Côte Barbican — Restaurant in London

W have just had our office Christmas party here and I have to say that the service was really unacceptable. When we arrived the table was not ready at the time we booked (which we were fine with as we know it is a busy period and got drinks in the meantime anyway) but then, when we were finally seated, it took ages to get our food. So long that one of our colleagues had to leave before being able to eat (the restaurant had received our order before we arrived), yet we did not complain and try to enjoy our time together. When the dessert arrived, we had been in the restaurant for over 2h and so they told us that we could not have any drink with our dessert. I went to talk to the manager explaining that the only reason why we were still at the table after 2.30 was because it took ages to get our main (and not because it took us time to order as we ordered beforehand). I talked to the manager asking for us to be able to get a drink wit our dessert given that the situation was their fault (so not asking for a lot). His response was to tell me off and reply that they were already very generous to let us stay at the table for more than 2h while their policy was for guests to have the table for 2h max (even if after 2h we still had not received all the meal we had ordered - so the only reason why we were still there was because of their service!). After telling me off and threatening me to not bring the dessert we had ordered and were desperately waiting for like every other parts of the meal because I dared complaining about the service, they finally accepted to make a gesture. Very terrible experience and awful manager who clearly does not have the skills required for a restaurant manager. We understand that problems can happen and that is why we never complained about the delay but complained about the fact that we could not have a drink with our dessert because they took ages to bring our order and their reaction was...

Manager impolite and doesn’t care . ( ** see below. Issue has been resolved with care and professionalism )

Had lunch with friends and midway through we were distracted by the sound of a video call coming from a casually dressed man in the corner of restaurant. As this sound pierces through the gentle humming of talking and the background music, and is unsociable, I went over to ask politely if he could turn the volume down. He wasn’t happy with my request, seemed very put out and didn’t want to engage, ( he was in a meeting ) though he said, “ There, done, I’ve turned it down. “ On returning to the table half way across the restaurant, my friends also were irritated by this unpleasant sound. I don’t think he had turned it down at all - or turned it back up. I turned round to indicate if he could use headphones but he was not willing. He just replied, “ move to another table”, but that wasn’t easy to do and we would still be able to hear it. I asked the waiter when he came over if this man was a customer or worked here, and he told us that he couldn’t do anything because it was the manager. There was no apology from the manager and zero understanding that this is not ok!

Food was fine. Waiters were nice. 3 of us wanted to pay in cash but in small print at the bottom of the menu, which none of us saw, it states that cash is not an option for payment. So, for me , another reason not to return. The above experience has totally put off my friend too, who is local.

*since writing the above, the area manager has been in touch , who does care a lot, and taken steps to sort out the issue and treatment we encountered from...

I have eaten at this place numerous times, in various combinations of number of diners, both for lunch and dinner. And all in all it is a very nice French bistro, serving a very good standard of typical bistro fare, with a limited but perfectly acceptable choice of wines, in very pleasant surroundings at a reasonable price. However!!! If you are booking a meal before a performance at the Barbican, allow at least 2.5 hours, if you want to be served in time to make it to the Barbican. Last time I was there with two friends, we had booked a table for 5.30pm, managed to place our order before 5.45, and eventually our food arrived at ……6.30pm. Even at 6.20, some 40 minutes after placing the order, I had already asked for our order to be cancelled and for our wine bill to be brought. The head waiter however, made a big show of bringing the food to the table, even as we were putting on our coats, which was extremely unpleasant. We were not charged, but we also attended the concert on empty stomachs. Nothing justifies waiting nearly 50 minutes for one’s order to arrive, and all the more so given that we had advised the waiter that our concert started at 7pm. How on earth were we supposed to eat our Cote de boeuf dinner, settle the bill, use the lavatory, put our clothes on, walk to the Barbican (one of us was a disabled person walking with a stick), find our seats and settle down for the concert in 25 minutes? Ridiculous. So, a very decent place, but they must learn to match the number of pre performance diners to the kitchen capacity of...