Emily H.
Yelp
I really wanted to be able to give this place more than three stars. I'm not in this area very often, so when I was picking up my DRESS (I'll try to avoid mentioning wedding things...) yesterday and was very much in the mood for a cocktail, this seemed like the perfect place.
I'd checked out the cocktail list online and (sad, I know) had already zoomed in on a very tasty sounding strawberry and elderflower gin fizz. It was disappointing to discover that the actual cocktail list and the online one were different, but oh well. I decided on a cucumber and pear one which the incredibly nice bartender made right up for me. As he was helping me, the waitress came up and ordered a diet coke for a customer. He (rightfully so) continued with my drink and transaction, but she apparently expected him to stop serving the customer standing right there, and get her drink immediately. She stood next to me and nagged about the drink until my transaction was finished and I was able to get away from her. Right away, points off.
We went to take a seat in a relatively empty bar, only to discover that over 50% of the tables were reserved. This created more of an issue as the evening progressed as it resulted in tons of people unable to sit down, and tons of empty "reserved" tables. As a bar, I would suggest reserving only a few select tables on a Friday, and not just accept every reservation that comes your way.
We decided to get a bite and settled on the nachos, though the flat breads sounded fantastic and unusual for a bar menu. The nachos were a decent portion for £6, and had a very generous amount of dips and a massive load of jalapenos on them, which is hard to find but great. I finally tucked into my drink which was tasty and refreshing but was served with a huge amount of ice which diluted the flavour, and was in a daquiri glass. I have no idea if that's the standard in fizz glass but I kind of felt like a 16 year old girl with my huge girly looking cocktail. I felt like it should have umbrellas and sparklers in it or something.
As I finished my drink and the nacho plate was just about licked clean, we attempted to order more. You know when you're somewhere with table service and you feel like, despite the fact that the wait staff are rushing around, they're not actually doing anything and in fact they seem to have blinders on when it comes to customers who are trying to get their attention? It was ridiculous. It took ages for me to get another drink, though thereafter it came immediately, ages to get the bill and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagggggggggggggeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssssssssss to get our change for the bill, which was especially ridiculous because there were tons of people who would have loved our table and we just had to sit there waiting. We had time to get the bill, get our money and pay, my friend went to the toilet, she came back and we chatted, then I went to the toilet, I came back and we chatted (this time about what they would do if we just left), until FINALLY our money was taken and change brought. Never an apology and not even eye contact or a smile. The tip had been progressively dwindling the whole time we waited, until there was just nothing left.
I would come back here because I had an enjoyable experience, but ooof man do they need to sort out their waitresses. The bartenders were great, the food was tasty, the drink was (girly but) nice, but the waitresses were shocking.