The Bristol Flyer — Restaurant in Bristol

Spent the best part of Saturday evening here on a girls evening. Enjoyed some food and was really enjoying a gin and tonic (for a good price I might add). Until approximately 10pm when we were about to go elsewhere but given I'd been told other places were full, we decided to stay for more drinks. I proceeded to tell my own fiancee that there was room elsewhere in the pub for him and his 2 friends who he wanted drinks with (bearing in mind we were with two completely different friend groups and were not meeting up). He was about to get seated with his friends and when I walked past to greet him, the member of staff at the door then ushered my fiancee back out the pub and told him absolutely not entering now, I tried to explain we had no interest in sitting together anyway and could not get a single word in, we were treated absolutely appallingly and disrespectfully. We are near 30 years old and got treated like a bunch of ruthless students. I had just settled a rather large bill and explained this to the member of staff who proceeded to tell me "well if you have payed then you can leave now too can't you". Of course having evidently overstayed my welcome I wasn't going to spend another penny being spoken to like this and not even being allowed to speak a word or explain the situation without being shouted at. Other staff witnessed this as I walked back to my table (while apologising and still being shouted at) and should be able to account for this along with the rest of the customers. I was not once aggressive, we were not drunk and we had just enjoyed some great food. So utterly disappointing, ruined my night and any chance of me ever returning to this establishment. Shouted at and forced to leave for saying hello to my own fiancee.

EDIT (After receiving my reply) - Appreciate the effort you've made to cover your own backs as we all would however none of your statements are factually correct. If this is what has been reported to you then you need to keep your staff in check. Your lovely waitress who was actually really pleasant all evening, explained 6 people was your limit and after saying I completely understood, agreed with her and said of course I should have remembered this was the limit, I made no more reference whatsoever to them joining us.

The boys did not walk past the wait here sign (except my fiancee moving once to let two girls out of the pub that were leaving) nor did they even walk past the sanitise station to sanitise their hands. They did not get taken back to the door to see availability because they didn't walk past it but again - I appreciate your attempts to make us look ruthless.

We did not ask for a table near us - I never would have because there was in fact zero available tables anywhere near us even if I had wanted them too! The only table we asked for was the one by the front door, ironically about as far away from my table as humanly possible.

You did not "decide" to decline the table after these false events, because in the 3 seconds it took for me to walk past and you to see my face, you had already made that decision and from that moment there was nothing we could say.

I admire you using the "sticking to government guidelines" excuse for a member of your staff having a bad night. I might add I was there for 4 hours and experienced a large and loud table interacting, swapping seats and tables with a group of 4 men opposite us who they had just met that night.

Thanks for the apology, however I've no interest in the kind of empty in-sincere, patronising apology you have attempted to give.

At least be respectful and take responsibility for essentially bad timing whilst your member of staff was experiencing a grumpy,...

I appreciate in these times pubs have to close at 10pm and staff have pressure to ensure customer have left in time to shut the doors, however this does not excuse the manner in which I was told to leave. Our group was actively standing up to leave and finishing our drinks as one member of staff was asking us to leave, which we were clearly doing. He was being extremely rude and aggressive with us even though it was clear we were vacating the premises. One of the group remarked that he didn't have to be rude as we were clearly leaving (there was plenty time to spare for them to shut their doors at 10pm, we had left by 21:52). He reacted, in my opinion, extremely immaturely by shouting at the other members of staff across the bar "they're 86'd, 86 them" (hospitality slang for they're banned/ban them from the venue) repeatedly. My group was well aware of the curfue and were clock watching too, however if we had not been aware I feel like the incident would have been more infuriating and possibly confusing as his approach to asking us to leave was closer to harassment rather than simply advising of the time and explaining why we would need to vacate promptly. Not happy with the one individual of staff, the rest were lovely. I've worked in hospitality for over 10 years specifically in bars and restaurants and have never spoken to any customer in such a rude, arrogant and immature manner, nor would I let my staff speak to customers this way or expect this service from any establishment. After spending thousands of pounds in this venue over the years and always receiving great customer service, I feel let down and frankly put off from returning. Whether I'm banned or not I don't know but I will not be returning after this incident. I would normally recommend this pub as they serve decent food, have a good drinks selection and have great indoor/outdoor seating. I feel that in time's like these where the hospitality industry is struggling, it is counter productive for staff members to be failing to basic customer service and making there customers not...

I pleaded to be allowed to stay sitting on the empty table -amidst LOTS of empty tables, to eat my own lunch.

I'd only been there 1 minute. I wasn't smoking. I'm not drunk. I don't take drugs. I'm respectable looking.I'm old.

I tried explaining that I am a bit disabled and have walked far enough and wouldn't stay if lots of people suddenly appeared, but the barman would not listen at all and gave me a big lecture about how they're not a public park and they have to make money and oh woe is me we can't let people do that.

Well here's one less paying customer next time I feel like a drink in Bristol.

No wonder there's noone there.

It looked nice. But looks are definitely only skin deep.

The managers response is calculated to make me look as if I'm lying. There were three tables out of 15 occupied. I am disabled. If they want to see my blue badge, that's fine. I want my review to stay, Google. It's a normal request for disabled, elderly or pregnant women to ask food & drink places if they can rest on their premises when necessary and when they're not in anyone's way. This is the kind of situation we use to judge if a proprietor is good or bad.

I was seeing if the pub was friendly enough to warrant my loyalty and it...