The Curtains Up

I really like this quirky little pub.
The decors very rustic-​hipster esque, we’re talking wooden floors, pink chandelier, hot air balloon wall-​paper and the overall effect is a mix between a hipster pub and a casual local, great vibes.
The staff have been absolutely lovely to me, very friendly and jokey, and don’t look down their noses at me when I ask for the cheapest available wine, which is a nice change.
I had to take a star away for the prices, which are very much ‘London’ prices, costing a fair bit more than a local pub should.
Great for groups of friends, and certainly worth travelling for, especially with the theatre downstairs hosting some of the best fringe theatre in London!

This place used to be my local pub and I was so happy to have it as my local.
The décor is really spot on with lots of quirky little things such as above the bar and some good ol’ cosy sofas by the fire.
The restaurant and bar menu offer the standard pub food but all made really well.
Staff are friendly and the atmosphere is perfect for a nice Sunday roast or a quick catch up with friends or even a chilled out date.
Really lovely gastro pub!

Lively and popular pub. The theatre upstairs contibutes to that, but so does the restaurant out back.
Tasteful, traditional rustic décor.
Charming service, but it can be inconsistent. Sometimes you’re served quickly and efficiently, other times you get ignored for long swathes of time.
Very pleasant, relaxed, buzzy atmosphere.
Excellent food. I had one of the specials on my last visit of fish stew — yum!

A cozy neighborhood pub with a home-​like interior with a variety of welcoming seating areas.

This pub is really cute and service is pretty good, but the food was mediocre. Good cozy atmosphere with a fire and little nooks/​rooms to eat in. I did enjoy the reasonable portion sizes, not leaving you overly stuffed when you left. –Sunday Roast (beef): Not massive which is good if you wanna eat later. The yorkshire pudding takes up ¹⁄₃ of the plate. Cabbage is good and the beef is pretty good. Comes with horseradish and roast potatoes as well.
–Fish pie: Nice but nothing amazing.
–Sticky toffee pudding: Did not enjoy. Had walnuts in it. Ice cream was good on it!
–White chocolate cheesecake: Odd-​tasting. Had a sour aftertaste.

This used to be my local and every time i went there i ended up regretting it. Its expensive (but this is London) and the staff are ok but it gets so so busy that you can’t sit down and you can’t have a conversation because its too loud. There is never a free seat outside either.
I had a sunday roast there and the chicken was raw and the potatoes were hard and soggy, and the price makes your eyeballs water.
It looks like a nice pub but compared to so many great pubs out there this is below average. Go to the White Horse (20 minutes walk) or The Cumberland Arms (10 minute walk) they are so much better!

House white is viognier. automatically deserved a thumbs up form the beginning. Also thumbs up for the cute little theatre downstairs, and the great range of seating from cubbyholes to high stools, all with big cushions so its all super squishy and comfort-​to-​brim!
Thumbs down for the hair tossing ‘well-​rah, you know, im off to Germany tomorrow-​rah, to lead a meeting-​yah, but my passport is about to expire-​haha, rah’. This seemed to be the majority of the ‘darhhhlings’ that were here the same night as me, but there was also a fairly hammered lady who repeatedly tried to hug me and tell me about her nervous system issues. Not so sure the staff should still have been serving her ‘water’ (clearly red wine!!).
Overall, its close, its cute, its viognier. I’ll be back, even if to sit and be amused by surrounding conversations.

I can’t believe I haven’t reviewed our local yet!
We literally live over the road from here (note, we are not the ‘rah rah clientèle’ mentioned by Craig M), and go there regularly for a variety of reasons.
Reason one: Crabbies to be supped outside (streetside, there’s no garden). Sure it’s pricey, and has a heck of a markup, but it’s nice and refreshing on a hot evening.
Reason two: Sunday night quiz night! In which it’s as busy as a Friday or Saturday. Great fun.
Reason three: ROASTS. Again, not cheap, but very tasty.

