Beach Blanket Babylon - Notting Hill

How does this restaurant survive! It is run so very badly! When I walked in nobody greeted me, I sat at the bar which had 1 very slow and unfriendly barman who was serving 2 people, then over the next 15 mins other people came in to join this group and he carried on serving them never once saying he would be with me in a moment. I reached out to another member of staff who reluctantly took my order and made me an awful margarita (he had to look at the recipe! he wasn’t friendly either! My friend arrived, she had booked a table but they didn’t have a booking system and told us to sit anywhere. During our meal (which to be fair was nice the restaurant filled with smoke which made our eyes water it was so thick, some people left. Staff opened the front door to let the smoke out but it happened again after half an hour. We laughed about it because it was so unbelievable badly run, like Faulty Towers! But definitely not worth the money or a second visit DON’T GO!

Awful service! They didn’t have any Rose wine, the air conditioner wasn’t working and the whole restaurant smelt of burnt oil and was filled with smoke! We have to send all our clothes for dry-cleaning as they stink. Worst of all was the attitude of the waiter! He was arrogant and rude and couldn’t care less about the satisfaction of the customers! What a waste of an evening!

I made a dinner reservation for two at 7.45 Friday 3rd February we arrived at 7.25 to enjoy a drink at the bar. It was surprisingly quiet and the front and rear of the bar was full of used, dirty drinking glasses. Nobody greeted us or even spoke to us so after 20 mins and still sitting at the bar, I asked the guy who had seen us several times but not spoke (even to say, sorry we.ll get to you shortly) His response was we are short staffed so speak to the Direction (management) so I said does that mean we can’t get even a drink? The response ‘not possible’ A lady had arrived 10 mins before us who had not been spoken to either. We then left the venue and returned to our Paddington base with a planned enjoyable evening ruined by this restaurant who clearly don’t worry about taking reservations knowing they can’t serve the clientele. Please don’t waste your time going there.

I actually had the misfortune of seeing a few reviews on route to the restaurant the day we dined there but had hoped for the best. Honestly anyone reading this do not go to this restaurant it’s beyond awful. Service extremely slow. We waited 45 mins for drinks . Many of the wines of the menu were out of stock too. We had a simplified menu. On asking why we were told the delivery has not arrived that day. Food was another long wait. Over an hour. Only 2 of the 3 dishes arrived to start so we had to wait on the final dish. The food was beyond awful. We didn’t eat it. Chips stone cold. The cod dish was also cold and the chicken dry and overcooked. It had 100% been sitting around for a long time! Staff just didn’t seem to care, they weren’t rude but it was just like that was the norm! Apparently the owner was sat in the bar.. not sure if it was him but if it was he didn’t seem to care that everyone around was complaining. I honestly hate to leave negative reviews but I just want to avoid anyone else having the same experience.

I was there for my 50th birthday and apparently the staff had been made aware of this by my husband when he booked. There was an event upstairs for a group of people and myself and my husband and another table of 5 ladies. After we made our order the waitress came back and said that there was no soup and so he had to change to pate, and no egg for the chicken Milanese. The starter took 45 minutes to arrive and wasn’t very impressive. There was a long wait for the main- we think about an hour at which point the oladoes on the other table were politely asking where their food was. They were told it was on its way. 15 minutes later they left ironically as their food arrived 5 minutes later. Our lunch then arrived, my husband had an over cooked dry chicken escalope and my fish curry did not taste of fish. I then asked for the menu and the sauce that should have accompanied the chicken was absent. My husband then asked for a beer only to be told that there was none. We were not offered an alternative. We asked several times to speak to a manager, this was clearly ignored. A complimentary bottle of champagne was offered as the waiting staff could see we were upset, but we politely declined. The staff set cutlery for a complimentary dessert but 45 minutes later it hadn’t arrived. I was partly convinced that we were being secretly filmed for ant and dec but I’m afraid that was not the case. I can’t celebrate my 50th again so will make sure nobody else puts themselves through this terrible experience