Barrio - Shoreditch — Restaurant in London

I went to Barrio on Saturday night along with two of my girlfriends to enjoy a girls night out. As soon as we arrived we decided to get a drink and smoke a cigarette outside. We were told by the security lady that we had 3 minutes to smoke and go back inside because after that, drinks were not going to be allowed outside anymore. A minute later (please check CCTV) the same lady reached us saying we had to take the drinks inside or she was going to throw them away. I personally replied that we had just lit our cigarette, we were going to finish smoking and immediately go inside to finish our drinks. Apparently, she wasn't happy with the polite answer I gave (yes, we were fully sober) and she started arguing, to which I decided I didn't want to reply to as the goal of my night was to have fun with my friends. It was very crowded outside, 90% of the people were men who were quite resistant to the idea of having to go inside to drink, but the lady decided to stand in front of us making us feel uncomfortable, while the guys behind her were literally doing whatever they wanted. She argued to the point my friend replied to let us finish smoking, to which she shouted a loud "NO" and accusing her of poor English proficiency. Everyone started staring at us. I never felt more embarrassed, harassed and mortified during a night out with my friends. Needless to say we were frustrated and upset, our mood dropped and this lady almost spoiled our night. Now, I would like to specify we are married professionals in our 30s, we were sober and just happy to go out together. I'm still wondering what could be the reason for a woman to yell at other women with such impetuosity and rage. I've never had such a negative experience at a bar or club and I think it's important to voice these kind of episodes to avoid them from happening again. Working in security must be hard, but that is not an excuse to...

We arrived at the bar on the right at 7:54pm We waited to be served, there was a gentleman making drinks for table service. No one acknowledged us, we stood for about there until 8:10pm and asked can we be served as we’ve been waiting, they said no you haven’t been waiting you’re not having the happy hour.

The staff seemed happy to talk to their friends that arrived to the venue, they left the bar to hug and say happy birthday to them, but left us to stand and wait to be served.

Because of this we missed happy hour we tried to speak to Andrew the manager but he said “No you weren’t here before 8pm, I didn’t see you”

We had a reservation for 5 people we ended up being 7 people we wanted to stay and enjoy our night here, it wasn’t about the happy hour price it was just the complete rejection without acknowledging the fact that maybe we did wait and a small explanation saying “Sorry guys, but the tills won’t allow me to” instead of just “Well I didn’t see you so…”

We’re all industry staff, we’re in management of local venues so we understand the stress when it’s busy, but clearly it was quiet enough to leave the bar and hug with you friends instead of serving the final 10mins of happy hour.

Unfortunate as the venue is lovely, the beer garden is also lovely, and most of the staff seem lovely as well but just the bluntness and rudeness let us down. Coming from management losing a table of 7 is costly and unfortunate.

We did intend to spend the rest of our evening here as we are local, happy hour or not, it was just the blunt mannerisms of the manager.

Barrio is a good brand with great venues will probably visit others but Shoreditch I...

Management needs proper training. There’s absolutely no reason for three bartenders to host a cocktail making class for six people, leaving one bartender to do the drinks for everyone else at the entire venue which probably had around 100 people. we came during Cinco de Mayo because they advertised 5 pound margaritas but when we arrived at the venue, the bartender and manager told us that the offer was only valid for one margarita which we didn’t even get, and it cannot be combined with a happy hour offer. we raised our concerns saying that we did not realize it was only for one margarita to which the manager said oh it’s in the terms and conditions, except it wasn’t in the terms and conditions because there weren’t any terms and conditions. We checked all over the website for T&C’s but couldn’t find any. My booking from Designmynight also had an option for us to request “£5 margaritas all night”. Absolutely abhorrent, felt like they were making rules up as they go along, which goes against ASA standards. On top of that, every time we ordered cocktails from our table, it took at least 45 minutes for the cocktails to arrive. I really empathize with the servers because they were trying to do their best but they couldn’t because of the upper management. they need to do better. the only good part was Derrick, the manager on shift who was trying to reconcile...