Malmaison Hotel

I loved this little hotel! The bed was so comfortable! The shampoo smelled good! The staff was so professional even though I threw an American tantrum about not understanding my reservation thru
. I think it is a good location. What can I say??? I think it was a fiver (stars). I can’t think of anything to complain about! We took the tube from the airport to something… and then to Barbican. Not too bad! Tube ‘ll make you deaf tho. This hotel is cute inside, like other pictures show. Very nice staff.

We had a lovely stay at the Malmaison in London, It was set in a peaceful square and we got a great room upgrade to a Mal Club, the room was gorgeous and very spacious, we loved it and the welcome dessert was a nice touch.
The bathroom wasn’t cleaned properly on our second night and we didn’t receive any more shower gel but i phoned up and they were straight up with some more, The Hotel is an ok area and its quite close to the tube station at Farringdon and the Barbican to get across London in no time plus its its around a 10 minute walk to St Pauls Cathedral and the river Thames.
Farringdon is a lovely area with nice coffee shops and restaurants which are a stone throw away from the hotel The hotels oozes sexiness and overall we had a fantastic stay. The staff we came across was friendly but we have encountered a much nicer welcome from other hotels. But this didn’t put us off one bit as we had such a great stay.

For a home for the weekend, you couldn’t have asked for a better place than the Malmaison London in the Charterhouse area. Right near the City, it’s close to both Barbican and Farringdon tube stations with both being about the same distance away from the hotel.
The hotel itself looks over a lovely park, (which unfortunately has limited access). Although you can’t get in the area is brilliant with some really historic buildings lending a great vibe to the place. For fans of Poirot, there’s a nearby bonus too — the apartment building that served as his home in the ITV series is overlooks the same park.
For the rest of the review, I’ll have to stick to the room — we didn’t eat in the restaurant or take a convivial drink in the rather nice looking bar.
The room that we stayed in was absolutely amazing — the perfect combination of bohemian and modern. Unlike a lot of hotels that I’ve stayed in that have been converted from something else (this one was apparently a nurses home) which manage to lose the charm *and* feel out-​dated, the same can’t be said of the Malmaison.
The room was warm, cosy and inviting, with a huge bed, small seating area and brilliant bathroom. Included in the room were the usual tea and coffee making facilities and, something of a bonus for a highly caffeinated individual such as myself, a Mio espresso machine (the sort with the little coffee pods).
Everything in the room is great, bang on trend and immaculate. There’s a large screen TV, USB charging points by the bed and a nicely stocked minibar.
The bathroom is on another level, the shower (a ‘drench’ shower) was the single greatest thing in personal hygiene that I’ve ever come across. Over a two night stay, five showers were had! It’s that good… They also provided a nice selection of toiletries (in full size portions) for you to use…
Our room was quiet, and, apart from a bit of noise one night from what I can only assume was a local dance troupe staying in the room above, we didn’t hear or see another soul. Secluded perfection.
If you’re in the area, looking for somewhere to stay, you could do much, much worse than the Malmaison, but I’m not convinced that you could do a lot better.

Great hotel, great location. Stayed here with work on multiple occasions and do not have a complaint about the place. Staff for both the hotel and conference facilities are always attentive and helpful. Rooms are always spotless and modern. Breakfast is to die for — id there is such thing as too much selection! Highly recommended.

I had the pleasure of spending an afternoon at Malmaison for a company meeting, so I’ve no idea what their rooms are like. But what I can tell you, is that their meeting room is nice — nothing over the top, they’ve got all the essentials, WiFi, snacks, tea etc. We also had a lunch at Malmaison and it was very decent. Staff is friendly, nice and helpful. The hotel isn’t crowded but not deserted either. Nice is probably the best word to describe Malmaison.

Obscurely located very pricey but comfortable London hotel with nice, well meaning but unhelpful (often clueless) staff.
Barbican tube is nearby but very slow to central London, and the mini-​cab serve the hotel uses is just AWFUL and overpriced. In a city of excellent cabs they use the worst.
It imitates W Hotel, but the Starwood W is far superior, well located, and perhaps less expensive.
Malmaison is sister to the excellent Hotel du Vin chain of hotels.
I was very disappointed in my stay in several ways, and said so, explaining several misunderstandings about hidden extra charges that needed addressing, but a smiling insincere terribly sorry was all they did.
A previous stay some years ago was nice, what a shame as I travel extensively, and often to London.
I will not return to this hotel.

