Revolution Cambridge — Restaurant in Cambridge

I came to this venue last night to celebrate my best friend’s birthday, and it was, without a doubt, the most infuriating, shocking, and downright dreadful experience I’ve ever had. As a cocktail bar manager myself, I couldn’t believe how badly things were handled from start to finish.

The very first thing the manager said to us upon arrival was, “oh your the karaoke I forgot about you, You’re 5 minutes late, so we will not be able to add that time back on.” Not only was this rude and dismissive, but it set the tone for what would turn out to be an utterly miserable evening.

We were then dragged up five flights of stairs to the karaoke room, which, while nice and decently decorated, was completely overshadowed by the abysmal service. The manager was unreasonably rude, barking orders at us from the moment we arrived. He actually told us that we were not to go behind the bar under any circumstances, and even pointed out that we were on camera, as though we were going to start rifling through the liquor shelves. Look, I get that people in Cambridge can be a bit wild, but he could have used a much nicer tone there was no need for the condescension and hostility. His behavior made it feel like we were being treated like criminals just for being there.

It was clear he was stressed and, to make matters worse, understaffed. But the reason for that? He admitted that he had forgotten about our booking, which is why the staff situation was so chaotic. How he could be so disorganized and then take it out on us is beyond me.

After we were dragged up those five flights, the manager then informed us that we couldn’t order drinks upstairs and would have to go all the way back down to the bar. A simple heads-up would’ve been nice before the exhausting climb, but no just more frustration piled on top of the mess.

4 of us went downstairs to place our drink order (including the birthday girl), while I stayed upstairs trying to survive the appallingly wailing of my friends absolutely ruining classics. After about 30min I looked over and realised there was only about 20min left on the karaoke and the birthday girl hasn’t been in the room the whole time. So like anyone would I went downstairs to see what was taking so long. To my horror my friends were all stood at the bar waiting. Not a drink in sight. So the boys stayed and waited for the drinks while myself and my friend proceeded back up to the top of the building. The drinks took over 30 minutes to arrive, and by the time they finally came, we were already 45 minutes into the karaoke session. To make matters worse, when the drinks arrived, they were all wrong. We had ordered pitchers, but instead, we got individual cocktails. Not only was this a rip-off (considering the pitchers were only a pound more), but the fact that it took so long for the manager to make them made me seriously question his competence. I was so gutted for my friends absolutely ruining baring in mind she paid £50, £25 per half hour just to miss most of it due to sheer disregard and chaos.

ON TOP OF THAT, we noticed another staff member dressed in the I heart vodka uniform awkwardly hovering around the tables near us, as if unsure what to do. She then knelt down on a bench and proceeded to hang out with a group of her friends, who started throwing ice on the floor. This was not only unprofessional, but it was hard to ignore given how poorly everything else was going. It was clear that the staff were far more focused on socializing than actually doing their jobs. As we were walking out we noticed her behind the bar so she was definitely on shift.

To top it all off, the birthday girl had a 25% off voucher that we don’t believe was ever applied to our bill. Honestly, at that point, we were so defeated by how poorly everything had been handled that we just finished our drinks and left. We then went to Vinyl, where they actually remembered our booking, treated us with respect, and provided an experience that was EVERYTHING this place...

Essentially over promising and massively under performing. Booked bottomless brunch for a hen do. Menu looked good with a great choice of cocktails, and bride was told we would be booked on the upstairs outdoor terrace, and they would make it special with extra decor, etc. Arrived to a disinterested server who had no knowledge of the upstairs terrace booking, so the bride had to show the email with who had confirmed, and eventually, they managed to get us a table. However, no extra decor as promised and table was pretty grim with multiple holes in the seat.

Come to drinks.... the cocktails were pretty awful and heavily watered down. I'm probably the least picky person you will find and tend to reasonably like everything, but even for me, this was pretty bad. Noted on another table that clearly weren't doing the brunch package who had some of the same cocktails as us... their drinks just looked so much more vibrant. We had an aperol spritz and a dissarono fizz before giving up and switching to prosseco. Which was OK, just standard. Servers were very friendly, but service was pretty slow, and we had to chase up orders a few times. They did accommodate though bringing us a bottle of prosseco rather than individual glasses which was appreciated.

