BFI Bar / BFI Cafe — Restaurant in London

Cafe Visit - Service Issues

Staff Attitude Problems

The younger staff members displayed consistently poor service standards. Basic courtesies like "please" and "thank you" were notably absent. The overall impression was one of indifference—staff who clearly didn't want to be there and weren't particularly interested in doing the job properly.

There was a distinct lack of professionalism, with attitudes that came across as lazy and immature. It felt like they had a chip on their shoulder, particularly toward customers who didn't fit whatever demographic they preferred serving.

Practical Service Failures

Given spoons to eat cake with (no forks provided) No trays offered when carrying multiple drinks and food items to the table Basic service conveniences simply overlooked or ignored

The Exception

Credit where it's due: the manager stood out as the only competent member of staff. She demonstrated actual training, proper work ethic, and knew how to treat customers like human beings. It's unfortunate she has to manage a team that clearly doesn't share her standards or professionalism.

The Reality

When staff can't be bothered with basic manners, show obvious disinterest in their work, and treat certain customers with barely concealed hostility, it reflects poorly on the establishment. Service jobs require a baseline of courtesy and effort—neither of which was evident here.

The manager is fighting an uphill battle with a team that seems content to do the bare minimum, and even...

Love the BFI the place is unmatched especially if you’re a film lover but I go here to work a lot and there is one specific barista who is absolutely horrible - went to get a coffee today (Wednesday afternoon) and work and the man who took my order acted as if I killed his mum or something, I was being polite & I was laughing about something and he looked at me like I was an cancerous tumour, actually just ruined the BFI for me. All the other baristas are nice but just this one grown man is HORRIBLE no clue what his name is but I swear to God you work in the BFI for gods sake all of us film lovers would love to work here can you at least have some basic human decency thanks. Not going to be going here on a Wednesday afternoon because he made me feel rather ashamed to even be alive...

The two stars are for the food, which was fine, although you don’t expect main course options to run out by 5.30pm. We allowed one and a half hours to eat before a film, just a main course and a drink. Must be common around these parts, people trying to see films which start on time . We tried our best to order quickly though it was hard to attract attention. We were the first table in our area to sit down. We got our food 20 minutes before start time and had to bolt it. Also the staff had that hipster casual offhand thing going on and responding to our pleas and enquiries with barely concealed distaste. Don’t worry, they won’t have to deal with the likes of us again. If there’s a minimum time people should allow to eat before a film, might be good to say so. I used to love this...