Babylon Restaurant at The Roof Gardens has been on the block for ten years, most long term Londoners will have visited once usually for a special occasion. Located on the 7th floor of a building close to South Kensington the restaurant has great views of the London skyline.
We recently took a trip up high to try out the dinner menu. Starting with Prince Harry, that’s a cocktail not the actual Prince who’s in enough trouble already without cavorting with us! The concotion of home infused fig brandy, Grand Marnier with a bitters soaked sugar cube and Beaumet Brut Champagne was a pleasure to swallow.
Food wise we began with a Crab Cocktail, not for the faint hearted, the brown and white crab meat packs quite a punch but dig deep and at the bottom of the glass you’ll find a zingy avocado salsa which mellows the flavour. Another starter of sautéed scallops served in the half shell with pickled shiitake mushrooms, edamame beans and spring onions was well presented, well thought out and tasted great.
For mains we kept it fishy, the sautéed fillet of Halibut with crushed new potato was a generous piece of flaky fish served with a rich, herby dressing. Loch Duart Salmon served with red onion and apricot salsa had just the right mix of sweet and savory and looked almost too pretty to eat.
By dessert one of us had left the game, we blame the freshly baked bread for this – TOO HARD to resist and one serving enough for four. One Moelleux Chocolate Cake later and we were good to go. Content and happy, we couldn’t grumble about the food or service it was pretty consisent throughout.
A great place for a business dinner or lunch and as luck would have it all lunch diners get a free glass of fizz until 20th November.
99 Kensington High Street, W8
www.roofgardens.virgin.com