - and two shortbread rounds that melted in the mouth. We both ended up making rather loud 'mmm' noises - no idea what the table next to us thought we were up to! If they have that pudding on the menu again - I'm back. And the service was brilliant, really friendly and helpful.

i love this hotel from its origional Jack Vettriano picture in the lobby (very sexy) called Game On, to its lovely bedrooms with bubble bath,massage oil and soaps.
Its restaurant is in the basement and serves up lovely food and a nice english breakfast. The staff are very friendly and i hope to be back again soon. Look out for its special offers

For photos see Greedy Diva @ http://greedydiva.blogspot.com/2011/01/malmaison-hotel-br...

During a week when snowfall in London brought flights to a painful standstill, our city weekend break at the Malmaison Hotel in Farringdon was a little piece of utterly relaxing bliss. The fact that it houses the largely undiscovered gem that is the Malmaison Brasserie was just another bonus along the way.

I love staying in hotels. I love the fact you can mess the bed up and someone makes it for you while you're off having breakfast. I love the big fluffy towels that I don't have to wash. I love any shower that isn't our crappy shower at home. Our night at Malmaison was just a brief change, but it felt like a rejuvenating holiday - without having to spend the night sleeping at Heathrow under space blankets wondering when we'd get on the next flight out of there.

Best of all, the Malmaison Brasserie is just downstairs. The only thing I recalled about the brasserie before going there was that its burger made Young & Foodish's list of top 10 burgers in London (at number 4). Of course we had to have it.

The brasserie's location right by the Smithfield meat market is a clue to head chef, John Woodward's, passion for quality, local sourcing. All beef is sourced from Donald Russell who selects only grass fed, naturally reared beef, which is matured for a minimum of 28 days in Aberdeenshire. Cheeses are sourced from La Cave a Fromage and oysters are from Maldon Oysters. The list goes on.

My seared, marinated salmon is perfectly cooked and moist, with ringlets of tender, fried baby squid and roasted hazelnuts (£7.25). TPG has the rich boudin noir with silky champ and crispy poached egg (£6.95). Both dishes are immensely enjoyable and the quality is clearly there.

The 250 gram entrecote is dry aged on the bone - tender, pink and sweet, it even came with some rich bone marrow on the side, and a smashing bearnaise (£20.95).

Which brings me to the excellent Mal burger - a 250 gram patty of ground beef with Gruyere, bacon, pickle, tomato and onion on a toasted sesame bun. It comes with homemade fries for £13.95. Lovely, pink and juicy on the inside, crunchy and well caramalised on the outside; it is indeed one of London's best burgers. Terrific stuff.

To finish, a creamy vanilla creme brulee with a spiced madeleine combined 2 of my favourite sweets - both elements were quite lovely on their own, although putting them together doesn't really work as a combination. A very decent baked white chocolate cheese cake was sweet, smooth and dense. (Both desserts are £5.95).

The decor lacks some character. Despite that they've gone for dark tones and subdued lighting to create a slinky, stylish look, the brasserie has not quite shrugged off that feeling of being in the basement of a boutique hotel. But it's ok. And service is of a friendliness and quality to match the food. The private butcher's block room, with its exposed brickwork and long wooden table, would (I imagine) be a great nook for a large dinner party.

The brasserie also offers a set price menu - any 2 courses from the a la carte menu for £21 or any 3 such dishes for £25 (only very few dishes carrying a supplement).

From there, it was just a short toddle upstairs to our spacious room complete with fluffy carpet, chaise longue for reclining with a good book, dressing table (I totally want one), flat screen TV, wifi and a lovely, deep bath. The powerful shower with its big shower head is also great, and the toiletries at Malmaison deserve a special mention - they smell divine. Even better that the packaging requests that you take them home, so we happily obliged. There's also a decent little gym downstairs, which I tried for about 5 minutes and TPG for longer.

Any criticisms? There are no fluffy dressing gowns. This is a not a small thing for me - I love a big, fluffy dressing gown. If I had one, I'd be wearing it right now. And the mini bar is not amazing, but I never use it anyway. These quibbles are all I can think of - I loved the hotel, and the brasserie, and the location is terrific, with the Smithfield meat market, St Johns, Vinoteca and North Road Restaurant all within a few minutes walk. The short break has inspired me to do the whole city break thing more often - a change can be as good as a holiday, without all the travel hassles.

If you feel like some of the same, I recommend the Malmaison hotel, but I also recommend trying the brasserie for the steak and burger in particular, regardless of whether you're stumbling back to a bed upstairs.

Pretty average I'm afraid. OK service (some nice moments and some surly moments), small but comfortable room, slightly soulless bar and restaurant. Food was good but not great - I enjoyed breakfast more than dinner, in fact breakfast was great. The location was perfect for my needs.

Overall I wanted more as a big fan of the hotel du vin Brighton but it wasn't terrible.

I ahve to say after staying at the malmaison in Oxford and liverpool previously, this one was a disappointment. The reception area lacked the overall opulence of the other hotels, the rooms were small and very standard and the bar small and without atmosphere. There seemed to be no theme or effort here and it was just like a standard chain hotel. The location was the by far the best thing as its very central for the city and the southbank and very quiet at the weekend i had a very long uninterupted sleep in a very comfortable and big bed, however this wasnt enough to make me want to go back. You could get more for your money by looking lsewhere in london as it was over £220 a night.

I went to MalMaison a few weeks ago, stayed overnight and had breakfast the following morning - I have been here a couple of times before and always had a lovely time. This was no different. However, as before they struggle to cater for Gluten Free diets, a lovely spread laid out for breakfast but no bread/toast for me, the sausages were also full of gluten so really disappointing. I settled for the usual yoghurt and fruit - lovely but boring.

Underground bar and dining area beneath the lobby of the Malmaison Hotel on Charterhouse Square. It's dark, upscale, but with excellent large padded seats and benches. Some tables for several, some discreet tables for two.

The bar is small and can take a long while to get served, especially if there are a bunch of cocktail orders in front of you. Drinks are not cheap, and the clientele can perhaps be a bit snobby. But you don't feel like an intruder if you're not a hotel guest, and it's comfortable.

I stayed here overnight whilst attending a Conference at the nearby 'The Brewery’. This hotel is handy for that side of town, being close to The Barbican also.

Set in Charterhouse Square, it has a lot of character - the reception and rooms are very classy. Lots of restaurants and bars around. I found the breakfast extremely good quality, but then I didn’t get much change out of £250 for B&B, so it should be. The bar is described as 'contemporary and moody’. I’d describe it as 'small’, but then space is at a premium everywhere in London.

The gym is also tiny - one small room with three machines and a few weights. This is disappointing for a 'Luxury’ hotel, but again fairly consistent with London.

Very nice, very comfortable, good position, lots of character, bit on the small side for the money.