Aquum — Restaurant in London

RACIST DOOR POLICY me (im mixed race) and a friend of mine who is black was turned away along with another 10/15 black guys who have been told that there not letting in anymore guys? (which there are also not allowed to do due to the The Sex Discrimination Act 1975) as i waited outside to see if something could be done as it was a friends birthday and they was already inside on a table, 3 white guys approached the door(they wearing trainers, we had smart shoes on) and they was let straight in with no problems, so i approached the door and asked the door girl, are you letting guys in again now? to which i was told no? so i said you just let in 3 guys in front of my face? the door girl then said that they knew the manager, but i also knew one of them so i text him to ask if he knows the manager can he ask him to let us in? he then told me he doesnt know any manager! they was just asked if they was on any guest lists to which they said no, and was just told they need to pay on the door? so its 1 rule for one, and a next for the other. its disgusting that in today's day and age nightclubs are still doing this. I have contacted the Security Industry Authority and the equality of human rights commission who say they will investigate and review there licence if its found to be true they will take action, after all the problems that Dstrct nightclub had with the negative press and the protest its not a smart move for them to be doin. with club and bars losing there licence daily. the doors should either be open of closed, you cant just pick and choose who can and cant go in, thats why door staff get attacked when people feel disrespected by them, i know they will reply to this with some Cut&Paste standard response about looking into it blah blah blah, but the sun & Daily mail are also "looking into it" with the racial tensions in the media of late they are very interested to hear about this

STOP BEING RACIST & SEXIST either let in everyone or noone, or your club will be closed or the staff will end up getting hurt for discriminating against the wrong person one day, then there will be no club left. all you do is play "black Music" but you dont want black...

My friend and I booked a table on Friday night at 19:30 for dinner. Arrived and were seated, music was a little loud for dinner but that's a minor niggle.

We ordered a bottle of Rose and I asked to see the bottle first, yes it's fussy but not a tricky request. I'm not sure the waitress understood and she walked off, another girl came over and asked if we wanted drinks. I explained I just asked to see the bottle of wine before it's opened and she went to fetch it. Little annoying but the wine was very nice.

We ordered starters which arrived and were, in truth, very good. The plates were then semi-cleared with some random pieces remaining for no obvious reason (a dirty fork, one side plate and a lonely stick some prawns had been grilled on).

Mains arrived and were delicious, water topped up and the empty wine bottle removed. The plates were cleared, completely this time and my friend and I settled in with more drinks.

21:30 arrived and we knew the table was only ours for two hours, fairly standard in my experience, but rather than come over and politely point out our time was up, they cleared the entirety of the table - including a glass with half a drink left in - and then said "We need these tables for drinks, you have to move".

The girls having dinner on the table next to us were told to finish quickly and pay. When one girl was paying for hers the waitress actually removed her half eaten plate of food and when she objected they were also told it was time to leave.

When we pointed out our disappointment with how we were treated the man clearing tables replied with "I've asked you nicely to leave, now are you going or not?"

Aquum started as a bar and should have remained such - no bar staff, no matter how good, can be thrown on dinner service and expected to manage. If these were trained restaurant staff then I dispair, I've had considerably better service in Costa.

Incidentally, they also added 12.5% service charge, NONE of which they deserved.

We shall never, ever return to this rude, pretentious place regardless of how good...

If I could give no stars then I would. Fortunately, for Aquum they are able to receive 1 star from me.

Why the low rating you may ask? First of all, customer service, whether that be from the person at the door, the bar, the table, or toilets. I would expect a friendly, welcoming, and positive service. I was stunned by the rude, no emotion staff that was there, especially as my friend had booked a table. (Though there shouldn't be any difference if we had a table or not) I thought maybe that the first staff member I had spoke to just had a bad day, which I understand. However it was across the board. Every staff member I had interacted with, had a very negative aura and were very blunt with their words.

The service we received had an extremely long waiting time. Ordered some drinks and took about 25 mins to come to the table. For a table booking I would have expected faster service. Even the person that I assume was supposed to handle our table orders, didn't check if we needed anymore drinks throughout the night, we had to go to the bar and wait in long queues to be served.

For an added 12.5% service charge, when you have table booking, im extremely disappointed.

Drinks are obviously a rip off. But I guess that's with any club.

The only good thing about the whole night was the music.

For some constructive points: Customer service needs to improve. Be more positive, and friendly.

If a staff member is supposed to be assigned to a table, ensure they are approachable, and they actually check on the table once in a while.

So to conclude, if you ask me would I recommend going to Aquum for a night out, the answer would be no. (Assuming you care about the customer service and are booking a table)

If your not bothered and jusy want a night out with good music, then sure Aquum will be...