Ordered (and paid for) 2 cocktails. The first surprise was that the bartender had never heard of their cocktail of the month - I had to show it to him on the first page of the drinks menu, and talk him through it.
We then waited..... and waited. After 20 minutes we inquired as to what had happened to our order. It was "lost in translation" apparently. That seems to be what hipsters say instead of "I forgot" or "sorry". I repeated our order, including the clarification that their cocktail of the month was a real thing.
Not such a big deal - that can happen I suppose, although there were only 5 other people in the venue at the time (1 of whom seemed to be a friend of the bartender), with 2 staff, so they weren't run off their feet. (We had already wondered why there were a mass of dirty glasses stacked on one table when the staff had so little to do).
The next part certainly was disappointing. I have worked in hospitality, and if I had made such a mistake I would apologise (obviously) and be fairly swift about correcting it.
What we watched instead was the 2 staff chat to each other, then one had a lengthy conversation with another patron/friend, then one wandered off, then the other..... One reappeared at the bar and served a couple of other customers.....
My friends and I started wondering what to do next, and agreed that it had reached the point where we were curious to see just how comprehensively hopeless they could be. From now on, when someone asked "what's the worst service you have ever received?" we would have an easy answer.
40 minutes after placing the order a couple of drinks were placed on the bar. Could these be ours? Hard to say, he wandered off again, and the drinks sat there unclaimed. Eventually someone deigned to deliver them, again without any apology or explanation.
My friend said to the waiter that he had also worked in hospitality for many years and that this was about as bad an example of customer service as he had ever seen, and we would be writing it up on review sites. The reply? A profuse apology? Heck no. He said: "Whatever. It's all good".
No, it's not all good. It is all really, really bad. We had been planning to eat there, but of course that had become a laughable proposition. We decamped to J&M bar down at Angel Place which was excellent in all the ways that The Swinging Cat was awful. My advice: go there (or anywhere else) first. This place is a very expensive way to feel insulted. read more