Brook Gate Finsbury Park — Restaurant in London

This is my second review, responding to what I believe is the manager’s reply. I don’t have the option to respond directly, so I’m posting it here (on different account because I can't review twice on the same one)

I appreciate your response and I understand your point. I do not take pride in the fact that a staff member lost their job, and I recognize that it may have made his life more difficult. That said, it does not change the reality that the situation was handled inconsistently and unfairly. The escalation arose directly from the management’s failure to communicate and enforce its own policies clearly and consistently

If your venue operates a strict over-18s policy, that policy should be prominently displayed and enforced from the outset. In this case, no clear signage was visible, and security walked past us multiple times without mentioning any issue, creating a reasonable expectation that our presence was permitted

My father became assertive only in response to the poor handling, not because we intended to cause trouble. The reaction was a direct consequence of inconsistent enforcement, humiliation, and lack of clarity. While I understand the concern about risks in a busy pub, the approach taken by management unnecessarily escalated the situation and put patrons in an uncomfortable position

Ultimately, the responsibility for staff conduct, policy enforcement, and training lies with management. Blaming customers for outcomes stemming from these management failures is unprofessional and misplaced. Had the rules been clearly communicated and consistently applied, none of this would have occurred. The events that transpired were entirely preventable and the responsibility of management alone

I had a good time watching the game from the window after all, and I don’t plan to raise this further

I also want to acknowledge that my initial message included some strong language and bad words, and I shouldn’t have expressed myself that way. I was clearly frustrated at the time

As you can probably expect, I won’t be visiting your bar again. I do hope that my messages and feedback are taken into consideration to improve how the bar is managed in the future

(And what happened with Arsenal...

I recently visited this pub and had a very disappointing experience. I witnessed the manager rudely kicking out a group of six girls. They had just found a seat, and while three went to get drinks, the others just found a seat next to us and sat down for a moment and it looked like they were going to get a drink anyway. But within one minute, the manager came over and rudely told them they couldn't be there without a drink. The girls got up and got their drinks, except for one who just wanted some water first because she was dehydrated, but she was denied.

The manager was extremely rude to her. When another customer asked what happened and she was explaining the situation to him, the manager came over in an aggressive manner and told her not to argue with his customers, which was shocking and false. At that point, five of the girls already had drinks, but the manager falsely claimed only three did. He escalated the situation unnecessarily and was very unprofessional. It seemed like he had it out for them from the start. Overall, his behaviour was incredibly rude and uncalled for and he made others there very uncomfortable and on edge...

I was alarmed to learn, from multiple reviews and personal observation, that this pub apparently has CCTV cameras in the bathrooms, not in the stalls, but still monitoring areas where people expect privacy. I spoke with a specialist in UK data protection law, who confirmed that under the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR, it is illegal to record people in areas with a reasonable expectation of privacy, such as toilets or washbasin areas. There is no legal justification for this, even if the pub claims it is to deter drug use.

The management’s handling of complaints has been highly unprofessional. The bald manager, in particular, has been hostile and aggressive in responses to customers raising legitimate privacy concerns. In contrast, the bar staff were excellent and very helpful. However, the security team was poorly managed and ineffective.

This pub fails to respect basic privacy rights and customer safety in how it enforces rules and responds to concerns. I would not recommend visiting until these serious issues...