We got a tip to try out this London restaurant from one of our local London friends when we visited a while back as a hip place to checkout while in town. On a whole I'd say it was a good tip indeed and to get out and hang with the locals for a bit. Half of the fun for my wife and I was getting to take a stroll through Notting Hill on a Saturday night and finding this place. The decor inside was very stylish and I daresay one of the most over the top I've seen that is NOT in Las Vegas. The bar area seemed to be the place to be, but we had dinner reservations so we were literally escorted across a plank-bridge through the restaurant to get to our table in the back, and yes I literally mean out "back". It was a busy Saturday night in London after all but I appreciated the service here as they put together a private patio dining area for 2, which was pretty romantic for the two of us gazing up at the London stars. The menu has your standard affair of meat, fish and pasta items, and I would say the food was good, but nothing I particularly found memorable. But really to me the experience here is more about the atmosphere of the restaurant and for us as tourists it was great people watching; seeing and being-seen among the evening London crowd. read more

While we only ate brunch here you can tell that it's targeting a scene-conscious crowd. Personally I would rather pay for good quality food than scene which is why I'm only giving Beach Blanket Babylon two stars. I had the benedict which had cold hollandaise - a slightly dangerous sign. My girlfriend had a terribly overdressed salad that left a puddle at the bottom of her plate. We also got a side of potatoes expecting crispy, salty breakfast goodness. Sadly these were simply boiled and didn't have a flake of salt. With two lattes the total was about 45gbp which is nuts considering the quality. There are far better breakfast options in the area, I would avoid this one. read more

First of all this place is stunning. It's like being in an aladin's cave, full of winding staircases and ostentatious decor. Second of all the cocktails here are amazing, and I tried a lot of them on Saturday night (although I found the Catherine Deneuve quite sour). Third of all I really enjoyed the food, great burger, and those chips made me want to stop dieting and become fat forever. I also had a really good time at Beachhouse. So why the 3 stars you ask. Well first of all the menu was paltry. In fact the burger was the only meat option there with the exception of a £65 chateaubriand for two. Second of all the waiting staff were a little snotty. I order an avocado tartar as a starter and what it actually was was guacamole with tortilla chips, false advertising or what! We waited quite a long time for our food, all the straters came at different times, and they did apologize for the long wait but they also looked quite stressed and grumpy (well one woman in particular). They also stopped serving beer after 5pm, which meant that all you could buy were spirits cocktails and champagne. Now I'm not strapped for cash but at £70 for a round of drinks I was leaving early. If you want somewhere that's really lavish, looks great, is full of notting hill yahs and will leave a massive hole in your pocket this is the place. read more

Love the ambiance and elegance of beach blanket babylon. Seclusion of each room is very intimate. The specialty drinks are delicious. I tried the red velvet and the plum drink. Both were so good. The dinner menu has traditional European dishes, fish pasta, steaks. I had the lobster Thermidor. It was very good. I had a green salad for a starter it was terrible very bland. Of the bottles of wines we tired we really liked an Italian red that was made "the old way". It was bold and sweet and 16%alcohol. It was beautiful I highly recommend this place read more

Truly, awful. It used to be such a nice place, has been taken over by a surly and incompetent wait staff. Drinks come... never. Food comes.... late. Food is made from frozen ingredients, completely indifferent. So sad, as a beautiful venue. Needs new management, new chef. read more