I do like this pub, and I’ve got a lot of time for the chic little theatre downstairs — I’m just not overly into rah-​rah clientelle swamping the place and treading on me with their brogues. And annoyingly, the staff seem to share the same flakey attitude.
It took an age to be served in here, despite several attractive ladies having seemingly no problem with their wait times, and I felt hard done by when I was eventually served without even so much as a nod of recognition in the prior 10mins. Poor service.
But hey, I’m a forgiving guy — the food by all reports was very good and the pub itself is lovely — big old wooden tables, nooks and crannies and a general relaxed feeling during the week. Solid beer and cider selection too.
It’s best to find a spot with your friends away from the loud braying of Henry at the bar imploring that Hilary *simply must* try Chamonix this winter. Bore off.
I’ll be back for the theatre.

Ah! Definitely among my favorite local spots in London. I used to come here to grab a pint while I did my laundry across the street. It’s very quaint and casual — I love it. My review should be taken with a grain of salt because I went here on a weekly basis, but I have no memory of ever ordering actual food.
It looks like they’ve painted everything since I was last there — I kind of miss the charm of the old décor, thus: minus one star.

The wife and I met up here on Bank Holiday Monday lunch with some friends of ours who brought along their baby. I was surprised to see how nice the interior was — nice large wood tables, very nice décor, very clean. Seems to be a great place for families.
I ordered the chicken and mushroom pie, which was delicious. The chicken pieces were real chicken — meaning, it looked like it was taken off a whole chicken rather than the pieces all being of uniform size and chopped up by some processing factory.
The wife got the fish and chips. Not as good as fish and chips at some other gastropubs we’ve been to but it was okay.
One thing that disappointed me was that this was my first trip back to a pub after being away from London for 1.5 years and I was looking forward to drinking a nice English ale. Maybe I was stupid and should have assumed them had them but when I asked the waiter, he did not mention any English ales — he only listed off the lagers! Did he assume that an American like me would not like an old-​fashioned English real ale? Oh well.
I didn’t realize they had shows in the evening — maybe I will come again during the evening.

Gastro-​pub-​tastic! Talk about tasty traditional British food. The Curtains Up knocks the nail on the head with a lovely selection of tasty treats like crumble and custard, pies, fish and chips. Not only that but you have huge wooden tables to sit down at, great for group dining, perfect for a family dinner.
Now I’m being a little unfair here and really I should give this place 4 stars, but I have been a little generous lately and feel like this is valid. These guys do being a pub well, they also so being a theatre okay too. Just downstairs you step into a tiny area with a stage and chairs, all ready to sit down and be entertained. I have to say I’ve never actually seen anything here but I’ve hear loads of great things about it. It’s a great way to spend a traditional night out in London, great food and quirky entertainment.

Come for a glass of vino, stay for dinner and a show! That’s what happened to me upon my last visit to The Curtains Up, and as you can see from my star ranking, I was not disappointed.
I quickly learned that it’s not just a clever name when the bartender asked me if I’d like to place my food order before the show to have it waiting for me after. Um, yes. I just wanted a glass of wine, but you’ve gone and upped the anti with throwing two of my favourite things in the pot: food and entertainment… mmm… food.
Naturally, when the curtain goes down on most shows, it comes up on my appetite, so these clever Charlies decided to capitalize… yes, even «play» on my hunger emotions. And it worked. And while tucking into hot pumpkin soup, fresh bread, and a beetroot and goat cheese salad, I was intensely happy. It’s a good thing they delivered… I can’t remember anything about the play other than how excited I was to eat afterward.
Bravo Curtains Up… and encore!

This pub is amazing! I’m actually really sad that it took a Unilocal event for me to find it. It’s located minutes from both the Baron’s court and West Kensington tube stations. The pub is upstairs. There are plenty of comfy couches and numerous places to sit. The drinks are reasonably priced and the food is very delicious. The theatre space is located downstairs. Its a small but intimate venue. My only issue is that its very close to the women’s toilets. So you may from time to time, get a whiff of something funky. I came here for Silence! with a friend and loved it. They have another interesting show coming in January that I’ll be sure to check out.

This is a nice looking pub. It has that old, wooden, gastro feel that is very popular at the moment. The food and drink although extensive and quality is a tad on the expensive side, although admitting £9.80 is probably the going rate for two glasses of wine in West London. What made me happy were the pies that could be purchased. They were sat on the bar under cover and the pork pie I ate was SO good.
This place has a locals feel, tinged with a creative crowd. The menu offers up a few offers such as a three course theatre meals, which I certainly intend on trying.

