CC Blooms — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

My partner and I had a bad experience with C C Blooms, this was about a month ago, went through their complaints procedure and I sent an email of complaint, but I got no explanation, apology or even a reply. I always like to give a person a chance to explain themselves before calling them out, but as I have been swept under the carpet, I believe that justifies hanging out dirty launder, therefore, here is my review of C C Blooms in Edinburgh.

We went from the planet bar and intended to join a big group (that we had met in planet bar) in c c blooms. I wandered in and looked back, but my partner was stuck outside talking to the bouncers, I thought everything was okay until I went back out to see. The bouncers had asked for my partner's id, and then refused her entry, they told her to "try somewhere else"

I spoke to the bouncer and asked what he meant by this comment, and he claimed that my partner had caused a lot of trouble the week before. I explained to the bouncer that she had never been into c c blooms in her life, but he did not reconsider. He claimed that the bar staff choose who to let in, so I requested the bar staff to come out so I could speak to them. Another member of staff came out and stood in front of me, cross armed, stance seeming as if he was trying to intimidate me.

I explained the situation once more, and they were adamant that my partner was the other person who caused problems the week before. We requested proof, we were denied and told that it is not a court of law and they don't need to provide proof. We offered to provide our proof that my partner was not even in Edinburgh at the time the scenario the week before occurred, however, they were not interested and still refused, we do not even live in edinburgh.

They could argue that it was mistaken identity, however, they saw my partner's id, and should have known for a fact that she was not that same person that caused these "problems", my partner is half Moroccan and has a darker skin tone than most pale Scots, so I can only see one option for this disgusting behaviour towards my partner, ruling out the case of mistaken identity, it could only be a racial thing. We were told that "This is a very inclusive and accepting lgbtq+ establishment", but our complaint was about a matter or race/racial profiling, so their justification was very poor. I did find it very odd that me, a white man was let in and my partner, a mixed race woman was not even though we were clearly together.

Judging by the reviews that people have left about the bouncers, it doesn't surprise me in the slightest that they would act this way towards my partner. I've even seen reviews from regulars complaining about the bouncers and claiming that this establishment is going downhill.

This is only further reflected by what else I saw on their reviews page; the owners reaction in the face of negative feedback. How they attempt to wash their hands and cast insults to those who want to complain, they childishly retort and claim they are always in the right, never apologising and never taking a complaint seriously, or even, never replying to a private complaint. This could have been resolved much easier.

This business should take a long hard look at themselves, who they choose to employ and what training they are given, and their approach to "inclusivity" because ignoring the problems and brushing complaints to one side will only create a mountain of them, and will further the businesses decline.

My opinion? Avoid...

Terrible service,

Walked in just trying to have a drink after work and was received by a lovely lady with glasses very welcoming till my nightmare started.

This older gray haired gentleman maybe Italian approached me and with a very manager attitude collected my name and sat me in a table despite my clear unhappiness to be stack up when the restaurant was pretty empty, the table next to me had two guys sat so I got up and asked this gentleman if there was a possibility to seat by the window so I could be a bit further from them and he would lose seats as the table would have 4 seats.

He said in a very aggressive way It was possible moving tables around and I had to seat where he demanded. I tried to explain that in the end the seats would still be the same, he demanded me to LISTEN TO HIM! basically shutting me up and kept going with my order.

I ordered a beer and he brought the pdq and had the audacity to ask if I would leave any tips. I obviously cancelled the tips part and he informed the QR code was at the wall, my table and the table next to me tried to tell him that qr code wasn't working and he blamed our phones for it and walked out without finding a solution after me telling him that I would like to eat which he completely dismissed and walked out.

Later on the couple next to me left the table, I had two beers and I moved table that I didn't see a problem, however the Manager, Boss did. He told me off in front of all of your customer on the next table and said he wanted me to leave. Which I did.

Now I am a District Manager for a very popular brand in UK and I personally feel disgusted by you guys keeping someone like this in one of the most popular gay bars in Scotland which I was supposed to come back on Friday and I will not because of the way I was treated, maybe he hasn't been lockedown in the past 1 year and he doesn't respect those who did or he just doesn't like to respect who come to your shop.

I would expect such a famous bar to care for its customer but I am just not going to come back and wish you all and him a very prosperous...

Hi there! Writing this as another member of the group who were apparently “hammered by 7:20pm on a Wednesday night” - I’ve seen your response to Blair and would like to add (as you put it), ‘the facts’.

Your bar was a ghost town… so it wasn’t much of an inconvenience to adjoin two tables in an empty building. You want 5 stars for pushing two tables together (like every other establishment would naturally do when blessed with a large group of patrons)?

Had you maybe paused for 0.5 seconds to withhold your automatic snide judgement, you’d maybe see that the person tearing up at the table wasn’t booze-fuelled, but emotional saying goodbye to close friends after a challenging year.

Your response on here isn’t witty - it simply proves just how rude you and your bar staff actually are - so thanks for proving our point.

Let’s just translate one of your quotes: “Hammered at 7:20pm on a Wednesday night isn’t a good look”:

You (a bar) served a group of adults (during your own scheduled opening hours) approximately 1-2 drinks each in the evening-time. I personally had one glass of white wine in your bar and could very clearly assess my friend-group… none of whom I assure you were ‘hammered’.

In actual fact, after your bar staff randomly refused to serve us, we called a ‘supervisor’ over to have a civilised discussion… at which point the ‘supervisor’ personally agreed we shouldn’t have been cut off and asked us not to blame their staff for the “error”. However, half my group decided to leave at that point regardless, based on the sheer ridiculousness of the situation and the rude, nonsensical judgement.

Tips were left for you because that’s what civilised (not hammered) people do. I doubt the next group you treat this way will be so kind. Based on our interaction, I’m not surprised the only people frequenting the bar were those paid...