I've been here twice, once on a Tuesday evening for dinner when it wasn't so busy and once on a Saturday evening when it was packed. I will NEVER come back. First, the food: Both times, it was just OK. Nothing to rave about and certainly NOT worth the £40-50 (pre drinks). Not to mention the time between my visits was nearly a year and they still had the same tired fixed menu. First time I had the risotto - it was oversalted and not all that flavourful (aside from salty). Second time I had scallops to start (was pretty tasty, but small portion), a chicken curry dish (again, not that flavourful but OK) and a creme brulee (HONESTLY THE WORST CREME BRULEE I HAVE EVER HAD. I had dinner with 11 other people, more than a handful of us got the creme brulee and we all HATED IT). Everyone else at our table agreed that the food was not worth the price. The only upside - the drinks were quite tasty. Second, the service: The first time as it was a week night and not too busy, the service was alright. As in, still took forever, but not atrocious. The second time, it was atrocious. A few people in our party were told to wait downstairs (i.e. "your party has not arrived yet") even though the rest of us were already seated at the table waiting for them. My friend got half a drink spilled down her arm, without any real apology. It took FOREVER betwen when we first ordered drinks at the table to when they arrived (as in, about 45 minutes) and FOREVER between each course. Our reservation was at 8PM and we didn't finish until midnight only because they took so long with everything. Majority of staff are extremely rude and snobby. Finally, the ambience/clientele: Ok, the decor /interior is admittedly "cool", retro-chic and lavish. So perhaps worth seeing on a weekday over a cocktail. On my second visit we were unlucky and sat in the same room as a large group (20-30 people) of young, pretentious teenagers (literally looked like a "My Super Sweet 16" episode off MTV) who were loud, obnoxious, and were allowed by the restaurant to smoke multiple cigarettes indoors (what?!?) because they were supposedly friends with the owner. They literally got in a yelling match which turned into a shoving match with some gentlemen at another table - we watched one of them literally headbutt another patron! Management did nothing to stop the debacle and it was honestly one of the most bizarre and scary things I've ever witnessed at a seemingly respectable and classy restaurant. Just because you are friends with the owner does not mean you should be treated like royalty at the expense of other diners and patrons. In summary, I would not recommend this place to my worst enemy. read more

The coffee/expresso cocktail may be one of the greatest drinks ever. This place was described to me by a friend as "super trendy," and it is indeed super trendy. read more

BBB is stylish and entertaining and the food is fantastic. The layout and decor and extremely cool - a cross between a sophisticated tree house, a dungeon and a boudoir - with windy stairs, different rooms on different levels and windy stairs with chains as banisters. The menu is not hugely imaginative - steak, fishcakes, pork belly etc but the food is very tasty. They do great cocktails. Despite this is only get's a 3 rating for the following reasons. It's quite pricey, very packed and the service is pretty poor. It's not a surprise that's it pricey - the location and clientele indicate it's not going to be a cheap night out, but you expect better service for that price. The doorman heckles women with leery compliments on the way in, the waiters flirt inappropriately when you're trying to enjoy your friends' company and you can't move through the bar without being elbowed. The service is very slow - 3 hours for a drink in the bar, main course and dessert. The bar bill was £68 for 5 cocktails - one of which included the worst caipirinha ever tasted. If I'd been bolshier I would have withheld the wholly undeserved 12.5% service charge, but sadly I didn't. Despite all that - it was a great night. Great location, great food and really great company. read more

Beach Blanket Babylon is a wonderful, chic and classy restaurant in the heart of Notting Hill. I went there for my bday. First, I loved the extraordinary interior and second, I loved the food. I started with graved salmon accompanied by deep fried mussels and olive oil, then I had the best Linguine with pesto and for desert, a piece of chocolate cake with selfmade vanilla ice cream and the waiters singing Happy Birthday. Would definetely recommend to try this place if you're in London. read more

HORRIBLE DINING EXPERIENCE! Walking in, my girlfriend and I were impressed with the overall decor. They have fire places and wood all about. We sat down and ordered. My girlfriend ordered the quail egg asparagus and hollandaise appetizer. It was AWFUL. The asparagus was cold, the egg was overcooked and the hollandaise tasted like partially melted margarine or the cheap imitation stuff. Then, WE FOUND A BIG CHUNK OF Facial TISSUE in the dish. GROSS. The Manager Johnny who was totally unsympathetic, tried to make excuses why it was in there and basically said it was a restaurant "it happens." He did take it off the bill though. When my girlfriend's goat cheese salad arrived it came WITHOUT the goat cheese. So we sent it back and waited again. When the dish came back the addition of the goat cheese didn't really help. Another terrible dish. The leaves had a grainy sand like texture like they HADN'T BEEN WASHED PROPERLY. So at this point we just wanted to leave. It was such a disappointing dinning experience that I asked to speak to Johnny again. Again he was no help, just making more excuses why the food and service was so poor and being down right rude to us. Johnny didn't offer to remove the salad from the bill. Instead he took the service charge off, which I asked him not to because I still wanted to leave our waitress a tip. It wasn't her fault after all. I gave up, paid and left. Needless to say I will never be returning there. Terrible over priced food. RUDE manager. read more

