Big Easy Chelsea

My boyfriend has been coming here for years, so i thought it was time I ate here too. As we walked in, i could smell, fresh lobsters, bbq smothered burgers, and deep fried goodness; and then it hit me, this is going to be a MAJOR cheat day! We had to wait about 20 mins for a table, but decided to grab a Margarita at the bar. After a while we were taken to our table downstairs, a far cry from the hustle and bustle of upstairs, downstairs is very quiet and relaxed. I let the boyfriend order, and my mouth was watering even more. The starters arrived soon after, and were scrumptious, Out of the 3 starters we orders, the battered prawns were the most amazing and the tomato sauce that came with it was just divine. For mains we ordered a lobster and lobster roll. The lobster was so delicate, tasty and juicy; the lobster roll was delicious and the brioche was fried to perfection. After an afternoon of stuffing our faces and chugging down lots of beer we were stuck in our chairs waiting for everything to digest. The bill arrived and we were pleasantly surprised; Only £89 for the two of us, 3 starters, 2 mains and plenty of drinks. Very good meal!

The food was great, with a lot of daily specials and recommendations on top of the standard menu. We shared a starter of chicken tenders, which was massive so I'm glad we didn't order one each. For our main, we had a whole lobster and a lobster roll. Both were delicious. We can't fault the food or prices, so it's a shame we have a few minor grumbles. Our waitress was friendly and happy to explain specials etc, but completely forgot a beer I'd ordered so I had to ask for it again, which wasn't easy as getting her attention proved difficult as she kept hanging around the kitchen. We also saw she got the neighboring table's order wrong and had to return their food to the kitchen. Then, on paying our bill, we were a little annoyed to be asked to add a tip on the credit card machine when a service charge of 12.5% had already been applied. The only other minor downers are how dark some areas of the restaurant are and the volume of the music making it hard to talk to each other without having to lean in or shout! Despite all of those complaints, we will be back as the food was that good!

Having frequented the Big Easy regularly some 10+ years ago as a local, we had a recent excuse to relive the fun. The Pork Scratchings with Apple Compote were absolutely delicious: the main disappointment that even though we arrived at the start of the Sunday lunchtime service, there was only 1 portion available when we had ordered 2…perhaps the waitor was just being discrete about an unadvertised policy on a certain limit to such delicacies per table? The Bone-n-Rib-Eye was beautifully cooked as ordered (medium rare) and the Ribs plentiful. The pork pieces in the ‘BBQ beans’ that came with the Ribs was a great touch too. While everything tasted overly sweet where a ‘sauce’ of any kind was involved (and again perhaps that's just my aging palate rather than the food per se), the service and humour of the staff was exemplary. Our table waitor handled our every (random) request with aplomb and grace. I cannot rate him highly enough. Should we be in the area again, we shall be sure to look in and work our way through the menu's remaining treats.

Great place with fantastic food. It does however get very busy and noisey so the service isn't the best but the staff are very friendly. The deserts are amazing!!

The Big Easy on the King's Road reminded me and my girl friend of a “restaurant” we used to go to in the Middle East where we were always plied with tequilas aplenty thanks to the female-starved servicemen from the nearby American airbase: the same checkered, wipe-clean table clothes; same menu stuffed with BBQ ribs, slaw and skins, and battered seafood; same yeehaw-ing, humming, “we're on day leave, let's have beers!” atmosphere. Sadly (but not surprisingly) no airmen in this Chelsea version though. Despite the incongruous chi-chi location, this place is always filled and you'll wait 30 mins for a table for 2 even at 7pm on a Tuesday night so book ahead. I don't mind waiting in the cramped bar: it's buzzy, barmen are friendly and the waitresses make sure you get taken to a table as soon as it's available. The atmosphere is high-octane and there seems to be a live band on most evenings (stay upstairs to avoid your ears bleeding!). Service is “Have a Nice Day” friendly and you can grab one of many staff dashing around when you're ready to order food or more margheritas. The food is exactly what you'd expect: ribs were big, fat and juicy (but it's worth ordering the meatier ones); they don't mind substitutions if you want to swap slaw and salad for fries on the side if you're determined to eat a week's worth of calories in one sitting; jumbo prawns were indeed jumbo (although we would have liked a few more given we were sharing them as a starter). The daily deals (like all you can eat battered prawns with a drink) look good value and I'd probably go for one of those next time although the £25 a head bill we had was fair enough as it was (couple of beers, shared starter, enormous main). My neighbour's teenage kids tell me they insist on going here every birthday so it really is good, clean family fun for everyone. But I suspect you're welcome to get smashed on tequilas too if you bring your own servicemen.

