Such a shame......
Great food, good drinks selection, terrible duty/assistant manager/security!
I phoned ahead in June to arrange us booking the back/cinema room for myself and two friends birthday celebrations on July 9th. Spoke to a very friendly man named Dave/Daniel (I forget as he was engaging and polite yet casual and all went well over the phone) I asked if there was a system to play our own music in this separate room and he assured me there was a 'stereo system' we could plug into and even a DVD player we could use if we liked! Great so all done booked from 7pm on the 9th.
Upon arrival we ordered our drinks acknowledged that we had arrived and duly headed to the back room to have a look.
We were not accompanied and there was a bit of confusion as to how we would connect to the stereo to listen to our music (we're talking indie classics not Slayer) but we figured it out put the stereo to. Low volume while we sat down to look at the menu for our dinner options before our friends arrived.
2 minutes later the bar manager/duty manager came into the room without a welcome or introduction and demanded to know who had set up their iPod to the stereo and why?! I said hello, yes that's my player, I was told when I made the booking that this was fine, she then demanded to know the name of the manager I had booked with, again, unsure I mentioned David or Daniel, at which point she said no it's not allowed and disconnected my player and shut the cupboard and then stormed out - pretty embarrassing really!
I went to the bar and apologised as I would never have tampered with the stereo had I been told otherwise, the lady managing said it's important that the theme of music be the same throughout the bar, I said no problem but once again was confused by their mixed messages!
Anyway, we then ordered more drinks and food (remarkably good food by the way) and sat down to enjoy ourselves as more friends arrived, at times through the evening some of our party closed the door to the back room which said bar manager seemed very annoyed by and had to open fully each time, (this I can understand, and if it had been explained earlier wouldn't of happened)
Anyway this is becoming an essay but generally, we were treated badly from the start here we generally had a lovely time, it's a busy bar so top marks to the bar staff for their skills! But it was soured by one very uncommunicative and unhappy member of staff/management, topped off by being screamed at by said lady to leave come 1pm, followed by the security (without announcement) wrenching a drink from a young female member of our party's hand before explaining that drinks weren't allowed outside, very aggressive behaviour! In summation it's just a real shame that the management and security are letting down an otherwise fine establishment!
(By the way I never do this review thing but am so saddened by our mistreatment, all I can say is there goes 20 plus local customers who vow never to return!)
Yours - Ian Wilson read more