We visited here and ate quite early (7ish) so the atmosphere was a little lost. The food was delicious - I had the seafood linguine! I found the interior very cool but a little inconsistent and perhaps a little dated. read more

We saw BBB about a year-and-a-half ago and really enjoyed it. We went again on Sep 7, 2016 expecting a lot of humor directed at the upcoming election. Nope, it was essentially the same show we saw in March of 2015. No references to the election, minimal spoofs of Hilary Clinton and only a token appearance by Donald Trump. The cast is wonderful but we (and others we overheard after the show) were disappointed that there was not more current references. read more

I went to Beach Blanket Babylon in Notting Hill with my mom the other night after a special occasion. While the hostess was very kind and recommended dishes for us, the service was slow from the very beginning. But we wanted to have a good experience, so we refrained from complaining (but honestly waiting 20 minutes just for wine seems a bit excessive). We ordered one appetizer, two mains, and a bottle of white wine. The appetizer - a seared octopus dish - was quite tasty but took a while to come out. We had sat down at 8:15 - when we still hadn't received our mains by 9:55, we asked our waiter what the delay was. He rather rudely said, one second, left and then came back a few minutes later. He quickly said that the kitchen was backed up but ours was next on the list to come out. Yet, everyone around us, who arrived much later than us, were receiving their mains. (As an example, the couple sitting next to us arrived after we had finished our appetizer. They had received their two appetizers, two mains and finished their meal before we received our mains.) When another 10 minutes pass and we still hadn't received our mains (while other newer tables were), we decided that maybe the best thing to do would be to leave. It was 10:05, we were starving, and our experience had been deteriorating at this point. My mother had gone upstairs to complain to the kind hostess who was extremely apologetic, and who offered to comp us part of the meal. However the manager at the same time came down to talk to me. Rather than being apologetic, he came out quite aggressive. While he explained that our food would be coming out soon, he said that we had only been waiting 30 minutes. I explained that this wasn't the case, that all the tables around us were receiving their meals, and that the experience had been quite negative at this point. He completely dismissed what I said, instead stating, "we can check the ticket" as if I was lying. I had never experienced such a rude, unprofessional manager. Before he came down, I would say I was annoyed and hungry, after speaking to him, I was actually upset and angry. He completely failed at his job to allay and satisfy the customer, and instead achieved quite the opposite. His behavior towards my mother was even worse, constantly repeating that we had only been waiting 30 minutes, because that's what the waiter told him. He took my mom to the side and basically had an argument. I was taken aback by his behavior, felt quite uncomfortable, so decided to go upstairs and wait outside. While we obviously didn't pay for the mains that we never received, the manager didn't comp any of the bill. My mother paid over 50 pounds for the bottle of wine, water, one appetizer, and one of the worst experiences I've ever had dining out. I understand that sometimes mistakes get made. Perhaps the waiter forgot to put in our order, who knows. But the least a restaurant - and a manager no less - could do is apologize for the mistake rather than come out aggressive and blame the customer. Needless to say, I will never dine nor drink at BBB again. read more

Absolutely appalling service. We pre-booked and pre-ordered our 3 course meal, our table was booked for 9.30pm and we didn't get seated until 10:40pm. Only half of our parties starters arrived at 11pm. With the other half getting told that there was an 'accident' in the kitchen and their food was dropped on the floor! They offered an alternative and the rest of our party got their starter at 11:20pm. Mains came out at 11:55pm, and the beef was rare when I asked for medium to well-done & a few others who had ordered chicken were missing part of theirs. When bringing up the menu to the waitress asking where their extra food was they got no sympathy and were told they didn't have any left. We were extremely angry by this point especially seen as our waitress didn't want to listen to us so spent 30 minutes complaining to the manager who only said he would take the 12.5% service charge off! For a big party who had pre-ordered their food and booked a table for 9:30pm not actually getting their food until 11pm is a disgrace!!! Would never go back!! read more