Cafe Boheme — Restaurant in London

I’ve been coming here for two decades. The tables on the street are perfect for people watching. The last two visits have been a nightmare; I shall not be back.

The last visit (May) the waiter pulled a scam. The service was horrific to begin with. After two drinks apiece they randomly presented us with an amount to pay. No bill and wouldn’t print one. They showed their tablet with our order. Ok, so we split our bill. After much incompetence (they had one of our party go through the transaction three times and they paid twice) they returned to our table ten minutes later stating that we accidentally paid another tables bill and needed to pay again. They swore blind (gave an absolute promise) that they had refunded the charge and we should pay again. We refused as we had no signal to prove a refund and no receipt showing a refund. We called a manager, they came and sorted it out. They told us that we owed £4 pounds but would wave it. We reminded them the £4 was part of the service tip, and the service was beyond incompetent.

Needless to say, the card was never refunded. So either their staff are absolutely incompetent or pulling a scam. Seems like the latter.

As for what we had. We had a lot of decent cocktails. We had off olives which we sent back, and stale bread. Food was poor quality, although the food was never very good here.

We visited again yesterday, it was chaos where no one could give us service. We were told we could not make reservations (ie no queues) for outside table. Just wait and grab one when it becomes available. The waitress outside told us there is a reservation system for outside and a queue. We challenged and she told us to call to make a reservation for tables (despite them refusing to take them in person). We complained, and the manager had to come resolve it. We left given out prior scam experience. As we left the manager was explaining to staff how the restaurant m, reservations and outdoor seating works.

Service has fallen to a new low. And frankly they have such high turnover in staff, that they aren’t trained or vetted properly. Just not...

Caution: do yourself a favour and avoid this awful place. I've been a regular at Cafe Boheme for several years now, and am aware of the fact that they regularly change staff, and for this reason I did not dwell on the minor things that happen every now and then (e.g. rude staff, wrong orders, outdated milk in the coffee that gave me cramps!, etc...). Yet today, as myself and my partner drove there for coffee and food, I asked the waiter (who knows we're regulars) if he could keep one of the outside tables for us for literally 2 minutes as I park up and return. He said "of course", and even began cleaning the leftovers in preparation for our return. I go off, park up, pay for parking, only to return and find that the table has been taken. I ask the waiter and he says, "yeah, its taken". Then someone else comes along, who said she was a manager or supervisor or something like that and, with an air of entitlement, tells us that they cannot reserve outside seats. I try and explain that I went into the whole effort of finding and paying for parking only because they assured me that they could, but all she did was to repeat herself like a broken record. As I got more and more frustrated, she blindly yelled into my face that they basically cant do anything about it and that we should just leave, while, at the same time, dragging on the other waiter to prevent him from making any explanations. Ultimately we went off and had our food & coffee elsewhere. This, however, is the WORST way that anyone can ever handle anything. Zero courtesy, zero manners and zero social or customer service skills. I mean, you're supposed to be the manager, "manage" the situation instead of yelling at me and repeating whatever insults you had to say. Its appalling, shows complete lack of respect or customer care, and we definitely wont be returning. I suggest you start by investing some of that 12% service charge into training your staff to gain some manners and basic...

Picture this: I was walking by today with a friend finishing to eat a bagel and my friend decided to stop there, sit outside and have some drinks and maybe she would have some food. While she went inside to order us drinks, I sat on one of the last tables outside, suddenly a male waitress comes to me, didn’t even ask if I wanted anything, and simply said “Sorry, but you cannot eat here” , immediately I replied my friend was inside getting us drinks so we would be consuming there, he said “It doesn’t matter, you cannot eat here if the food was not purchased here” I replied again that we I was outside, that my friend was inside consuming and what he expect me to do?, I was half way through my bagel. Which I was eating on my hands and not even using the table for that. He gave me the shoulders, told me I cannot eat and said he would call a manager and also left my table while picking up glasses from other tables while complaining to other customers, “some people don’t respect rules blábláblá” and the other people from the table was like “Chill dude, she is consuming ”, anyway… Then another guy (skinny, blond and without uniform) came saying the same thing and being as rude and unpleasant as the first one, so I just stopped eating, texted my friend to not buy the drinks nor food , because we would not stay there . Bear in mind there were empty tables outside, so is not like I was taking the place of other people that was going to “consume more”. Anyway, result is : You lost a costumer, lost a sale of food and drinks, gain 2 bad reviews, just because you have some very rude staff who has no idea how to analyse a situation that is not worth it, if they let me finish eat my fng bagel in peace,which would clearly not take more than 2 minutes, we would have consumed drinks, more food, and had a pleasant time , maybe done a good review, and everyone...