Lovely hotel, comfortable rooms, and our room had plenty of natural light and a really gorgeous bathroom.
The atmosphere of the hotel itself is a little odd to me; kind of a swanky-​lost-​in-​the-​80s «love» hotel meets modern boutique B&B… it’s a pretty big hotel but it feels very small and secluded. I haven’t been to the other locations so I’m not sure if it quite stacks up. The pink neon lights in the elevators were a bit too much for me.
Anyhow, the service was great, reception was friendly, check-​in was fast and easy. The bed was very comfortable. Our room came with a bottle of champagne!
You get a lot for the price, so if you’re looking to stay somewhere slightly more upscale in London, I think this place is a no-​brainer. It’s close to the city center but far enough from the big crowds, near lots of art galleries and universities and boutique shops.
The restaurant was phenomenal (I reviewed it independently).

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

I stayed at the Malmaison for two nights when on business in London. Location wise the Malmaison was not perfectly located to get to where I was going on business but a friend of mine convinced me that it was worth the longer trip to the office and I can’t say I was disappointed.
The Malmaison is located by the quiet Charterhouse square, near Barbican (not too far from the tube station). The staff was very friendly when I checked in and I at once felt welcome. The room was rather larger, with a nice comfortable bed. The décor in the room as well as the hotel in general is the typical «Malmaison style» stylish using a lot of color. I really like it but not everyone does so if you’re uncertain have a look at their website to see if it is to your liking.
There is an excellent bar where they make fabulous drinks and the food in the restaurant is also very good. There is also a nice pub next door (the Fox and Badger) which is owned and operated by Malmaison. They do actually also have a few rooms where one can stay — haven’t tried that yet but the pub offers good food and a nice atmosphere.

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 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 @

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 entrecôte 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 Gruyère, 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 crème brûlée 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 décor 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.

Quick phone call upon arrival… what the reception girl would have heard…
Hey, it’s me…
Yeah, i got lost in the underground…
Well it said Elephant and Castle, although i saw neither…
Are you sure this is the right hotel?
Well…it’s fancy
No, i mean real fancy…
I love you, see you in the mini bar.
Ok so there are fancier joints on there in the bog bad world of hotels, but this joint hits all the right marks with this happy Unilocaler.
Located in a nice wee square not five minutes walk from Farringdon Tube, the Malmaison’s exterior intimates a grand old traditional style hotel experience only to throw your presumptions back in your face with a slice of sass and with a dollop of class.
Decked out in dark, atmospheric colours, with attention paid to even the smallest of details (check out the lift… it’s got a cushioned ceiling!!), this joint delivers a classy front cover and a comfortable read from page one.
Check List:
Comfy bed… check
Big ol telly… check
…oh you want more?
Great place, lovely location and done with a style and verve that can be somewhat wanting in other Hotels

Admittedly, it took me about two days to figure out just how to properly work the shower here… but really, the Malmaison made for a lovely crash pad during my five-​day stay in London.
A few of my most favorite positive notes about this hotel:
— If you crank on the air conditioning, it’ll take awhile to kick in, but I guarantee you’ll wake up to a chilly enough room that you won’t want to crawl out from under your toasty blanket
— I spent most of an exhausted afternoon passed out in bed; apparently housekeeping had tried to come by to make up my room, only to be deterred by the ‘do not disturb’ sign, so they left a stocked basket of goodies (towels, soap, shampoo, etc.) outside my door with a cute little note
— Traveling from the US meant none of my appliance plugs worked. Not a problem, because you can borrow an adapter from the front desk for free! Just return it, or they’ll charge you for it.
Really, all the positives outweigh the ever-​so-​minor inconveniences… like a pretty hard bed (relatively to what I’m accustomed to) and having to pay for internet (wired) at £10 a day. The last bit is a total pet peeve of mine. I’d rather that hotels just bundle internet costs into room fees and have the entire service be «free,» or at least invisible to me as a separate charge.
Altogether, it’s an unadulteratedly pleasant hotel in a neighborhood chock full of nightlife and dining, and just moments away from the nearest tube station. Can’t complain.

