So last Friday, whilst Sarah enjoyed a *sophisticated* night out on the town at Maggie's and the Clapham Grand, I fell back into the typical Chelsea/Fulham Friday night pattern and spent my evening at MareMoto, on the King's Road (dahling!), to celebrate a friend's birthday.
Now I'm sure MareMoto is probably not new or exciting to most of you, I'm sure the vast majority of you have been and formed an opinion. The reason I'm writing about it now is because, after a string of mediocre nights there (the crowd is usually of the braying variety, and invariably extraordinarily drunk) I really did have a fantastic time.
The crowd was just right (perhaps because I was with a group of about 30 friends - we were the crowd) and the music was absolutely spot on, the kind of night where it's as if the DJ has got a hold of your iPod and just lined all your favourites up (well, my iPod anyway, and I like to think it's quite a cool one!). Think Chase & Status, followed by Rihanna, followed by GaGa, wrapped up with some classic Deadmau5 for good measure. An eclectic version of a classic mainstream mix, sure, but it did the job. We were jumping around that light-up dance floor all night long.
As a venue, MareMoto does check most of the boxes. Whilst the bar seating area does look like a restaurant, that's because it does double up as a restaurant throughout the day. There is a fairly large outdoor deck for the smokers and the club downstairs is fairly spacious, well decorated (the light-up dancefloor is fun and somehow manages not to look too but more kitsch) and there are loads of seats to park your bottom on. The drinks are pretty good, but this being the Kings Road, not exactly cheap. I had an expresso martini (amazing) and a passion fruit Porn Star Martini (mixed with cava - divine) and they were £9 each. Bottles of wine aren't too pricey either. However, I have heard of a few cases of overcharging at the downstairs bar (perhaps taking advantage of the cash-rich, too-drunk-to-notice braying crowd) although have been personally unaffected, though it's something to watch out for. Anyway, any extra pennies charged are more than made up for by the main USP: FREE ENTRY. This is incredibly rare in Chelsea and I'm sure it's what gets the hordes back time and time again. It means you can go for a low-key night and not worry about going all out to justify the cover charge - although I think most of the clientele just blew the money they saved on extra drinks. Either way - you decide - it's a perk nonetheless.
So my recommendation: go with a large group (own that crowd), sample their cocktail selection (it costs less than the neighbouring rivals) and be prepared to boogy - the playlist is unpretentious and all out fun!
All photos taken from MareMoto's Flickr account: I lost my camera!
MareMoto
562 King's Road
London SW6 2DZ
No comments:
Post a Comment