Barbican Bar & Grill by Searcys — Restaurant in London

I had dinner with my friend here tonight and I have experienced some of their terrible and customer service.

The two of us arrived at 6 and no one greeted us at the door and when we walked pass the bar and trying to get into the dinning area a young manager looking guy who has a rather strong accent stopped us and asked if we have a reservation. The room wad pretty much empty with "reserved" signs on a few tables. The guy looked reluctant to seat us so I asked him do you have a lot of reservation tonight and he said yes. I told him we will be quick as we will have to leave before 7 anyway. He said the only available table is the one naked small table right next to the kitchen window while there were only 4 occupied tables and there were two people sitting on a big table with long sofa. It was one of the two most unpleasant tables this place can offer and so we asked if we can sit in a inner place as it was cold by the door. So he just waved at a waitress and said to her "bring them to that table 27" and we then realised it was the other terrible olaceto sit - right next to the toilet door. He was so rude that he did not even talked to us in our face for our direction but ordered someone to do it and walked away with his annoyed face. Right after I took off my jacket I saw the same waitress just seated two ladies on a table for 4 at the centre area so I went to ask her if these customers have reserved these table. She told me no, they were walk in customers. I asked her the name of her manager and she told me there are three of them and she did not know which one I was referring to. I mean common, please do not play dumb on me. I told her I need to fire a complaint now, who should I talk to then one of her colleagues came away and asked me what happened and I asked him why did they put my friend and I next to the toilet when you have so many available tables and why did your manager ly to me about the availability. He then seated us at a bigger table at a more pleasant location in the room so I dropped it and start to order. I went to their website 10 minutes before I arrived to look at their vegetarian menu because I am on a diet. It was again disappointing that they have changed their menu without updating the one on their website. So I could not find the vegetarian burger I wanted I have to order their beetroot burger. The beetroot falafel was in room temperatureq, quite dry and crumbly inside and the edge was tough and hard instead of being crispy outside and fluffy inside. The bread was soaggy because of the watery tomato slides. They have only seated two more tables till the time we have paid and left. And the three manager-looking person were seating at one table and were doing their discussion and paper work. Which did not look very busy to me. I do not know if any of their bad customer service was out of racism but Barbican Centre may want to replace them with better caterers for...

Lovely welcome, staff v helpful (even if the politeness felt a bit of a performance! The Maitre D though was sufficiently haughty which made u for that! He was v polite) But the meal I had there will rank as one of the WORST meals I have ever had. I mean that. Everything about it felt manufactured, as if it had been summoned up in the laboratory of someone in Hounslow charged with inventing things that were supposed to taste like the label but were made from chemical combination rather than any of the actual ingredients. The "Garlic mayonnaise" I would wager had never seen sight of a farm or a chicken let alone an egg. The "Lemon dressing" tasted so sharp it tingled, the "beetroot burger" was a tasteless mush. The garden salad was the best thing on my plate, mainly because at least it managed to be inoffensive and just dull. Why is it not possible to have plain, simple ingredients, no squeezey packets, processed dressings ...... ???? It was truly disgusting. Only made up for the pleasure of being on the terrace with a glass of rose, which is the only reason I chose it in the first place. Never again.... Fortunately the show "Anything Goes" almost totally banished the memory by being everything that Bonfire is not: fresh, talented, delicious and...

What a strange place! There were lots of waiting staff and, what appeared to be, three managers but the service was (being kind here) erratic to say the least. We were left waiting to be seated for a while and when our table was ready we were informed of this by the manager waving at us from the other end of the restaurant. Management of the service was chaotic with staff seeming to be working every table with the result that we were ignored by passing waiting staff rushing around the restaurant.

The manager was particularly unfriendly and unprofessional, especially to his staff whom he had no hesitation in admonishing in front of the customers. One waitress was very nice (the one star is for you) but the rest were pretty dire. How can you deliver decent customer service when you can't look at your customer when taking an order or serving the food?

The food - it's a burger joint - but they still managed to get it wrong. The burger itself was good but the bun was so filled with glup (salsa I suppose) that it spoiled the burger!

Such a shame as it's a great location for the Barbican but it seriously has to replace its management, motivate and train the staff and rework the...