For my birthday Akhlaq arranged for a small group of us to dine at Babylon at the Roof Gardens. As per the website the Roof Gardens is “Sir Richard Branson’s urban oasis in the heart of London” and is 1.5 acres of green sitting on the 6th floor of a building in Kensington High Street. Normally the gardens are open to the public but tonight they had been booked out for a private function and wasn’t the man at the front door a bulldog about letting us up! I only make a point of this because it was funny watching this small old man (think great grandfather!) interrogate everyone coming to the door. And even though we had a booking for the restaurant it felt like he still gave us a grilling.

As we were slightly early for our booking we were escorted to the balcony to enjoy some drinks and views over West London. The Restaurant is located on the 7th floor so you can kind of look down over the balcony into a part of the garden. It was a nice clear evening so the view was fantastic. It was unfortunate a private function had taken over the gardens as it would have been nice to see it in the day time (we did later go down but it was rather dark by then.)

I could probably go on and on about Babylon so I’m going to review it on the following basis:

Atmosphere. From the moment you step out of the lift into Babylon Restaurant you know that you are stepping into one classy joint. From the sunken “reception” area surrounded by a colourful aquariums, to the coat checking room, to the classy bar that you walk by to enter the restaurant proper, to the rest rooms with Molton Brown products (liquid soap and moisturiser), to the tables that are overflowing with glasses so there is no room for your food, to the wall of stones and lights, to all the beautiful wood and glass panelling, to the fireplace, and to the sheer number of waiters and waitresses running around, all with a friendly smile and word for you.

The Service. The service was excellent and you are certainly treated like royalty from the minute you enter the restaurant including ensuring you were well liquored … I mean, ensuring you were never without a drink. The great thing was that although there were waiters and waitresses moving about constantly in the background it never felt like they were intruding – just seemingly appearing when you needed them. I noticed though that many of the waitresses were Australian so it almost felt like I was in a restaurant back home!

The Food. The menu at Babylon is almost overwhelming with its diversity and descriptions of strange ingredients. I wanted to try everything but sadly could only stick with three courses (though I did pick at Akhlaq’s cheesecake dessert (weakness!). My dishes were as follows:

Salad of Grilled Quail with soft boiled quails egg, golden raisins, quince chutney and red chicory	Griddled Kilravock Free Range Pork with bubble and squeak, baby onions, fried sweet potato, baby leeks and jus with a side of Brocolli and Snap Peas with Almonds	Peach Melba with poached peach and vanilla ice cream, candy floss

Great presentation on the food and taste-wise it was all pretty divine although I must say that I found my Quail salad start a touch oily and the Pork main was just a little over-cooked. I also especially liked the novelty of candy floss on my Peach Melba and was quite amused by Sandra’s starter of Langoustine & Crab with other bits and pieces. Look at this face … it was almost too cute to eat!

Value for Money. Hmm … tough call on this one. We averaged £60 per person for three-courses. Admittedly there was one bottle of wine in that total but I thought the final bill was a just a little bit steep. Having said that we did have very good quality ingredients. Unless you’re made of money you probably wouldn’t eat at Babylong everyday but it made a nice treat.

Overall Babylon Restaurant provided an elegant rooftop dining experience with a nice ambience, great service and quality food. Thanks to Akhlaq for organising the night out. These photos are just for him:

Obligatory Akh shot	Jenny and Sir Cartier	Sir Cartier soaking up the atmosphere