King's Head Pub — Restaurant in Winnipeg

** update - we stuck it out and finally made it to the front of the line at 12am! 🤯 a few of us in line had to start policing people trying to cut in because we had all been waiting way too long to let that keep happening. They didn’t listen and continued to stand in front, thankfully staff finally told them to go to the end. 2 hours later unfortunately.

PLEASEE find a better system! I know it’s not easy to manage a big group of people, but If the line was roped off it would have been SO much easier for staff to monitor who was cutting in, rather than trying to tell a group of 80 drunk people to line up in 2’s over and over 😩 the real kicker was that when we finally got upstairs, we saw that there was a lot of space for more people up there. Unless the floor and how much weight it can support is a concern, there should have been at least 20 more people that went upstairs when we did. I’ve seen the Kings Head PACKED upstairs on numerous occasions. What gives?! Felt frustrated leaving there tonight. Too bad 😔

Writing this review while standing in line to get upstairs at the King’s Head. I’ve waited in line to get into the Kings Head many times in my life and it’s always worth it. I’ve also waited in line to get upstairs at the Kings Head as well, but this year has been different. My friends and I arrived at 10pm, possibly one of the earliest times I’ve gotten to the bar. Paid the $5 cover and got in line to go upstairs. It’s 11:30pm now and there are still 30+ people ahead of us.. it doesn’t help that no one is regulating the people cutting in line as they come in the front door (groups of 5+ people at a time) which ended up being 80+ people that went up before us.

A few minutes ago we found out that there’s a second line you can stand in to go up the back set of stairs, but the catch is you pay an extra $20… that was disheartening to hear. Why not warn customers that their $5 cover, only gets them on the 1st floor (unless they want to spend their whole evening in line) and that it’s actually not considered enough $ to prioritize those people going upstair?

I’m sorry, but I can’t justify $25 to get a fast pass to go upstairs at the Kings Head, but I did however buy drinks while standing in line, unlike the new patrons of the Kings Head who so disrespectfully cut in line and than proceeded to spend no money on drinks while in line.

I Hope to see something improve with this process otherwise it might be time to find a new pub to frequent as no one I know want to go out on a Saturday night to have their patience tested and miss the bands we looked forward to seeing play. This used to be one of the best places to get out and dance to awesome live music, now I find it’s a spot to wait in lines 🤦🏻‍♀️

Ps. Last time my group waited an hour + in line and when we got close to the front the girl working the stairs admitted she had lost count.. which was very apparent when we finally made it up and it was super sparse. It was very disappointing as we had come to see the Solutions play (one of our favourite bands) and half the young crowd upstairs couldn’t care less about the songs they were playing 😔

Ive never written a negative review and I tried not to sound like a Karen while writing this review because I truly do love this bar and have spent more weekends in my 30 years here than I have anywhere else in Winnipeg, but I’m sad that this might be the end of the Kings Head era. Unless you show up at 9-9:30pm, don’t be surprised if you spend half your night in line unless they figure out a better...

March.4th/2023…What an awful experience. Paid for a group of people to get in which wasn’t a problem, it was only after about 2-3 hours of being there and paying for food and drinks. We stepped outside for fresh air and after heading back inside there was a new girl wearing a construction hat telling us we are not aloud back in due to wearing “unacceptable” clothing.. we explained that we have already been there for hours and had stamps on our hands to re enter. We ended up asking to speaking to a manager. The guy who came (Chris) which I believe is also the owner came out was also nothing but rude about the entire situation saying that he kicks “people like us” out all the time and he didn’t need our business as he has enough paying customers…. I immediately felt like there was some discrimination going on. We told him we are paying customers and there no reason for this. He continued disregard anything we said. There was no exact explanation to why we were treated this way so we ended up leaving. I would be careful when going to this place, apparently they make quick decisions on who they want there. Also the place was a bit a mess, floors are dirty and slippery with split drinks all over and the bartenders upstairs had bad attitudes. I have never been treated like this anywhere else in the city. what an awful way to end off a great night.