ORIGINAL REVIEW: The Curtain’s Up is an alright pub if you just want a drink. The atmosphere is generally quite genial and it’s rarely full on a weekend day.
However, do not — repeat: DO NOT — rely on it to be serving food at even the most sensible of times. Even if they’ve still got the menus out on the tables and signs saying that they are serving food. And don’t expect them to tell you the kitchen is closed until you go up to order. It’s happened so many times now that I just don’t go there for food any more.
UPDATE: Wowzer, The Curtain’s Up has undergone quite the refurb. The kitchen is more reliable now, although it’s a more formal dining experience and a little more expensive.

A Fantastic Art Pub with a really famous little Theatre in the basement. The pub itself reads like a who’s who of the more alternative artistic side of London (without the fat, balding accountants and bankers that have sadly now rendered most of Notting Hill redundant as a funky place to chill). This great Edwardian building with huge ceilings is cavernous inside, with seating spaced well apart so you can be assured of a little privacy. We saw a play there a few months ago and was impressed with the quality of the actors — and it was £10 to see! (Seats in the theatre a little ropey, admittedly, they look like the original Victorian wooden seats, but are probably 50’s). Bring a cushion!
Wine list could be better, come on Guys, that Pino Grigio could have been boiled up in the Chicken Hut) and no coffee, but the atmosphere and beer make up the rest.
I’d recommend this place for anyone wanting a place to hang out in West Kensington. A really cool place where locals and actors blend well — and thankfully no drunken slobs at closing time to dribble on you as you leave.

This pub must have been revamped recently as it is fantastically clean and tidy inside. Huge ceilings, chandeliers, enormous leather sofas and chairs everywhere.
There are even two halves to the pub, the light airy space near the bar, or the dark warm place near the stairs, and either place is brilliant. I thought there was a coal fire but I may have imagined it, however that’s the kind of mood it inspired. I sat here reading The God Delusion and supping a pint of Adnam’s (you drink it and lose all belief in God only joking it’s decent but the bar bloke couldn’t work the pump to save his soul).
The toilets let the pub down, i think they’re the only bit that hasn’t been done up, and the cubicle was actually out of order! Which hadn’t prevented somebody from filling it up regardless, ignoring two huge notices. That’s just bad manners.

Pub theatre. Under-​paid, under-​age actors mumbling obscenities before injecting fake class A drugs and singing a song about their mother never loving them enough. Seats so hard you wonder if the actors are torturers drawing out every last syllable of their speech to make you suffer.
Who needs it? We do! And we need it to keep going strong and keep giving young up-​coming playwrights and performers a platform to develop and experiment.
Housing the Barons Court Theatre upstairs, this slightly mangy but atmospheric pub is a cornerstone of theatre in W14. In fact, I think it’s about the only one here. Theatre, that is, there are a few pubs. Although the slightly camp, up-​beat name is a bit of a mis-​nomer. There is no ‘curtain’ and it certainly isn’t going ‘up’. A small black box is what you get.
I went to see a friend in a play here and was surprised at the quality and turnout. Sure, the actors have to change in the toilets and lurk on the stairways before making an entrance, but then squeezing past a scantily clad girl whilst trying to find your seat next to the sweatiest man in West London is an experience to cherish. Isn’t it?
The pub itself is fine if a little dingy, but I say hats off to these places and may more of them spring up. Come on folks, let’s keep the theatre scene alive in London!

In the ladies’ loos of the Curtains Up, there is a sign warning one not to speak too loudly in the occasion of the red light being illuminated. You are informed that the audience in the theatre can hear you. On the way downstairs to get there, you are presented with a mass of theatre promotional material; posters and flyers for plays, workshops, and the like.
It’s safe to say this is a pub themed around the theatre with which it shares a building.
That, alas, is all that really stands out. It’s a decent place, very large, so it never gets hideously full; mostly the crowd are young and local, and there’s an almost standoffish atmosphere. Whatever the opposite of cosy is, that’s this place. Though I have no great aversion to the place, it is entirely bland; there are no startlingly good beers on tap, nor a very wide selection, and on busy nights it tends to run out of real ale.
Actually, Curtains Up just… isn’t very good. It is acceptable. Nothing more. Nothing special.