Bola 8 - The Pool Lounge — Restaurant in London

This place expects customers to pay £32 an hour for a game of pool and think they are cheaper than most places in central London. The manager, Kiran has absolutely no idea how to run a business and says they are fully transparent about their prices but then also said they expect people to pay £20 first and AFTER, taking their money, they tell you have you have to pay another £12 to get the table which is the exact definition of a hidden fee. In addition to this, their prices are not listed on their website or anywhere else, so how do they operate with full transparency? The bartender charged my gf £32 without telling us he has done so and the manager, Kiran, thinks this is a very honest thing to do. I am so disappointed the manager has no idea how to run a business and thinks £32 an hour is reasonable when most other places let you play pool for about £15 an hour. The only good thing about this place was that it was close and convenient but from now on I will go to other places that are actually transparent about their prices and don't force their customers to spend a £20 bar tab an hour when also charging them £12. When I pointed out to Kiran that having hidden fees and not telling people how much they need to pay beforehand is scamming people and that he literally scammed my girlfriend, he told me that I am being rude and refused to refund the £12 hidden fee even after I made it so clear to him with evidence that we were not told at any point that we needed to pay it. He said we can come play pool for "free" but would probably still expect me to spend £20 on a bar tab which is just absolutely ludicrous, why on earth would I pay £32 an hour to play pool on broken, wonky tables when I can pay £15 an hour to play pool on well maintained tables in...

I came here on the weekend as a party of 2. We did not have a booking but were able to get a table which was good. The lady who served us was punctual and extremely helpful and polite. From what I knew it was £12 per hour which to be fair isn’t a bad rate for the weekend but still a bit higher than my usual local club. The drinks are as expected more than your usual supermarket but this is standard in most pool clubs! The tables were relatively clean to play on but found cracks and loose pockets which needs attending to, the cues were not great with several have chips on the chalk which wasn’t good but still found others that were ok to use that weren’t damaged. The atmosphere was good with lots of variety of music. I’m sure we will pass through again at some point in the future, I would say gentle piece of advice is to keep the place clean as we found the toilets were below expected but all in all we had a good time here!. Ps - shame to see a customer writing the same...

We were overcharged and not given a refund. We had been told via message that the cost was £20 for an hour of pool, and that we could use this for drinks. When we got there, it was also explained by staff that is the case, so I said OK I will pay that now. At no point did anyone mention an additional £12 cost. I paid via card without seeing the price I was being charged on the machine, they had said it was £20 which had been repeatedly told to us. We then realised I was charged £32! We followed up for a refund of £12 but the manager argued back to us again and again, with a long winded explanation about how we were wrong. We obviously would not have gone to this much effort for a refund of £12, if these were not the events that took place. The fact that that would not refund us for blatant overcharging is terrible. Would not recommend to anyone. I do not accept any offer to return for a 'free'...