Design Challenge and Design Ideas

Our design brief was to create a standalone modern Chinese Restaurant on Dublin’s Camden Street with an interior that was to be experiential and memorable. It was to be a relaxing environment convivial to an enjoyable food experience and there should be a quality and character to the design and materials used.

How the brief was fulfilled

Mama Yo feels like an oasis in the centre of the Dublin Restaurant scene. We made the open kitchen a focal point in the restaurant bringing the theatre of food making to the centre of the space. We had the kitchen canopy sprayed red and it is a superb colour backdrop to the room. We carefully selected characterful salvage timber to clad the walls and ceiling. We then layered these walls in stunning, specially commissioned art.
There is a real inside outside feel to the restaurant with two massive trees to the centre of the room and lots of exotic planting behind the seating.
There is visual interest everywhere you look in the room. The red glazed terracotta tile bar front has a glowing timber shelved back bar adorned on top with 3 beautiful paintings.
The stand out feature innovation in the restaurant space is the two uplit 4 meter high by 4 meter diameter trees which sit proudly in the centre of the main restaurant space. Diners sit in booth seats under these trees with bespoke silk lantern lights hanging down through the tree branches over the tables. The whole effect is quite magical and they are the first seats diners request when booking!
We did not forget the toilet design either and these are a visual treat in their own right. The walls are clad in studded brass and the doors are lined in wallpaper. The bespoke marble and brass vanity units have beautiful oriental designed sink bowls.