Murphy's Irish Pub — Restaurant in Western Australia

On 10/04/2023 at around 3PM I entered the pub and asked a female staff member if a specific table was reserved. She said "no" and so i sat down and waited for my family members who were parking the car. They arrived and the same lady immediately came over and said: "you need to be off this table by five." It was not yet 3PM. I am not paraphrasing any of her words she said. This is a word-for-word quote.

Then my sister grabbed a dinner menu from the bar and the lady came over and snatched it from her hands saying "we're not using this menu right now, only the snack menu so I'll take that." And then five minutes later returned to snatch our snack menus and rudely replace them with the menus she just took off my sister.

As my family is predominantly people of colour , we were appalled and embarrassed by this racist display by this rude staff member. And yes, it was racism. I am a white passing individual and as I entered the venue alone, she greeted me with a smile and treated me nicely. From when my family arrived to when we left she did not smile or even make eye contact once, and as a cafe manager myself, I was watching her happily serve other WHITE customers, cracking jokes and smiling. When she bought out our meals: "two roasts". Again, I am not rephrasing or paraphrasing or omitting anything - that is word for word what she said before putting them down and storming off. When serving other tables: "Good evening we have your roast meals."

I would find it embarrassing for my staff members to be treating our paying customers like this. There is no excuse , it was disgusting and embarrassing. Absolutely appalling behaviour.

I don't want anything other than for the pub to take accountability and discipline this staff member. I watched her happily serve all the other WHITE tables but rudely putting things down on our table and walking past purposely avoiding eye contact. It was honestly disgusting and Murphy's needs to take accountability for how utterly racist this staff member was to my family. Extremely disappointing.

Upon leaving, my mother told one of the nice employees (a gentleman with a lanyard behind the bar) that our food was delicious - and she also pointed out the staff member in question- so they know which one I'm talking about.

Although the food was delicious, until Murphy's addresses this issue and works with their staff members on sensitivity training then steer clear, we left feeling unsafe, uncomfortable, embarrassed, humiliated , and "less than" the other white guests! I have never been so disgusted by behavior in my life.

And don't you dare try to say it was "just a bad day" - she served every other white customer with respect and a smile. It was humiliating and her behaviour was intentionally targeted towards our table and our table alone. Never...

🚨 NOT KID FRIENDLY IF YOU HAVE AN ADOPTED CHILD THAT DOES NOT LOOK LIKE YOU. 🚨

If -10 was an option that would be my rating.

Drove down from Joondalup to take my partner and her adopted daughter (who is a person of colour) to see the Mandurah Christmas trail lights, got here a tad too early so we decide to quench our thirst and pop in to the closest pub.

Unfortunately our experience here was absolutely appalling;

We walked in and I was served by a mediocre bartender who did not take interest in her service skills and just asked “what are you getting”. After this I was asked if I was the guardian of the child, I said “no, she is” and pointed to my partner. The bartender then asked my partner for ID and served her. We sat outside as we were made to feel like outsiders on our first arrival in 32 degree heat. Alas, my partner and I talked and said maybe we were just being silly about feeling like outsiders so we went inside to sit in A/C.

As soon as I sat down a blonde woman (possibly security) asks my partner for proof of guardian ship over the child before she even sat down. Gob smacked my partner questions the woman about the relevance of this. The “security” woman then says “surely you have court papers or something. It’s my license on the line and she needs to have a guardian to be in here”. Please note my partner is a 25 year old woman who has more than enough authority over the child, being the soul guardian for her since she was 18, by law.

My partner then sat down and told me all of this. Less than 5 minutes go by and we see a woman enter the pub with 3 children, not once was she asked to prove guardianship over these kids. No doubt none of the other people inside the venue were asked to prove this as well.

My partner then went up to the bar and asked for the manager. This man then tells my partner “yeah well there’s nothing that I can do, don’t you have government payments or something to prove it?” Assuming she is on government support. We were absolutely disgusted. Never has any pub we have been in discriminated against us like this. It is obvious this woman is a racist, as my partner is a white woman and her adopted daughter is a person of colour. Who are you to ask to prove guardianship over a child that obviously is under a responsible adults supervision.

Nonetheless, we walked 2 minutes down the road to The Brighton Hotel and asked about their policies and if we had to prove guardianship. They said “of course not, that would be a lot of work. We would only ask for guardianship proof if we see a child roaming around by themselves and a adult claims them.”

You made us feel less than everyone else. Do...

Disgusted by the staff and security here last night. They targeted our group all night. We were a group of 12 people who were catching up in the seated area. We were first told to keep our voices down while chatting....in a bar! Who quietly talks in a noisy pub?? The music came on and we were dancing and having fun, in between drinking and chatting, my daughter was approached by a staff member to put her shoes on ( I'd taken mine off and changed into flats, they were my shoes, I was in the toilet at the time) which were under our table. She answered the staff saying her shoes weren't off, the staff member who mustve had difficulty in seeing her feet which in fact had shoes on, just glared in response & walked off. My daughter was asked to put her mask on while she was drinking, in a pub were everyone who was seated who were eating and drinking were unmasked. We were seated at the end of then dance floor, less than a quarter of a metre, up and down dancing. Unmasked while drinking but masked while dancing. My daughter was targeted again, security asking her to put her mask on, which she had a on, while multiple people on the dance floor not keeping their masks in place but never approached. She was then asked to leave, I asked why and I was asked to leave too. The sheer lack of knowledge and understanding from the bar staff and security is unreal, if you are going to police the patrons successfully during covid do it properly and not target a group. After leaving, the manager who after listening to what we had to say over ruled his security staff, said we could return. We didn't and will never return or recommend anyone to go there. The way these people speak to the public is shocking. The manager shouting in our faces when we wanted an explanation on how they handled this situation was unacceptable. You should be ashamed of yourselves and go and get some proper hospitality and...