Bartholomew's — Restaurant in Newcastle-Maitland

My close friend and I visited Babylon on Friday night for a work function and we were absolutely appalled and shocked with the way we were treated by staff. My friend had just flown in from Brisbane to see Newcastle and come to this event and to say we were mortified is an understatement. You see my close friend and I went to the bathroom together, we were chatting and fixed our makeup as normal women do... as we walked out of the bathroom a member of staff came up to us and falsely accused us of taking drugs in the bathroom. My friend and I have never been so humiliated in our lives. as you can understand we were at a WORK event, we’d only had 4 drinks and to be accused of this is just unfathomable as we had most definitely NOT taken drugs. You see, my close friend has just hit her milestone of 2 years cancer free and to even think that we would be putting illegal drugs into our system is incomprehensible. To make matters worse when we calmly told him that there must have been some type of mistake as there is absolutely no way we would be doing that, he refused to listen then walked into our work function, continued to make a scene and tell bar staff to cut us from the bar. I’m am so incredibly embarrassed and upset by what has happened and I just can’t understand how a male bar attendant who said he was the manager, was so sure we’re doing illegal things and yet there would be plenty of women in that bathroom who would be able to tell the staff that they were completely wrong. I offered for the staff to look through my bag, or even call the police to test me for drugs as I did not want to leave the function however we were rudely refused and told to leave. I would not recommend this establishment to anyone, especially not for...

Bartholemews has been one of those places in Newcastle that I've wanted to visit for a long time now & has an outstanding reputation.

I had always thought it was a venue purely for whiskey advocates & the bourelesque shows but I was proven wrong.

This historic building has always intrigued me, which I'm told, used to be a theatre. You can easily recognise this once inside, looking around which is quite grand & Victorian.

Their whiskey range amongst other favourites take pride of place among shelves, above shelves behind the bar...Infact, at first glance, it looks more like a library, with a rolling ladder to climb & reach the highest products, but instead of books, there's bottles!!

When you step in to this place, you feel like you've been transported back in time to New Orleans deep south, especially when they have Jazz playing.

It gives off Gatsby & Babylon vibes which is quite fitting considering it's former name before Bartholemews was Babylon.

I was always intrigued & in two minds as to whether this would be a place for me, but now I've finally experienced this Newcastle extraordinary icon, I can't wait to go back for more.

Full credit to the staff here, for their product knowledge, approachability, friendliness & customer service.

Bartholemews is truly one of Newcastle's secret treasures.

Lastly, if you've a soft spot for Bailey's, try "Sheep Dog Peanut Butter Whiskey" Their Martini Expressos are also...

We had our (secret) wedding reception dinner at Bartholomews on Friday the 5th of April.

There was a group of 20 of us. Originally we booked upstairs but after learning there was no toilets upstairs, we asked if we could move down stairs as we had grandparents coming to the dinner.

They happily said they could set us up off to the side in one of the corner booths. They called a week before to confirm our booking and if we were still happy with the layout we discussed.

We were struggling to find a venue that would host us, as we had a micro wedding with our immediate family. However, Bartholomews happily took our booking.

The food was great, the drinks were great. We had an open tab for our guests, which again wasn’t an issue. All the food arrived hot & together.

Most of us ordered the pork belly & prosciutto wrapped steak. We ordered a mix of entrees for all our guests and they were all fantastic too.

Cocktails were on point, every one enjoyed all their drinks.

The management team were fantastic and enthusiastic & great at communicating.

Thanks for accomodating our requests, everything was great and we will...