Tinseltown

Overrated, over-hyped and underwhelming. Dont bother, go somewhere else

The milkshakes get 4 stars. They're pretty inventive, although inappropriately expensive (£4.75 because it has some Kinder Bueno in it? I don't think so.)

The food is budget. I'm talking Captain Birdseye quality beef burgers and the type of seasame seed buns you'd find in the local cornershop with a 6 month shelf life. 

I'd recommend Byron. You'll pay a similar price, get a beautiful bit of beef (with bacon if you want. Tinseltown is halal only, so not pork here). And Byron milkshakes are much more satisfying (if not a bit more plain)

Really disappointed. Waitress plonked down our main course before we had even finished our starter (which was overpowered by a gallon of BBQ sauce). Really inattentive waitress took 15 minutes to take our order in the first place. Yet she brought the bill (with the service charge, ha!) within a minute.

Go there for a milkshake. Avoid the food. Go to Byron if you want a bit of both, with better food and extremely attentive service!

(I haven't reviewed on this site in years. I was SO disappointed with this place I felt compelled to write about it.)

I ended up with food poisoning right after eating at Tinsel Town in Farringdon. I ordered a Cajun Chicken Wrap and fries. The whole table order included: A cheese burger with fries, a Reece's peanut butter milkshake, and a Cajun chicken wrap with fries, mango juice and a peppermint tea. Firstly the Cajun chicken wrap tasted awful, that should have been the first sign not to continue but I thought it might just be me. My friend was not impressed with her Beef burger and mentioned it not even tasting like any beef she's had in her life time. I started to feel a little bit ill after eating but I didn't think anything of it. Then half an hour later I was throwing up on the street and following this I threw up again whilst on public transport. If I didn't have such a bad stomach ache I would have walked right back in there and complained. Due to the state I was in, this was not possible! I've spent the last two days recovering from food poisoning. My friend suffered from a minor stomach ache the following day, this shouldn’t have been the case.

On top of this the service was terrible. Our waiter messed up our order; another waiter took too much money from friend’s card and couldn't work out how to refund her. Then another waiter claimed I couldn't have a take away Peppermint tea when I could clearly see the take away cups. We refused to pay the service charge, it was a terrible experience. My friend had never been to Tinsel Town and she defiantly won't be going again! I have crossed Tinsel Town off my list of places to go- what a waste of money at the expense of my health. I have never felt so ill after eating out in my life, the journey home was almost impossible for me. I am disgusted! I have spread the word warning my friends and family about this place. NEVER AGAIN!

I've been to Tinsel town a few times before and all have been pleasant experiences. Good food. Nice milkshakes and the usual back alley looking clientele. However, Tinseltown seems to have mass employed new "waiters", if you can even call them that, from some country in the EU which has open borders with the UK. As a result if you decide to eat at Tinseltown expect your food to be plonked on your table by argumentative, gum chomping, quick to grab your money Tinselswines. Tinseltown should be renamed Fritzltown because it's where decency and manners go to die.

One plate plonker decided that he would explain to me over and over again that I had not ordered cheese with my burger and therefore I had to sell my soul to the devil, give him my first born child and pray to Buddha for forgiveness if I was ever to see a slice of cheese on my burger.

Be aware of the service charge that they put on the receipt. They know that no-one in their right mind tips a a right royal teacosy. You do not have to pay for the luxury of being on the end on abysmal customer service skills. Also, the plate plonkers will hover around your table like vultures on a carcase as you count your money. However, It has to be said that the entertainment was excellent and mind blowing. I've never seen such skill and precision when it comes to a eating a burger; navigating around a veil draped around the hole in your face.

Lastly, the toilets look a smell like pisspits.

Expensive prices for small portions of average quality food. And service was awful in both the tinseltown locations we went to (great portland st., and farringdon) due to the girls who cant speak english very well and have a massive attitude when you dare to ask questions about their menu! TGI fridays is miles better if you like the americana-diner type atmosphere and food. Although the only good thing is tinseltown does do nice milkshakes, but again its way overpriced for the size you get. Better off going to shakeaway which specialises in milkshakes.

