Beach Blanket Babylon (Notting Hill)

Sadly, I, and 6 of my close friends decided, despite the negative reviews, to try BBB, Shoreditch. First impressions are favourable, the atmosphere is intriguing and the decor eclectic. However, thats it! Yes, the staff have an attitude! and boy I have no idea why? one can forgive bad service of bar staff for their beauty, but delusion should be treated. Having ordered and finished a bottle of Bollinger we ordered a second to be told they had run out, but I somehow knew that when the bill came we were charged for two! The bar man made an accusation towards me and made a suggestion that I was wrong! So trying to over charge us £80 seemed a matter of course! Like other people who have been there, we found the food was very average. I had the sea bass which had obviously come from the freezer, it was overcooked, shrivelled and taste less. My fellow guests were a little more fortunate, but we concluded that we were all disappointed. When it came to the clearing of the table one of the waitresses, clearly not wanting to over strain herself pointed and gestured towards one of my guests to pass her finished plate.

So, if you fancy a drink or cocktail go,take plenty of attitude, if you want to eat, move on and whichever you decide, CHECK THE BILL!
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3 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, August 11, 2010

My normal raison de etre for visiting places like this is to woo or impress a girl. In that capacity, Beach Blanket Babylon (Notting Hill, London) succeeds entirely. The atmosphere and ambience was fantastic. It's a great 'little place' to take your beloved and have a romantic meal. However, if it hadn't been for the offer I don't think there would have been too many punters, put off by the prices. Although the next door table was taken up with an American spouse and her young son dressed in flashy designer labels - the price was not of concern.

The food: We started with a goats cheese salad and asparagus tart. I wasn't overwhelmed by either. They were a good solid 7 out of 10, but the salad was the kind of thing I'd expect to get when served food in somewhere like All bar one, or a bog standard chain. We both had fish for the mains, Sea Bass, and Tuna steak. The tuna was superbly cooked, just tender in the middle and my sea bass was tasty too. Again, we both thought the food was tasty, but not overwhelmingly good. If I'd paid the £20 (the menu price) for each dish I would have felt overcharged, but for the half price offer on food it was a good standard. The deserts were the best thing, Choc pudding with ice cream and an excellent Crème Brulee. Both of high quality.

The booze: We had a couple of the cocktails, a 'porn star martini' and I had a 'raspberry martini'. They were both around a tenner. They were superb, although I'd expect them to be for that price. We washed the food down with some very palatable Merlot at £25 a pop (house wine was £22). The whole experience came to just over £90. Although without cocktails it would have only been about £70.

Would I recommend this place? Yes I would, but only with the offer. The atmosphere is superb, and it's a great place to treat your better half. The bar looked great to pre-dinner drink, although we didn't have time for that.
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george
7 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 5
Wednesday, August 04, 2010

I went here months ago with two girls, using special offers from other website (T..table..). In terms of interior, the place was quite cute and the girl who served was nice. But food , even though not bad, does not catch up with the interior of the building.
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Sunny - View all reviews by this user
7 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Friday, June 25, 2010

I wish I had seen these reviews before going to BBB. I went to the Notting Hill branch with my other half and we were shocked at the appalling service and very disappointing food. I have never written a review of ANYTHING before, but I was so outraged by the attitude of the staff at BBB that I felt compelled to warn others!

We had been looking forward to eating at BBB for some time. The décor is nice and I had been before for drinks and enjoyed it. We were seated at 8pm and more than half an hour I managed to flag down the waiter to ask a question about the menu. He interrupted to say he would have to speak to the Manager about the menu and then diappeared. Another ten minutes later he reappeared to take our orders. After some time we queried where our drinks were and the waiter confessed that he had lost our order so would have to take it again. At 9pm we had our starters. We had the mussells which were unimpressive and many were inedible.

When our mains arrived we were again massively underwhelmed. The waiters did not seem to know what they were doing and appeared disorganised and under trained. Whenever we tried to speak to our waiter he cut us off and even walked off at one point! At 10pm we managed to flag down the waiter to ask for a dessert menu. Half an hour later the dessert arrived. We thought we would save time by asking for the bill straight away. Twenty minutes later the waiter brought the bill, which was incorrect, and took it away again. We had to go and find him to ask where the amended bill was. When he finally brought the bill over again we noticed that there was an extra dessert added to the bill. By this time we had had enough and went upstairs to speak to the manager. Unbelievably, the manager tried to argue with our complaint, querying when we had 'actually' sat down at our table?!? He then said 'so basically you're complaining that you had to wait ages for the bill? I'll take the service and the incorrect item off.' No apology at all. We paid and left, extremely disappointed. Paying £50 a head for a sub-standard meal with terrible service and a rude manager is unacceptable and I for one will not be returning to BBB again.
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2 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 1
Thursday, April 15, 2010

