Faulty Towers The Dining Experience Review

AD – These tickets for Faulty Towers The Dining Experience were gifted and discounted in exchange for this review

Fawlty Towers is one of the BBC’s most iconic shows. Starring John Cleese, Connie Booth, Prunella Scales and Andrew Saches, Fawlty Towers follows hotel owner, Basil Fawlty, as he stumbles through everyday life trying to run his hotel with his long-suffering wife, Sybil and less-than-perfect staff Manuel and Polly. Faulty Towers The Dining Experience is a glorious tribute to this classic.

With the first episode airing in 1975, it’s safe to say that Fawlty Towers has stood the test of time. Although some of the jokes within the sitcom would certainly get an eyebrow raise these days, the majority of the show is still hilariously funny, quick and witty and just down-right ridiculous. And we LOVE it.

Faulty Towers The Dining Experience is a tribute to this classic show, where actors playing Basil, Sybil and Manuel are serving you your dinner and trying to make the evening run smoothly. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t.

This is an interactive experience, with 70% of the show being entirely improvised by the incredibly talented actors. If you’re looking for a quiet dinner, this is not it. And you definitely have to be prepared to be spoken to and joked with throughout the performance!

Faulty Towers The Dining Experience was a great evening and for any Fawlty Towers fans, it’s an absolute MUST do. I’m going to break down the evening into different parts and go into a little more detail about each and apart from myself, my guests and the actors, out of respect for the other diners and their privacy, I have tried my best to cover up their faces in the photos.

The venue of Faulty Towers The Dining Experience:

Faulty Towers The Dining Experience currently takes place in The President Hotel in London. This venue is a stone’s throw from Russell Square tube station, so there’s very little walking involved to get to the venue from the tube. Russell Square is on the Piccadilly Line, so it’s right in central London and easy to get to.

From what we saw of the hotel, it’s a nice venue. We went and had a drink in the hotel bar before the show which was absolutely lovely. The room that the performance took place was the restaurants dining room, so that was also very nice, clean and a great space for this type of event.

The actors

The cast of Faulty Towers The Dining Experience does change every so often, so if you were to book this yourself, I couldn’t guarantee it would be the same cast but I have no doubt that they’re all absolutely fantastic.

For us, we had Dan Wood playing Basil, Leigh Kelly playing Manuel and Laura Sheppard playing Sybil. The acting of all three was absolutely superb – they got the mannerisms of the characters down perfectly and their voices were almost identical. 

Dan Wood playing Basil was the absolute stand-out for me on this particular evening. I genuinely forgot I wasn’t looking at John Cleese at some points of the show! Leigh Kelly playing Manuel had me in stitches, even getting his silly walk and run perfectly around the restaurant!

The performance

The performance is what you’re going for when you go to Faulty Towers The Dining Experience. If you’re not familiar with Fawlty Towers, then I think you would still enjoy it, but you wouldn’t quite get that same sprinkle of magic from the performance than if you were familiar with the sketches from the show.

The performance was 70% improvised and 30% scripted. The scripted parts were excellent, as they took some of the most famous parts from the show and effortlessly welded them together into their own storyline. Of course, the rat had to feature, as well as the infamous horse betting slip scene.

With it being improvised, you really don’t know what to expect. They play on the guests they have in on the night so every night will be different. The actors are SO brilliant at what they do and so funny. Absolutely nothing was forced, and they obviously stayed perfectly in character throughout the entire evening, whether it was scripted or not.

The food

Okay so the one thing I would probably mark this experience down on is the food itself. Like I said, you’re not *really* coming for the food but you are getting a 3-course dinner whilst you’re there.

The starter was a broccoli soup and a bread roll (which they did a sketch with beforehand which was very funny) and it was nice but certainly nothing special. As we were there on a Sunday we had a small roast dinner, with roast chicken, vegetables, small, cubed potatoes and a Yorkshire pud.

The main course was definitely the worst of the three. The chicken was nice but there was a bit too much of it and not enough vegetables and potatoes for my preference. The veggies were a little cold when they came out and the Yorkshire pud was a little tough as well. The raspberry cheesecake for dessert was REALLY good however, so top marks for that.

Conclusion + where to get tickets to Faulty Towers The Dining Experience

If you love Fawlty Towers, I think this an absolute must. It’s a rip-roaringly fun night out and if there’s a group of you, even better. This would make a real treat for someone’s birthday (Sybil will make a point of telling everyone it’s your birthday though!) or a special occasion.

And one of the best things is that the whole family can enjoy it. Considering the time in which Fawlty Towers aired, grandparents can also enjoy this super funny event!

Tickets will set you back £65.00 each for off-peak or £75.00 for a peak-time performance (such as Friday night). They do a few discounts, like early bird discounts and discounts for concessions and students, so it’s worth looking out for those. You can find all ticket prices on their website here.

You can also find Faulty Towers The Dining Experience on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Have you been to Faulty Towers The Dining Experience? Did you enjoy Fawlty Towers when it was on TV?

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