Core Bar — Restaurant in London

I’m writing a review today, that I never thought I would find myself writing.

I’ve spent a few days thinking about what I want to say, deliberating, wanting to hold my tongue, wanting to share my story, struggling to believe what I witnessed.

Last Thursday evening (10th March), I was out for a few work drinks with my colleagues (one of the first times we had managed to all get together for a while.) I met a colleague of mine who I hadn’t seen for a really long time so we caught up, shared our thoughts on everything that’s going on at the moment, and naturally, things got emotional. We had spent a few hours inside so decided to sit down on the curb opposite Core Bar and chat for a while. Upon returning to the rest of our colleagues, we were stopped by the Manager, who was waiting at the entrance. He and I had spoken a few hours earlier and he was pleasant, professional and seemingly very friendly.

This was not the case at the entrance. He stopped us from re-entering, claiming he “didn’t like the vibe we were bringing to his bar.” I was shocked, and, although it didn’t matter, tried to reassure him that “our emotions had nothing to do with his bar.” I tried to explain what we were talking about and he said he didn’t care.

He proceeded to claim we were rude, emotional, and ruining the atmosphere and that we were no longer welcome. My colleague still had their belongings downstairs but was told they weren’t allowed to go in nor were they allowed to use the bathroom. It became a childish, and extremely petty, inhumane case, and at one point I felt the manager was enjoying this power play as he offered snarky and sarcastic comments. I was shocked. I am shocked.

In this day and age, when so many inhumane, unthinkable things are happening around us, it baffles me that so little understanding can trickle into our day-to-day. For a manager to look down his nose at his customers, for being too emotional, again, is beyond me.

The night ended short, the rest of our colleagues also left, and I am happy to say we won’t be returning again. A real shame as this had become a great local for us over the past 3 years. We were there long before the refurb, we knew security well, and it used to be a great place to be.

Core bar customer service claim that the welfare of the customers is priority to them, but I’m afraid I have to disagree. It seems as though the management team at Core are trained to deal with basic ‘situations’ but have no idea how to understand or talk to human beings. I strongly recommend a rethink and reset on that front,...

Ami at the bar was incredibly attentive to me (who needed so many water bottle refills). Thank you so much!!!

Music is on the loud end but it is possible to talk, and the cheap price of nice drinks makes it worthwhile anyway. Toilets seem to be cleaned regularly. There was a nice atmosphere about with lots of people visiting for a drink after work.

Unfortunately my group had a totally unnecessary negative experience with a bouncer/security toward the end of the night. We were tipsy, not drunk, by about 10pm and we only had a few bottles of wine between 5ish people to share. My friend went out for a smoke and was denied entry back in, and we were later told that it’s because she was “too drunk” judging by her “swaying”. We were having an excellent night until they kept her outside for an extended period of time and no one let her grab her bags or tell her friends inside despite them claiming “to have been about to”. The night was to celebrate her but was spoiled by security being incredibly assumptive and unhelpful, it was also turning away business. It wasn’t until the rest of the remainder of our group came outside to explain that they understood, which we were grateful for. Despite them definitely trying to do their job, they were fairly careless and unprofessional. A male worker even came outside and laughed about my friend who was upset by the misunderstanding, maybe he thought we couldn’t hear.

Not sure if this can be solved with more training unfortunately, seems to be based on a persons ability to read someone...

Yesterday me and my friend have experienced a very rude and demeaning attitude from the Core bar manager. His name is Henry Lay. After drinks in the bar, we casually popped out to chat in front of entrance. The chat was a bit emotional and we cried and laughed and hugged and shared our worries about life. And for everyone it seemed like a normal behaviour when you’re drinking with friends, for everyone but Henry. When we calmed down and tried to get back in, Henry, who was standing in the entrance didn’t let us in with a statement that “if you’re crying it’s better to go home and not bring bad vibes into the bar”. We were shocked, and couldn’t believe people were now kicked out of bars for crying? My friend tried to ensure us crying had nothing to do with the bar and was very polite with him, although he was very rude insisting we couldn’t go back. I still had my stuff inside and wanted to grab it, but he didn’t even allow that at first. When I walked behind him to get my coat, security stopped me and I needed to keep asking just to get my coat back. Finally I was able to get in to get my coat followed by security. I’m still shocked and extremely disappointed. I used to come to Core bar every week with my coworkers as the office is nearby. Today I will share this story with every colleague to ensure no one of them ever steps into this place. I think this attitude is unacceptable and Core bar needs to reconsider their policies in terms of staff trainings and...