Malmaison Brasserie

An almost impeccable round for the Malmaison brand. My ma and I were staying in the hotel and, on the deal we had cashed in with, a 3 course dinner was included in the room rate. We were happily surprised when we could choose which night to dine on and upon entering the restaurant we were basically allowed to choose wherever we wanted to sit. Lovely.
If we weren’t on this very special deal we would never think of eating at the Mal; it’s expensive and borderline pretentious. However, we were pleasantly suprised at the quality of the food we were given and the overall experience would have us going back for more. I struggled slightly upon choosing a main meal as I am not big on fish or beetroot, so I had to be boring an opt for the steak frites, but it was perfectly cooked and the frites were delicious! Surprising that such a high end place would have top notch chips. To start I risked scallops due to their meaty texture and wasn’t dissapointed, all covered in cheese and garlic butter, nothing was overpowering and the presentation (in shell) was visually appealing. To end, mille fuielle, laden with berries and cream. A summer delight. Ma had a ham hock hash to start with a lovely mustard sauce, salmon for a main (she said it was lovely if a bit dissapointing compared to the softness and size of my steak — it was thin but god it was big!) and a cheese board to end.
Now, in my head cheese board equals 3 cheeses on a plate with some crackers and grapes. The Mal’s version is the best cheese board I have ever seen in my 21 years and is something I will always remember. First of all the waiter wheeled out the cheese choices — wheeled them out! Everyone in the restaurant turned to stare and the theatrics were engaging, adding another level of enjoyment to our evening. The waiter serving us was very attentive, running us through the cheeses and what they tasted similar to; after much deliberation ma’s board contained stinking bishop and camembert, both delicately served on tea spoons, a 3 week old goats cheese, a smoked cheddar, and a soft cheese with truffle running through it. So much! Then came the choice of crackers, and the choice of having chutney, and finally she tucked in. Delicious.
A pleasant meal ending with a theatrical finale, great work from the Mal to give us something to take away and remember them by.

Excellent service at malmaison this evening, a small but perfectly formed menu. Thoroughly enjoyed this evening at malmaison, with a gorgeous asparagus starter followed by steak on the three tenners menu. Tasty and very good service from our waiter.

An evening out at MalMaison is a grand affair. Just rolling up to Malmaison you feel all grand and special, either that or seriously out of place and wishing you’d just gone to the local steak house, somewhere where your jeans and trainers would not bring looks of scorn and shame but more ooooh I fancy a pair of those. I digress. But pushing those feelings aside, it’s sort of special to book a night out at Mal as it is affectionately called, well it was by the waiter chap who sat us down. The Mal has a reputation of being a high class eatery, which is evident on how busy it gets, especially around the evening serving hours, which is both reassuring and irritating, reassuring for the quality of the food, must be good if plenty of people keep coming through the doors logic, and irritating because after all this time you would have thought they would have learnt how to handle such busy periods in both staffing and kitchen. There’s someone fairly quick sharp to take your order, but the gap between the waiter leaving and coming back with your food is far too long, even for the most patient of patrons, and sending someone over to offer you wine wine and maybe some more wine just doesn’t help matters. Once is endearing, twice is fair enough, thrice times, back off dude we don’t want any. Starters finally arrive, they taste lovely, thinking the starters have been delayed whilst the mains are being cooked so there’s minimal delay time between servings, wrong. More people are seated, more waiters fly by, more time crawls by, and still we wait. When the food does arrive it is gorgeous, but when I recall the price and cross compare to other food of this quality with price and taste, it isn’t exceptional, and with the time delays again in relation to the reputation of Malmaison, I do start to get rather miffed at the whole experience. And when you call it pocket change short of £60 for soft drinks, two starters and two mains, it’s an expensive ok experience. For quality and taste I’ve had better for less, and attention to detail by the staff has been more customer care oriented rather than lets get them hammered and hope they don’t notice everything is late out of the kitchen.

When entering the bar of the Malmaison Hotel, I was immediately welcomed by a lovely waiter who was eager to ensure that my family and I found somewhere to sit within the bar area to have a drink, prior to our dinner in the Brasserie.
The Cocktail and Drinks list was exactly what I imagined it to be, offering a vast array of high-​class cocktails such as Kir Royales and Shirley Temples. The prices were high, but when my family and I were met with our cocktails, there was no surprise for the £10 price tag. The waiter soon got wind of it being my birthday, which evolved into four glasses of champagne at our dining table, at no cost! What a fabulous surprise?
The Menu was beautifully put together, offering elegant main dishes such as a fillet of sole with a saffron fondant, rack of lamb with spiced aubergine caviar and the highly coveted Mal Burger offering ‘250 gram naturally reared ground beef’. The Starters were just as fabulous, where I started with the smoked ham hock, potato and shallot salad. It was quite possibly to DIE for, savouring every last bite. It was beautifully presented, and it did not disappoint in flavour, wow. My guests ate the home hot smoking salmon, which was a delicate dish but, after trying a taste the flavours were out– standing.
For a main course i chose to eat the lamb accompanied by chantenay carrots and pomme purée, whilst others chose the Mal Burger, and the fillet of sole. We had to wait a little while, but it was certainly worth it. The side dishes were generous, considering how fair sized the main courses were. Again, I was not disappointed, the flavours were possibly mouth watering, with the meat literally melting in my mouth.
Whilst the prices of the food are high, it is entirely evident why. The mains were late on delivery to the table, but with the free champagne, and fantastic service it was something we soon forgot about. A starter and main course will set you £30 per person excluding drinks but it is definitely worth saving up for!

Going on a recommendation for a bit of a decadent meal, a little treat after all those hours slaving in a horrid workplace (a far cry from writing reviews of places that interest me or stifle my insatiable belly). Anyway, I got dressed up and went for my fancy meal with my partner. After being seated we were greeted by a sleazy wine waiter, a man whose sole job was to go from table to table pestering innocent diners into buying hugely expensive bottles.
The menu is very mouth watering but disappointing when you actually taste it, not quite as I anticipated anyhow. When I did complain about something one of waiters had the gall to tell me it was because I know what the texture of choux pastry was meant to be like… cheek, I make that from scratch!

If you’re in need of finding a restaurant for a special occasion, I would look no further than the Brasserie at the Mal Maison. As part of the hotel, it has that certain whacky, yet still incredibly chic charm that you get around the rest of the building. With its brick walls and sharp furniture, the food is of just as high quality.
With a seasonal menu, as well as the standard A La Cart and fantastic selection of fine wines, whether you’re graduating or celebrating a special birthday, it is an ideal place to come, especially with your family. Though often pretty busy, somehow it feels as though you and your party are the only diners. the waiters and wairesses look after their customers very well and are alwayds on hand with recommendations and advice on the sesonal menu.
It comes at a price, but do consider it as one of your options if you have something big coming up. I doubt you’ll be disappointed.