We frequent the gym next door & this place used to be our usual go-to place every few weeks for after-gym drinks & a meal on the odd Tuesday night.

Our little gym group of friends slowly grew from around 8 people to 12 people & whilst we usually got a table (as Tuesday nights is one of the quietest nights of the week), we reached a point where it was getting too risky & one night we were turned away as they couldn't accommodate all of us. The next time we decided to do the smart thing & make a booking ahead of time (!) however, unless we all committed to paying for a banquet, we were told we couldn't book a table!! Like what?!

So we went elsewhere.....

That was 18 months ago. We have decided to try our luck with this place & we were hopeful that they may have changed their "rules", especially on a Tuesday night for bookings.

I called them today to see if we could make a booking but of course the answer is still "no.". The person I spoke to explained they need to charge for the banquet as their kitchen is small and they like to know, in advance, these larger food orders upon the booking & also they like to be able to get all the meals out at once apparently, (even when we have been here before we've never had all of our meals brought out at the same time... Scattered up to 40 plus minutes apart)

It just seems as though this company does not care about its customers.-everyone knows Tuesday nights are the quietest so I'm really unsure of why they don't want our business.

The person I spoke to on the phone was also quite rude when I did mention to him I would be writing this (honest) review. He said the terms and conditions of the banquet and larger bookings are on their website and if people can read English themselves they can get it from the website! No, I think this information should also come from a review. Because it's reviews that create the change in your business. And change is what you need!!

He also continually cut me off and wouldn't let me speak. Absolutely not ok when it's a customer calling. He said, "I've given you the rules now you need to accept them. This is our home & our rules. I wouldn't walk into your home & leave my shoes on if your rules to remove the shoes." Absolutely childish communication.

We certainly will never attempt to return here and will be advising others the same. If I were you I would also avoid it.

Edited to add: clearly you can see the unprofessionalism of this company by the defensive nature of the 'manager' who has responded to my review.

Completely misconstruing my phone call and certainly patronizing both over the phone and also, as is evident in his reply. He calls my review inaccurate and then tries to make up a story to frame themselves to look good...

*"staff were listening to the person on the phone and couldn’t believe how composed the person was after taking a beating for 10’mins straight"...

I'm not sure how I could give a 'beating' (!) to someone for 10 minutes straight when the call only went for just over 7 minutes.... Pic attached... Whose inaccurate?

Please stay away from this unprofessional business who think they are better than the customer and completely dismiss the customer concerns and complaints.

FYI- saying something like the following in your reply would have been seen as being a professional and reasonable response (as you can see by what I would have said - you can probably guess that I work in customer relations)-

"We are incredibly sorry that you feel this way and whilst we did explain the reasons for us not be able able to service your group to you over the phone, we understand the frustration and upset this must cause you and your group. We take pride in being able to offer the service that we do here at Couch Potato but we understand we cannot please everybody. I hope you understand we have taken your comments seriously but we know we are unable to change anything for your now. However, if we ever do change our rules in the future then we would be more than happy to welcome you and your group back to our venue"