Julie King
20/07/2024
Unfortunately we had quite an upsetting experience at this bar recently.
Some colleagues and I were here on Friday afternoon for after work drinks and a bit of a reunion with old colleagues when the cyber outage happened and the staff didn't deal with things well. They explained they couldn't accept card, which was of course fine, but there were inconsistencies with their approach to people being allowed to come into the venue once they'd decided to restrict entry.
At one point they locked doors and a friend of ours couldn't get back in after being outside to make a phone call. As another of our friends was leaving, I held the door open and she came back in so she could finish her drink and continue the lovely afternoon with all of us. At the same time another man came in. A female member of staff stood by the door and informed them they weren't letting anyone else in. The man said he had cash and walked on in and my friend explained she was here before and her drink was still on the table, then she walked past the staff member and myself and came in. A few moments later a female manager asked to have a word with our friend and informed her she had to leave as the member of staff from the door said our friend had pushed her, which is not at all what happened - I was stood by the door holding it open as she came in and went by us both. This was an incredibly embarrassing situation for my friend and our entire group as we were not even one finished drink in to our catch up and it made our friend out to have done something she didn't and wouldn't ever do. She dealt with it gracefully and just left as she didn't want to cause a scene, but it left the rest of us with a sour taste in our mouths. We then saw various people walk on into the bar, no questions asked, while we finished our drinks and the doors must've been unlocked. This inconsistent approach among staff just added fuel to the upset in the group and we left, but not before I spoke with a male manager expressing our disappointment with the venue after so many previously good experiences. He was incredibly reasonable and I wish he'd dealt with this matter from the beginning to be honest.
This bar was once a great local place to go for casual after work drinks and snacks, but it's sadly now been tainted and we won't be returning.