Nothing says ‘this restaurant is going to be a little over the top’, like a statement tree growing out of a dining room floor. However when that tree, and all its sprawling branches, is not so much a centre-piece but just part of the décor like a lamp or a painting would be, the flamboyance bar has been raised.
Jacuzzi is bang on brand for the Big Mamma Group, which has well and truly taken the crown from the Ivy Collection for extra-as, over the top, maximalist dining.
Like sister venues Gloria’s, Ave Maria and Circolo Popolare, Jacuzzi, in Kensington, is fun, bejewelled, bedazzled and camp, and created for lives lived on Instagram.
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The restaurant is styled out to resemble an Italian country villa, and there is a charm in its ostentatious silliness. I walked up a glowing staircase, past a mirrored wall, glittering bars, multiple chandeliers and a plant shop worth of greenery, to sit across from a pair of framed vintage Italian budgie smugglers in the corner of the third floor dining room which came with the tree emerging from its middle. Through the faux window I was sitting near, instead of catching a view of outside, I clocked a pair of framed vintage flip flops.
‘Are they having an orgy?’, my friend asked, directing me to look at the wine list which was illustrated in a throng of naked bodies, tangled over each other in a way to suggest they were either having group-sex or victims of a mass-slaying.
She also directed me to check out the ‘penis flower wallpaper’ on her return from the loo, which by the way, is a different bathroom from the discoball one.
The dishes were just as extra as the décor, and designed for maximum visual impact.
Burrata, as a barely-solid blubbery mass of cheese stuffed with a rich ooze of cream, is already a ludicrous idea and excessive in its natural state. When it is embellished with a hefty dose of truffle shavings, which came more like a paste and covering the top of the chunky blob of cheese, although pleasing, only those with an ironclad stomach could have finished it off.
Our prawn ceviche was refreshingly light next to the dense burrata. Little piles of diced crustaceans mixed in with crunchy onion and celery sat in a pool of creamy sauce which had various streaks of happy green and red oils drizzled through it to brighten the plate up.
The roasted cauliflower half, sitting in an ocean of a cheese sauce made with the funk of both parmesan and truffle, was the most decadent cauliflower cheese I have tried and the largest portion also.
Surprisingly, after all this, the cheese hadn't gotten the better of me and I decided to go for dessert – not just something small and sweet to end the meal on, but a strapping ice-cream sandwich number with a trifecta of dairy.
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Pistachio gelato and hazelnut cream came out wedged between a large, slightly dry, profiterole. Before I had the chance to pull out my camera and say, ‘woah, that’s massive’, the waiter poured a warm chocolate sauce over it with a deft swiftness and said ‘enjoy the sugar’ as he walked away. Who am I to disagree?
More is more at Jacuzzi, which doesn’t hold back on the cheese or the décor or on Insta-perfect profile pic opportunities within its playful maximalist dining rooms.
Address: 94 Kensington High Street, W8 4SJ
Website: bigmammagroup.com
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