The food is very tasty here and the milkshakes are second to none (very filling), the place could look a bit better it doesn’t look very well decorated and the toilets wasn’t to the standard I’d expect in a restaurant! But again the food here is great

This place is just awful. We used to always go there after a good night out.
Then….one time, we got pancakes that were not cooked! I mean literally, pancake mix coming out of the middle when you cut it.
Then…..another time, my boyfriend pulled out like a 10 inch hair from the back of his throat while eating a waffle. Waitresses were wearing their hair down, no hairbands! eewwww! Plus, most of them, their english isnt too good, so you spend half your time trying to get them to understand you or you trying to understand them. Real lovers of dining out, do yourselves a favour and go to a real restaurant.

love this place due to there “BIG” fat burgers and great milkshakes, always a good place to go to after a night out to get something to eat as its 24hr.

After reading a couple reviews about this place I was a bit skeptical about going here. I was going with a couple of friends so I didn't want to be a killjoy. It is overpriced (£3.50 for a portion of chips. Tasted like cardboard. McDonalds better better chips!) The plates were FILTHY! Menus were tacky. The music was excruciating. It was stuff you'd hear at a kids party in the 90s! The waiter who served us couldn't even speak English so we had to keep repeating ourselves. It took about 10 minutes to make our order. The chef looked a bit dodgy :/ It was like he didn't want to be there. He kept on coming out looking quite angry. We had to pay a "service charge" (what for? I couldn't tell you. Service was appalling) even though there were only 6 of us. The only good thing about Tinseltown is the milkshakes. I had a Choc Chip Banana Crumble which at £5.00 is a bit expensive but it made up for the crap food. This place should be avoided at all costs unless you want a heart stopping yet delicious milkshake at 1 in the morning!

I couldn’t tell you how many restaurants I’ve been to. Eating out is sort of my ‘thing’. I don’t discriminate- from Michelin stars to dubious late night kebab places, if it’s expanding me, and I don’t have to cook it, I’m totally there.

Tinseltown is literally the worst restaurant- nay, place- I have ever been to.

Look, I’m 21, I like a bit of Americana and tack, I can appreciate a laminated menu and early 2000s Shakira as much as the next girl. I’m not gonna bitch and whine about £3.50 oven chips doused in curry powder, whatevs, it’s all starch. I’m not a service facist either- I get it, we all have to work, you don’t want to spend your evening serving excitable teenagers and rowdy tourists milkshake. Sometimes, service with a smile really IS too much to ask for.

But guys, there’s a LIMIT. I’m going to take you through my evening. I know it’s a bit tl;dr, but have some patience:

11pm, two days before a deadline and my friend and I are finally being turfed out of college. We’ve done sod all except eat lemon meringue pie and stare blankly into space for several hours, so we decide to head to somewhere, anywhere that opens 24hrs and do an all-nighter of sketchbook work. After a spot of Googling, we settle on Tinseltown, bully a friend into meeting us there, and set off. Half an hour later, we’re there, and this place is HUGE, and empty. I mean, there’s gotta be about 10-15 large comfortable looking booths in there, and a row of small, hard looking tables. It is dead. There’s maybe 3 other small parties in there. It’s 11.30 on a Tuesday evening, it’s dead, we have a ton of heavy stuff, and we want a booth. Oh no. We are introduced to a waiter who is to make Basil Fawlty look like Dolly effing Parton. He informs us that we must sit at a table because there’s only 2 of us. This guy is not being argued with. I mean obviously, this is totally f*ing unreasonable given that the place is tumbleweeding, but w/ev, he says we can move when our friend gets here, so we begrudgingly sit down, get our work out and order a milkshake. About 20 minutes later, the group at the table behind us leaves. We REALLY want to sit there, the lighting is great and we’re uncomfortable squeezed around this little table. Our waiter clears off the table, walks off, and we start shifting our stuff over. He notices and comes rushing back over looking like he’s about to have a coronary. “YOU CANNOT SIT THERE IF THERE’S JUST TWO OF YOU! You can sit there when there’s three of you” He starts PICKING UP OUR STUFF- and moving us back over to the little table. We’re like, “Mate, come on…be reasonable…there’s no one in here and our friend is going to be here soon…Can we please just sit here?” Oh no. None of that. This guy is naht happy. He picks up our DRINKS which are practically half bloody full and just walks off with them. We stare at each other in disbelief. My ‘excuse me’s’ go unheard. I have to chase him across the restaurant. He puts them down on the tray, and I have to explain to another guy behind the bar that we weren’t done with them and pick them up. I get no apology. I get a nonchalant shrug. I bump into Mr. Parton walking back across the restaurant. I’m quite annoyed by this point. “Err, we weren’t actually done with these drinks by the way. “ “What?” “You took our drinks? We hadn’t finished them?” “I thought they were the other tables drinks.” Right well no you DIDN’T did you babe, because a) we had JUST been drinking them right under your nose, and b) you had just cleaned off that very same table not a minute before. I walk back over to my friend and mutter, “that has to be the worst customer service ever.” He spins around, looking like he’s about to have a coronary. “WHAT did you just say about my customer service?” Well I mean it has just ALL kicked off now. We get into an argument about the table situation. I say ‘an argument’, but really, it’s us saying, “but why?!”, laughing and staring at each other open mouthed, and him offering no logical rebuttal. He storms off. And then returns with a man I presume to me the manager but who had transparently been brought over to frighten us into submission. I mean this guy was enormous, and clearly deliberately trying to intimidate us. As two young female art students, I am slightly confused as to what threat we seemed to pose. My friend looks like she’s about to skip off to the little house on the prairie. I guess I could have jabbed him in the eye with a waterproof fine-liner or something but it couldn’t have seemed too likely. His argument, incidentally, was that the place was getting busy (there were about 2 more people in there) so we couldn’t use up a whole booth. You can’t fault his optimism. A big beefy guy from another table actually came over to be like, “everything alright?!”, at which point the manager/bouncer gave up and walked off. Yeah, sit the fuck down Mr Creosote. By a happy coincidence, at this point, our friend turned up, looking slightly confused by what was clearly a ‘situation’. Right, we thought, we can settle down now, and move into the booth promised to us. So we start moving our stuff over, legitimately this time. Our charming waiter from earlier comes RUNNING OVER, freaking out again. What was it this time? “There must be 4 people at this table!” You heard me right. There were THREE OTHER IDENTICAL BOOTHS all with 3 people in at this point, by the way. “Yes, well, they got here earlier.” Right, but…Oh what is even the point. Logic is clearly not this person’s strong point. But all was not lost! We got shifted into another booth, by the first one, which was MUCH BIGGER. Don’t ask, because I have no answers for you. We took the whole thing with good humour and much bafflement. We were just happy to have somewhere decent to sit, and thence we remained until 5am, having drinks/food practically thrown at our heads by staff in transit, and doing absolutely no work whatsoever.