This is to respond to the owners reply:

Its 2023, you can’t discriminate against something someone was wearing, the staff was rude, and we didn’t appreciate the way it was approached.

1.Why were not told this before being aloud in? we paid to be in there did we not? No refund offered. 2.The girl was rude and treated the situation very unprofessionally. She needs to be reviewed on customer service. 3.The owner was a complete jerk about it FROM THE START, which resulted in us being offend, any person would react the same way. I said right the owner that this was wrong, and he didn’t seem to care just stood there telling us to leave. Remember “ you don’t need our services “ “ you have line up’s of us” 4.There were other customers with similar “hate” clothing and to be clear There was nothing on the clothing that even stated anything about Hating anything? Its support clothing from a local club…… We at no problems with this attending the jets game.. this is personally decision made by the owner. 3.A customer should never have to remove any type of clothing especially after being there for hours. Its not our fault you didn’t disclose this from the start. Half of what you are stating is incorrect. I am the partner and I was not rude until I heard the way the owner was speaking to us, it was disgusting. I do not drink alcohol. I knew exactly what was going on. You need to educate your staff and have a policy stating that this “type” clothing is not aloud. You are a business owner and no matter how upset a customer is, you are in the wrong. We were treated poorly by both the girl who was in the construction hat and the owner Chris.

There are 2 sides to every story, and unfortunately your establishment treated it VERY poorly and unprofessionally.

I can see in pervious reviews that the Owner has a bad attitude. This is bad for...

Me and some buddies went there the other night and were severely disappointed with the qualities of drinks that we ordered. The coke they use as mix was flat, as well the orange juice they used for mix had to have been from the back of the fridge or expired. I initially asked the bar tender for something with vodka that's fruity, I wasn't a fan of what she gave me, and could only stomach about two sips of it before I concluded that it was undrinkable, I thought oh well that's on me for leaving it up to interpretation not everybody has the same taste buds. So, I went up again and this time asked for a vodka and orange juice, much to my surprise the bartender gave me what appeared to be the same drink as before, after a quick taste I confirmed indeed it was. the orange juice was so far expired/bad in general that it was completely unrecognizable as orange juice, and I had initially thought the bartender had used bad pineapple juice as the mix. That as well as the beer they served being deemed undrinkable by the beer enthusiasts of our group signified to us that this place is pretty bottom of the barrel. We had only been there for about 15-20 mins and decided there were significantly better pubs and bars to spend our time and money at. The real kicker was the 3 girls taking the entrance fees at the entrance/exit I had stopped to talk to one to see about the chances of getting refunded our entry fee as we weren't happy with our service and had been there for such a short time span. I wasn't expecting to get a refund it would have been nice, but I was more just wanting to bring it to the staff's attention that they were serving drinks that would not pass food and drink safety regulations. both sides seemed to be respectful, and it appeared that she was actually taking the feedback in, until she rolled her eyes at me and laughed at the other two girls and proceeded to attempt to mock me by saying that if the orange juice was expired it would be better because it would have been fermented... Absolute masterclass in customer service, sidestep the complaint, attempt to make fun of and belittle the paying customer to impress your coworkers, and turn me and my friends off of ever coming back to this bottom of the barrel establishment. This place can't make the most basic drinks right, and they have terrible customer service. We never tried the food but if it was held to the same standards as everything else in the place, we probably would've gotten food poisoning or worse. Unacceptable!

Edit: honestly wasn't expecting a reply from the owner, but its good my feedback made it up the chain. I'm very happy you have taken my criticisms and feedback seriously. you do have a point about being more adventurous with my drink options, I'll still hold on to that even the most basic of drinks should reflect the quality of the establishment that makes them. However the fact that you took the time to comment in an intellectual and constructive manner to my concerns shows me that you care about your buisness and the customers that come there. I'm open to coming back to see what else you guys have to offer, and if it's a great time I'll be sure to change my review to...