I was taken here for my Birthday and didn't know what to expect. It was a quiet Monday night, a few people at the bar and 3 or 4 covers. We waited at the reception for a few minutes before we were greeted and confirmed our booking, our coats were never taken and I believe that is the policy at some restaurants, not a problem. We sat down and were given 5 minutes to choose drinks etc. When we began ordering (a bottle of wine), our waitress walked away without speaking as I was halfway through the order - never experienced this before at a restaurant so was a bit shocked, but netherless carried on. The waitress later explained she had gone to check to see if the wine was in stock - fair enough, but let us know. We order Pumpkin/chilli Soup, Goats cheese tart, and some bread for the soup. Both dishes were fine, althought the bread appeared stale and the butter so cold it could not be spread. Next up was a burger and Lemon Sole with capers and prawns. Burger was OK, though again the bread appeared to be slightly stale, the fish was nice although no fish knife and the presentation looked a little basic, however it tasted fine. The dessert was chocolate cake and ice cream - very nice. I mentioned about the burger and this seemed to fall on deaf ears as nothing was resolved. A 12.5% service charge on top of the £1.85 stale bread left us with a bitter taste, though on this occaison left without challenging it as we just didn't want the aggravation. Not recommended, expected much better - also the decor is a bit odd, maybe I didnt get the vision, but it didnt really seem like it knew who it was...
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3 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 2
Tuesday, March 30, 2010

didn't find the staff as rude as everyone else but the food was totally overpriced and virtually inedible... great cocktails - just don't go for dinner.
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2 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 1
Wednesday, March 17, 2010

A group of us went to the BBB Shoreditch. Big Mistake. Mediocre menu and incredibly rude staff.

I have searched for other reviews to see if maybe we were just unlucky, however the majority seem to have had a similarly terrible experience here!

With so many other restaurants in this area offering much better food and hospitality, I cannot see how this venue is still in operation.
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1 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Friday, February 12, 2010

OMG.!!!!! Never go to this restaurant..

Rude waiters who think they are Mayfair execs. We arrived 2 mins early and had to wait 1.5 hours... Ok, we thought lets have a drink.. We had a lovely cocktail or 5 and then were sent to our table.

The waiter was excessively rude, no cutlery on the table that was clean, Rude rude rude... How awful can waiters be? Come on, get your service sorted out.

The food was just OK. Not to be recommended. Even someone i dont like, dont go!!!!!!
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0 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Friday, February 12, 2010

Had an awful evening here last weekend. A group of six of us booked but when we arrived there was no record of it so we had to wait nearly 45 minutes to get seated.

The service was quite shocking. We were shown to our table which still had to be cleared of dirty dishes and cutlery. We had to go and find a waiter to clear it up. Another 20 minutes wait for our menus and our patience was beginning to run out.

40 minutes wait for the starters and decided we had enough and walked out.

The owners of this restaurant need to sort the organisation of their booking system and training of their waiting staff because they had no idea what they should be doing.

The place is lavishly decorated but if the service is not there and people are paying top dollar for it, they are not going to be happy as other reviewers have said.

Wish I had seen the reviews of this place first. We would not have stepped inside this incompetent establishment had we done so.

Come on Beach Blanket Babylon. Get your act together.
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Greg
1 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Friday, February 05, 2010

all in all, the worst experience i have ever had in any restaurant, in any country.....ever. We pre booked a NYE dinner at £65 per head, after waiting 1hr 30mins and after several un-answered questions to waiters our lobster starters arrived, with no picks or crackers to eat them with...we were expected to use our fingers apparantly!! We had to wait 1hour for wine which was left behind a bar and we had to get up and pour ourselves.

We then had a 40minute wait between our starter and main, the main course (steak) were all overcooked and when we complained they did nothing. We, at this point, asked to see the manager. After a heated discussion he agreed to take £200 off the bill but this guesture did not come to fruition. We decided not to wait for dessert and went downstairs to the bar, the manager told us drinks were on the house due to the appaling service and food. We spent the evening in the bar, where a fight occured. It got very violent and was close to where we were standing. Glasses were smashed and the doormen seemed very unneccessarily hands on. The doormen then physically threw a small woman, in our party up against the doors. This caused quite a scene and we were all asked to leave, the doormen pushed us all out, not giving us time to retrieve coats from the cloakroom or pick up our handbags. They were left behind, containing our cards and cash.

Then worryingly, when we got home we discovered the card had been charged £218 by Beach Blanket Babylon 30mins after we had left.

I was shocked, disgusted and gobsmacked at the terrible service, food, staff and managemant.

If i could, i would score this venue less than zero. Obviously, i would not recomend or ever go there again
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Louise Kitcatt
0 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Friday, January 01, 2010