Mao Tai Restaurant in New King’s Road

Photography by Damian Comans from Creative Cattle

Brief

To update the interior detail and atmosphere of this established popular restaurant in Parsons Green. The owners wanted to create a more contemporary, easy mood and to add a bar type clientele to their established regular diners.

The Restaurant

This was the third major modernisation of this restaurant overseen by Rivière over 12 years. The interior decoration of the restaurant has consistently scored high marks in the Zagat restaurant guide for London.

The Project

A contemporary bar was installed in one of the front east dining rooms with a massive sculptural artwork above. New hard edge wooden top tables replace the previous linen covered ones, the hardwood floor has been sanded and varnished to a high gloss and the artworks have had their frames ‘refreshed’ in a new palette.

We decided to keep the ‘rough plaster’ texture of the walls and to enhance it with a bright, light paint finish with surface interest and character to juxtapose with the new hard line elements. Taking inspiration from old crusty plaster, lime washes and contemporary concrete, the new finish has served to give an airy loft-style atmosphere to the updated bar ambiance of the restaurant and also serves as a subtle environment for the accents of contemporary collage, three dimensional artwork, raw iron columns, funky lighting and cleanlined and functional furniture.

We specified a rich, dark paint for the full height exterior of the building. This helps to unify the two buildings that house the restaurant/bar and also to frame the bright airy interior. The lime washed concrete urns on the pavement were created by Rivière over 10 years ago, yet have a timeless quality that seems to sympathise with each re-decoration and update.