I have been coming to the Big Easy for nearly 13 years at least twice a year and always to celebrate either a birthday or other work related party. On my last visit we were promptly seated at a table downstairs (as requested) our waitress remembered me (which really surprised me as I hadn't been for nearly a year) we all knew what we wanted as it was Thursday which meant Lobster Festival and we also ordered a few starters to share. This is also the place where Champagne doesn't cost a fortune so we had two bottles of Bollinger NV. The service was very friendly and quite fast, even though the place was as most of the time full and busy. The food especially the Lobsters were delicious, also loved the voodoo wings and Prawn cocktail. For our party of 6 including 2 bottles of Champagne plus desert and coffee's we paid just under £300,00 which for the location and quantities as well as quality is not bad (obviously I/we don't do this every week. Will come again and can't wait!

Ribs, crabs, lobster, prawns – this place has it all in a fun unpretentious environment! And to tope it off, the margaritas are addictively tasty! A great place to catch up with a bunch of friends!

This place is nothing but a very over priced Burger King! The food is very poor quality with the service to match! After being made to wait at a very cramped and over crowed bar, we finally got seated at a table with less spaces than we needed. After more waiting around we got moved to another table which was probably the same size. Our waitress was awful, asking us to repeat our whole order about 3 times. I asked her for a glass of tap water 4 times…I am still waiting for it now! To my surprise she was American, where restaurant service is usually top, she was definitely the top… of the bottom. The food was really basic with not so basic prices. I expect these prices on the King Road, however the quality is generally there to match. My ribs were tough with not much meat, the starters were basic, overpriced and poorly put together, my dog could have done a better job …I don’t even have a dog! Anyway, you get the picture, BA..SIC! I will never go back here and I advise anyone who fancies ribs, burgers and the like, to go to Bodeans or Byron! What’s even more annoying is how busy the place gets, they clearly don’t need to worry about upping their game as people keep going…DONT!

We booked a table at Big Easy after reading great reviews online. We arrived and were seated at our table fairy quickly. When our waiter arrived to take our order, he mentioned there were a few things that were off the menu and then proceeded to read them out. OMG.. we thought! the list of items OFF the menu was almost half of the items ON the menu. This included basic items such as mash potato, shrimp cocktail, rib eye steak and even Crab (bearing in mind this is meant to be a crab shack!!) . Nevertheless, as we had been pre warned, we decided to order our meals from the remaining items on the menu and our meals arrived shortly afterwards. We then noticed that the one of the meal was meant to come with coleslaw but hadn’t arrived so we asked the a waiter for it only to be told that too was now off the menu (surprise surprise!)So we had to select another side. It would have been nice if they had told us this upfront rather then hope that we wouldn’t notice! Whilst eating our meals we noticed posters around the restaurant advertising their Krispy Kreame doughnut and chocolate fondue dessert. We all liked the sound of that so kept room for dessert. When we placed our order… guess what? .. yup it was off the menu along with pretty much everything else on the other then ice cream. The waiter came over with some hot towels to freshen up with but instead of the lemon scented towels you would expect, ours were rotten fish scented! At this point we asked for the bill and made a complaint to the waiter. The bill arrived with a 12.5 % service charge included so we asked to speak to the manager. We explained our disappointment of the experience at the restaurant to the manager who was vey apologetic and she took the bill away. The bill came back a few minutes later with only the 12.5% charge taken off (this was a discretionary charge to start with!) Not somewhere I will be dining in future!!