Malmaison was a wonderful surprise following me tumbling out of the cab, blurry from my 8 hour red eye. Nestled in Charterhouse Square, it overlooks a lovely park and is minutes from both Barbican and the Farringdon tube stations, shops, pubs, restaurants and most conveniently: the Unilocal London office!
For those of you familiar with the Kimpton Hotels in the States, I got the same feel here. A boutique hotel with some personality and quirky touches. For example, they have some risqué artwork in the lobby that our group spent a good few minutes gawking at, er, bantering over the artist’s intentions, in addition to dark settees and tropical flowers.
The room is tiny, but I thought just perfect for my needs. They have a hard mattress which I find rare in hotels (and I prefer!) I LOVE that they give you big shampoos and lotions, and as Kevin L. mentioned, when I skipped house cleaning, they left a goody bag of toiletries and towels at my door. What a pleasant touch! They also have a selection of coffees, teas and biscuits in the wardrobe that changes everyday. Also love the quirky little notes you’ll find on the packaging, note cards or even your bill. I like a hotel with a sense of humor!
What I didn’t like: the Internet is wired (I mean, are we in 2003?) and you also have to pay for it daily. Also, I felt the service at the Front Desk was a tad slow. Inevitably every time I went down, at least one person was in front of me so I’d end up waiting 15 minutes just to ask for a new key or for directions. Would be nice if they had more than one person working the desk.
But all in all, it was an affordable (for London) stay at a really pleasant, boutique hotel. I’d be happy to call Malmaison home again on my next trip across the pond.

«Has it always been… purple?» asked Joey Tribbiani in the last ever episode of Friends. Since Monica’s apartment was my own perfect home benchmark, I love décor incorporating The Colour Purple, and Malmaison didn’t disappoint. It’s a gorgeous building outside and in. If you’re expecting to walk into a hotel with a ton of natural light and pastel, airy colours, you’ll get something of a jolt. This Farringdon offering of the branch is all maroons, greys, browns… dark, moody and sexy. You only have to look at where the guy’s hands are on that painting above the dining room to see how raunchy the place is. Ooh missus!
I’ve always loved the Farringdon area. I visited there a couple of years ago when The Guardian was still residing in offices around that neck of the woods and you can be safely assured that the Malmaison is surrounded by a plethora of great restaurants and bars, only a few minutes’ walk from the likes of Exmouth Market and my beloved Cotton’s. There’s plenty to do, that’s for certain.
Walk along the corridors to your room though and you might find yourself stumbling in the dark somewhat — this is where the purple kinda comes into its own and envelops you. Plus those halls are feelin’ hot hot hot. Crank up the air con in your room and it’ll be like walking into a fridge.
The tea and coffee making facilities (my first port of call when entering a hotel room) are excellent, little luxury biscuits with a different variety each day (lemon curd, apple and blackberry, rhubarb and ginger) and a range of herbal teas as well as the essential Breakfast and Earl Grey. My little note request for a bunch more peppermint tea was met with aplomb the next day, and those ‘filter coffee in a pack’ things were über neat. So strong, the one I had on Friday gave me the shakes until 3pm. Mmm, caffeine jitters.
Perhaps my only qualm is the security paper tag on the mini fridge. I don’t like to take from minibars (hello, mark-​ups much!) but I do like to use the fridge to keep my own water cold. I can’t comment on the restaurant as we ate out all week but the food looked awesome, and the bath products and towels were lush, the bed was insanely comfy, my room felt almost soundproofed and the TV certainly sufficed. Plus we got a free copy of The Independent by our door every day and the staff were especially lovely. Score! I’d happily return.

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.

Mal does great promotions, so check their website for what’s being offered for room deals and the restaurant. I did the home grown & local promo with a fellow Unilocaler and we got a two course meal and a bottle of wine for cheap cheap cheap (for the restaurant). They do a Sunday roast which I’ve been meaning to try for ages, but the promo is soup, roast & half bottle of wine for 15 pounds, they always get me with free wine!
The restaurant was funky and modern, though they did that thing when we first got there where the hostess shoo-​s you off to the bar while they «ready» your table even though the restaurant was dead and I had made reservations ahead of time with the promo (cause they want you to order drinks in the meantime). We weren’t so easily fooled, but typical hijinks aside, I would recommend Malmaison to anyone for a stay (great location, very pretty green out front and I’m partial to some local pubs) or a good meal (as long as you get the vouchers!).

The Malmaison is a charming boutique hotel on Charterhouse Square.
During my stay, I never heard so much as a peep from another guest which, in my book, is major. If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought I had the entire hotel to myself: just the way I like it!
Speaking of things I liked, the tea selection was lovely, as were the bath products. As always, it’s the little things.
A few bits of advice:
— Don’t rely on minicabs being able to find Charterhouse Square on name alone, fetch a map from reception.
— At the weekend, the area surrounding the hotel is fairly quiet; it’s much more bustling during the week.
— London’s first gastropub, The Eagle, is an easy walk from the Malmaison and is a great spot for a drink and a nibble:
— Farringdon tube station is very near but if going to Angel, take the bus instead.
If you want to be smack dab in the middle of the action, this isn’t the hotel for you. But if you want to be near the action, in a hotel where other people’s action won’t keep you up, the Malmaison’s a terrific choice.