After the big thanksgiving feast, I met my sister for a Sunday lunch at the Kensington Rooftop Gardens restaurant, Babylon. Definitely full of chic, this rooftop restaurant perched on the seventh floor definitely has some pretty astounding views. It’s just such a shame many of it was cloud over with plenty of rain accompanying it.
The location is fabulous and service was reasonable with a very happy waiter although attentiveness dropped as it became busier and busier.
Sundays they do a reasonable three course meal for £25. I started with the warm duck salad, looking for something a bit lighter than a creamy soup or the other dishes. The mains were slightly less inspiring with a veal roast of the day, sea bream and a number of other reasonable but unexciting dishes.
I ended up ordering the fish and chips, figuring I felt a little seedy from the bight before. Admittedly it was a very good fish, covered with a light crisp batter and fairly crunchy. My only problems with the dish was that a certain section hadn’t been de boned very well and I found the dish over salted. Nevertheless it wad tasty.
Rounding off the meal with something hopefully a bit lighter, I ordered the coconut mousse, serve with a refreshingly tart passionfruit sorbet. My sister ordered the cardamom creme brûlée. I had a small taste of it, and whilst definitely flavourful I’m afraid it would have been overpowering for the entire dish considering the size of the brûlée.
It took a while for the bill to arrive, and that gave us some time to relax in the now, very busy atmosphere. After lunch we headed on down to the next floor down to look at the decadent gardens, complete with pink flamingoes preening themselves. The birds, quite seemingly used to people about, didn’t seem to have any problems with us getting too close.
I’m intrigued to see what sort of people come to a place like this, with outdoor heaters no doubt luring the chelsea-ites out from their homes. For a Sunday meal, the Babylon Rooftop Gardens is reasonable value but realise that even for a drink, you’ll be paying for the location and exclusivity more than anything else.
Name: The Roof Gardens
Found at: 99 Kensington High Street, Kensington, W8 5SA
Website: http://www.roofgardens.virgin.com/
TheKua.com Rating: 8 out of 10