On the food...again not usually picky but this just felt very basic. I had a veggie full English portions were on the small side and everything just tasted a bit dry and unloved amd bland. Someone's avocado on toast was yellow around the edges, and again, everything just felt very lacking on quality. We actually ordered some chips off the normal menu, which was TEN times better, leaving the impression they really do reserve the dregs for the bottomless brunches.

As we ordered another prosseco, we were told seconds after we had to leave the table for another booking . Aware this is common at restaurants, but we weren't told ahead that we would have to vacate the table at a certain time. Only that the bottomless brunch had a time limit, not the table itself. We asked if we could be seated at another table back downstairs, but they wouldn't help, and were told we had to take our drinks down with us and sort it out ourselves. Luckily we did find another table but by this point we were pretty fed up. Bride compared to the front of house lady from the beginning and again met with the same disinterested attitude. Eventually said she would send the manager over to us. No one came so we had to chase and told he was busy, and we had to call CS following Monday. Eventually, we did get hold of him...he was nice enough and said they wouldn't do a refund but said we could order some drinks FOC. Had a round of tequilas and then left at this point.

We ran into some girls in the loo who were complaining to us about the food and drinks as well.

For a hen this was a pretty awful experience. Food and cocktails were sub standard and customer service was rubbish and just overall vibe that they really didn't care.

Perhaps if ordering off of main menu this would have been a better experience but unless major changes are implemented DO NOT ORDER BOTTOMLESS BRUNCH...and if any promises are made over email don't expect them to hold to this without a fight or for them to care in the event something...

What a shame. After emailing directly and receiving no response I will leave this here. Even tho looking at the reviews they clearly ignore the bad ones and only reply to nice ones.

Myself and a group of friends visited for my birthday on 12th November for a booking in their karaoke room, admittedly, due to trains we were 5 minutes late. We were met by a blunt “manager” at the bar, who stated he had forgotten about my booking, but was quick to tell us we were late and wouldn’t be getting out money back. Not a great start but fine.

Took us up the many flights of stairs to the karaoke room, where we were then told, once up there; if we wanted drinks we had to go back to the ground floor. Because they didn’t have the staff to man the bar which was in the room, because they had forgotten about my booking.

So now we’re 10 minutes into the hour karaoke, which cost £50. Myself and a few others went down to get drinks, we ordered 4 pitchers, 1 beer pitcher, and 1 cocktail. £67 with a 25% off voucher, fab.

20 minutes later, drinks are still not finished, so I head upstairs, and another 15 minutes later, my friends come up with the drinks. 1 pitcher of cocktail, 1 beer pitcher, and 3 measly glasses of cocktail, instead of the 3 pitchers of cocktails I had ordered. Looking at the drinks menu, 2 cocktails cost £1 less than a pitcher, so clearly the man behind the bar couldn’t be bothered to make what we had ordered, and did his own thing instead.

I might add for the supposed “manager” on shift, for him to be telling customers what an awful place it is to work, and how little he gets paid, not only is completely unprofessional, but clearly is reflected in his customer service skills. And to the other girl on shift who was more focused on throwing ice around the floor with her friends, what a shame.

So by time we received the drinks, which were completely wrong. We had 20 minutes left in the room. Considering I had paid £50 and barely got to experience half the time I am shocked at the lack of respect and care these staff members had for paying customers.

All that needed to happen was a simple email to myself, stating they were short staffed, and that due to that arriving half an hour / an hour early for our booking so we could all get drinks in ample time, would’ve been fine. We would have made the effort to get there early and still enjoy the full time we had booked for. Obviously we were expecting the bar in the room to be staffed as that is what is advertised and what I had been recommended by word of mouth by other people in the past.

I have emailed directly on their feedback sheet they had emailed me after my booking. What a huge disappointment, and a complete downer on the evening.

I will await response from revolution to resolve this matter as the lack of professionalism from the staff working that evening...