Mama Shelter London Shoreditch review – East London maximalism with added karaoke

Picture the scene: after a riotous night of karaoke and cocktails, Attitude recovers over a continental breakfast at Mama Shelter London Shoreditch. But our senses are overstimulated. Namely by the dining room’s metaphorical tinsel. By the treasure trove of trinkets, garish prints, chalkboard ceilings, 70s lampshades and numerous ornaments/oddities. It’s a lot.

A big screen shows an old Tom and Jerry cartoon – the one where Tom serenades a lady cat with a double bass – but plays in silence. Our breakfast scene is instead soundtracked by some punishing pop song or other. It’s a brilliantly fun environment, but a headf**k. We simply advise, if you’re hungover, that you wear sunglasses and earplugs.

To think, all of this is encased within an intriguingly minimalist, monochrome building that conjures thoughts of the Parisian chic of the first Mama Shelter, which opened in the French capital in 2008.) You can’t miss this London outpost, opened in 2019. It’s a 194-room behemoth that sits like a huge, inverted dice overlooking Hackney Road.

This is a ‘proper’ hotel that’s something of an anomaly in the area – technically Shoreditch, but the district’s hideously busy hub is mercifully a way away. Your other options are overpriced Airbnbs, soulless hotel chains, and hipsters hostels. (Again, overpriced.) Then, of course, there are cheap, age-old East End stopovers that boast charisma but lack security.

Our room At Mama Shelter was small, and the bathroom especially a tight squeeze. But such limitations reflect the competitive price point. Besides, space is wisely utilised. (See, for example, how the table tucks neatly into the corner of the room in the above picture.) Thank goodness for flatscreen TVs with free movies which equip every room. Plus full points for the industrial blinds that block out almost all light.

The beige-heavy decor, though, feels a tad stripped back, save for cute touches like Tweety Pie and Sylvester masks. If and when the time comes for a makeover, coloured carpets and walls might lift things, as the current look is ultimately anticlimactic and jars with with the extreme maximalism elsewhere. Not least on Mama Shelter’s glossy and sophisticated website, which is a mine of information and emojis, and where the restaurant is hilariously referred to in the third person. (“Mama’s restaurant is as cosmopolitan as the city she finds herself. Whilst she takes her inspiration from her French heritage, nuances include her London home with traditional fish and chips, nods to Mama LA with California Rainbow Salad and Mama Lisbon’s Peri Peri Chicken Burger.”)

Elsewhere, the property is so sprawling, so full of surprises, you almost feel you’re in a resort. There’s the chic Garden Bar, with black and white garden furniture reflecting the building’s cool exterior. There’s also a gym, a shop selling Mama Shelter-branded products, plus meeting rooms if you’re travelling for business and private dining rooms if you’re celebrating a special occasion. The highlight, though, has to be the two underground Japanese-style karaoke rooms. You can have a full-on, neon light-laden night out without so much as putting your coat on.

The rooms can accommodate 15 people. My friends and I were a handful, but the staff were endlessly patient with us. We needed constant looking after: from assistance with the touchscreen song-selection process to chopping and changing our minds about the timing of delivery of our small plates. (Fries, chicken bites, mushroom chorizo donuts and asparagus spring rolls, all of which did the job.) We even decided last-minute to keep singing for another hour: a change of plan swiftly accommodated with a quick whip-round of a card machine. I couldn’t help put notice the good humour with which the two girls helping us met our indecision and rowdiness… They must have seen it all!

Table football and pinball machines beckon if you want to keep the fun train going. Or, if you’re feeling adventurous, there are myriad cool queer bars to explore nearby. Trendy dive bar Queen of Adelaide is a stone’s throw away, while the legendary Dalston Superstore is nine minutes by Uber. Other unmissable things to do in the area include Columbia Road Flower Market (go first thing on a Sunday morning to avoid the crowds), London Fields Lido (ditto) and The Museum of the Home, dedicated to statement furniture through the ages. We dare say some of Mama Shelter’s fabulous chairs and sofas will eventually end here.

For more information about Mama Shelter London Shoreditch, visit MamaShelter.com

Mama Shelter London Shoreditch
437 Hackney Rd
London
E2 8PP
@MamaShelterLondon