Forge — Restaurant in London

This was advertised as a Great Gatsby themed NYE party, that priot to that party you could book to enjoy a "decadent candle lit three course dining experience". We booked, honestly thinking we were booking directly with the restaturant but ended up being one of the many third party bookings that were used. Immediately upon arriving we were underwhelmed with the overall atmosphere. The restatuant was lovely in it's own right, but we had the impression it would be decorated to match the theme but the only decoration was each table had potted feathers. We also learned upon arriving that it was a crap shoot of whether you got an actual restaturant table or a, wait for it, folding plastic banquet table with other couples. We were sat in the middle of our card table, which was uncomfortable due the the bars and table legs, and asked if we selected our menu with booking, which we did. We never spoke to the woman who appeared to be taking care of the people around us. We waited approximately 45 minutes, while the couple next to us was receiving their food; which after conversing with them they shared that the food was less than desired and one had even needed to have their plate sent back to the kitchen as they found the potatoes inedible. We spoke with the organizer twice, who assured us the first time he would be back with our food "in 2 minutes", and then he never returned. We finally got the attention of the owner and she informed us that our menu selections had actually not been sent with our booking (a common problem we learned that was happening with the the multiple booking sites). We are unsure how this took 45+ minutres to discover as each employee, including those seating the guests, were holding a stapled packet that seemed to list everyone's reservations and information; the same packet the owner showed us as having no selections. We show the owner our menu selections with the booking; suprise that was an "old menu" that we had selected from and paid for. We're given new menus, we order, owner says ours will be "front of the line". From walking into the door to being told they actually did not have our menu selections was well over an hour. In the midst of this happening, a couple was sat at the other end of our banquet table, asked if they made slections, were notified that their selections didn't come through, ordered again, received bar drinks, AND received their starter all within 15 minutes of being there. We finally got the owner's attention, requested a refund (which had to be approved by the organizer who was running around the entire bulding). The organizer finally arrived at the host stand and then dissapeared to get an email for us to follow up with and never came back. All in all we were there for almost 2 hours and received nothing other than our waters in dirty glasses and the included prosecco we were given upon entry. The owner was polite and apologetic, but overall it seemed as if we were causing this burden on the staff. We were told the restaurant will no be open until January 6th, and that it will take approximately a week after that to receive the refund. The only contact information we were given was an email address for the "general manager" of the restaurant; no info whatsoever on the organizer himself. While I understand that Forge seems to rent itself out as a venue for others to host events at, there is stil a responsibility on the part of the restaurant to ensure a smooth night for all. I did not get to taste their food, but from what I saw of the meals around me and watching the women next to us with their food experience, it may be best...

Horrendous Experience, Incompetent and Rude Staff PLEASE DO NOT VISIT FORGE YOU WILL MOST DEFINITELY REGRET IT!!!!

I booked to have a work event for 50 people at Forge last week and as the private room was taken I agreed to have a designated area which was a £1000 minimum spend for what I was told would be half the bar area, separated away from the general public.

To my dismay this is not what greeted me, the area that we had reserved was not separated off at all, there were general customers using the space and when I requested a simple rope barrier I had to speak to 3 members of incredibly rude and condescending staff and venue managers, acting like I wasn't entitled to what I had paid for and not even attempting to understand the situation. Having paid £1000 for food and drinks for my guests I did not appreciate the fact that any Tom, Dick or Harry would be able to freely venture into our 'Invisible' DESIGNATED SPACE.

After much debate that took approximately 28 minutes worth of discussion the incredibly unhelpful venue manager finally brought a rope barrier however instead of giving us the agreed space she proceeded to box my party into the smallest amount of space with just 2 SEATING BOOTHS. I could not believe my eyes, I tried to discuss the issue with the customer experience manager WHO WAS A JOKE.

He admitted to me with witnesses present that my booking said I had half the bar area not just two booths however literal moments later he came back with the same useless venue manager and said she would handle it, which I asked if I would be given the right amount of space back.

To my utter shock and DISGUST he blatantly denied ever agreeing that my booking had been messed up and said 'I never ever said you had more space' which was the biggest lie. I will NEVER EVER EVER promote Forge as a place anyone in the city should go to, none of the staff have any integrity, why the hell would I have agreed to spend at least £1000 for an area when my party could just have easily turned up and used the general bar space as that is what we were presented with on the night.

The night descended into further chaos when there wasn't even enough space to present the food platters we ordered, the waitresses even served the platters I had paid for the the general public by placing them on tables outside of our tuna tin worth of space we were given.

They then proceeded to take some food back around 9pm as they said and I quote 'YOU HAVE A LOT OF FOOD HERE, CAN WE TAKE THEM BACK INTO THE KITCHEN AND THE KITCHEN STAFF WILL EAT IT'- I am a charitable person however this was COMPLETELY UNPROFESSIONAL, How dare the staff request paid for food from the party at such a shambolic event.

The staff at Forge from the Venue managers to waitresses behaved in a disgusting way, I regret ever spending any money there, it was an absolute disgrace. The event planner was utterly disrespectful and was brazen enough to act like everything had gone swimmingly well but I was apparently throwing a tantrum this is not how you deal with paying customers, this is not how you run an event.

PLEASE DO NOT VISIT FORGE YOU WILL MOST...

We met for a drink here last night, very odd vibe and 1/2 empty and so we moved quickly on to a proper pub around the corner which was heaving. I just thought Id share some thoughts. Staff member behind the bar moving so slowly and just communicating with eyebrow raises and shrugs and seems to be eating her dinner whilst serving. So its £8.25 for a glass of wine , which is fine I guess ,( its London), but it comes out warm. I go back for ice and there's a group of staff at the end of the bar chatting and high fiving , as I wave for there attention, they too shrug and say only the one bar staff is allowed to serve me. Now that wouldn't normally be enough to bother mentioning but I've worked in the industry for years and these kind of places baffle me. The fit out is nice enough, moneys been spent but it feels like someone is actively trying to lower the tone of the place or just misjudging everything. There are door people and a roped barrier like its a tacky club in Leicester square. I think they might have even had headsets on. There are DJs playing on decks way too loud , completely misreading the room. There's a girl wandering around selling shots of Jagerbombs on a tray. She was very nice but it seemed so out of place. Staff are constantly barging past us with trays and garbage bags. no 'excuse me's' , no communication at all. It feels like whoever is running it is used to work in a club or as if the owners have cant let go of a holiday they had in Ibiza in 1995 . Maybe I'm missing something here. To be fair I'm not normally out around the city and maybe it was unrepresentative of what it is normally like. Possibly it functions as a kind of drunken shot bar for city workers on a normal night, but it seemed like such a waste of what could be...