The dead bug on the table was a nice touch, as well.

Bad service and overpriced. £15 for a burger, £6 for waffleS. Took 30-40 minutes for our burgers to arrive. This place is HUGELY overrated. Also, £5 for milkshake? Blow it out your *...

This place sucks…I can cook better really…I had pasta and it was yucky but my friends liked the burgers! they are really expensive and staff are so un-frendly. The cook came out and started to shout "f**K, why are these people come to eat here...its getting busy and i am tired". My friends and I was like "ok".
Never ever go here.

Notable for two things - the range of milkshakes, and the honking great , very greasy burgers. A bit of a laugh, but fine dining it is not.

Eaten here a few times before, although not at the Hampstead branch, and I have to say it is an experience at any time of day. The milkshakes are awesome, worth the charge on occasion, and the burgers are doubles as standard- need I say more? Great random place, and close enough to 24/7 as possible

American diner in London. Great food (it was after a night out so as my grandmother would say "hunger is very good sauce"), a great malt, very friendly staff but you will pay for the experience and possibly have to wait for it as well and queues are a regular thing to get to this basement venue.

Fast turnaround which I like.

Tinsel Town is the place to go to if you fancy a milkshake as they have the most amazing flavours you could imagine. Personally I prefer the Tinsel Town Hampstead branch as they use real ice cream in the milkshakes whereas the Farringdon branch uses Mr Whippy type ice cream.

Worth a visit late at night when you get the munchies.

I haven't tried the food so can't comment on that.

this is a nice place to eat but i think the prices is something they need to look at, defo worth tryin the milkshakes

Very very disapointing. Poor service starters came cold and only just before main course. Burgers soggy. Shakes nice but small for price.
Reading the other reviews makes me think this place has changed owners? Tatty decor as well
I would definately say avoid

Not bad, really (especially the milkshakes) but a bit pricey for what it is.

They used to have a really fun menu, and used to serve kosher bacon on their halal burgers (which is great in a sort of post-modern culture mash-up kinda way) but they seem to have gone a bit more sane & mainstream lately. I'd still occasionally take people there for the surreal experience.

This place has fantastic milkshakes, and you can get them made from almost anything you please, from oreo cookies to ferro roche chocolate, they are gorgeous, albeit a tad pricey! However, over the years there are now many other places selling similar milkshakes, and the quality of the food they server is poor for the price you pay, so I only visit if I am in the local area!