| Ambiance: |  (4 / 5) |
| Service: | (3.5 / 5) |
| Value for money: | (2.5 / 5) |
| "Toilets: | (3.5 / 5) |
On initial impressions, Beach Blanket Babylon looked very impressive. It’s located in a grand building which reminded me of those expensive hotels which serve high teas. It’d be a definite spot to take a first date as it is pretty impressionable. So I was keen to find out whether the food lived up to it’s surroundings. We were offered a choice of two tables to sit at, which is something I always appreciate so we opted for a table by the side, as opposed to the one directly in the centre of the restaurant. I didn’t really fancy having an audience for the duration of my evening!
We started with the drinks list. There were separate menus for cocktails and wines, there was a severe lack of wines by the glass so I risked it with the house white. It was a Spanish Macabeo and turned out to be yet another good ‘house’ choice. I was wondering whether they’d give us free bread as I tend to find the more expensive a restaurant, the more likely you’ll receive free bread as they’re bound to have a pastry chef in the kitchen.. And sure enough, after ordering the drinks we were presented with a wicker basket of bread. At a first glance, it looked pretty dry – we had a selection of sourdough and dark rye bread but they did taste better than they looked. The bread was served with butter and a very bizarre salad dressing, which I ate nevertheless.
I wasn’t overly blown by the food menu. Firstly it was a simple A4 sheet of paper which felt cheap in your hands. The font was also quite small so in the dim light of the evening’s ‘ambiance’, it was quite hard to see. I hate it when you can’t see anything on the menu that you really want so in the end I decided on three options and asked the waiter to pick for me. Veal milanese it was, with a side order of mash and creamed spinach. My date for the evening ordered scallops with shoestring fries.
Veal Milanese and Scallops
Twenty minutes later, the food came. As did another bottle of the Macabeo. On first impressions, the veal looked like a Bernard Matthews turkey escalope and proved to taste exactly like one too. I was so disappointed, for such a subtle luxury meat, it was pretty much murdered by an overload of breadcrumbs and deep frying. It also went cold very quickly due to being served on a wooden board, as opposed to a warmed plate. Looking at the positives, the mash was nice. The spinach was a little cold, and stood no chance against the Boisdale’s creamed spinach with truffles but the scallops were nice enough. Slightly undercooked for me though.
Chocolate Brownie
For some reason we thought it’d be a good idea to order pudding so we decided to share a chocolate brownie, with amaretto sauce and vanilla ice cream. In hindsight, I wish I’d saved myself the calories and waited until I got back to the pub and had some of Matt’s chocolate and beetroot cake because the brownie was dry and the cake to ice cream ratio was severely miscalculated.
The bill came, and at over £100 for 2 people, for only 1.5 courses and a bottle of wine, I think it’s pretty hard to be impressed by the value for money.
Recommendation
I personally wouldn’t recommend Beach Blanket Babylon as the food just doesn’t live up the surroundings of the place. They over-charge, presumably because of the location and result in being unable to live up to expectations.
Extra Information:
Address: 19-23 Bethnal Green Rd, London E1 6LA
Phone: 020 7749 3540
Website: http://www.beachblanket.co.uk/
NTK: Don’t order the veal, and have a tub of Ben n Jerrys when you get home rather than opting for pudding!
