Jazz Cafe — Restaurant in London

Last weekend, my wife and I attended the much-anticipated Jazz Cafe Festival in Peckham, hoping for an evening of remarkable music and celebration. Sadly, it turned out to be anything but that. In fact, the event felt more like a farce.

My wife sums it up perfectly: "Jazz Cafe Festival—the festival with no jazz." The name itself was incredibly misleading. While interpretations of jazz may vary, one would reasonably expect a festival branded as such to at least feature some music related to the genre. Instead, we were met with a hodgepodge of disco, techno, and salsa, none of which even loosely resembled jazz. The techno stage, particularly, was so loud that it drowned out other performances, leaving us bewildered about where we were and why.

The overcrowding was another significant issue. The venue was packed beyond comfort, and the queues for food stalls stretched for 40 minutes or more. It was surprising for what seemed to be a small local festival. If not for the adequate number of toilets, the situation would have been unbearable.

Worst of all, the music stages were placed so close to each other that noise interference became unavoidable. Buena Vista All Stars, performing on the main stage, were fantastic. However, their set was marred by booming bass and sounds coming from the nearby "Plant" tent, which blared out techno all day.

But the main reason we bought our tickets was to see Nils Frahm, a much-loved artist my wife and I have long wanted to experience live. We waited all afternoon for his set, only to find that the thumping bass from the Plant tent made it impossible to enjoy his music. Frahm’s ethereal compositions were drowned out by the overpowering noise, leaving us disillusioned. It wasn’t until the last 30 minutes of his performance—when the other stages finally closed—that we could experience his music as intended.

To top it all off, we witnessed a visibly frustrated young man running from the front of the Nils Frahm performance back to the sound engineer’s booth multiple times, loudly complaining about the sound issues. This was clearly not an isolated frustration, as many in the crowd shared our dissatisfaction with the event.

Seven hours of waiting in these schizophrenic conditions, for just 1 hour of hybrid mix match music instrumental with tecno and dance base beets coming from the other 3 venues in front and on the side. This was, without a doubt, the worst festival experience we’ve ever had. I will never return, no matter how strong the headline acts might be...

We went to see LTJ Bukem on Friday 10th October 2025. The website very clearly stated that despite being sold out, tickets WOULD be available at the door. We arrived at exactly 10.30am, in the hope that having got there in good time, we might obtain what we knew were going to be very limited tickets for a sell out event. When we arrived, we were informed by, I assume the head doorman, that a mistake had been made, as there were no tickets at the door because it was a sell out event. However, we were told to come back at 11pm, once the queue had got going, and they'll see what they can do. In good faith, we returned at 11pm, in the hope that we could gain entry. Shortly after we returned, we were asked to wait in the ticket paying queue. During this exchange, for some reason, one of the doormen, an Eastern European gentlemen, became unnecessarily hostile, singled me out, and suggested that I needed to "head off to get some food". Despite not having uttered a single word to him, and having been quiet and patient, I can only assume that I was singled out for no reason other than the colour of my skin. Fortunately, the head doormen did not enforce this, so we were able to continue queuing. We queued for about 30 minutes, patiently and quietly waiting for entry. It was only at 11.30am, that when we asked about entry, were were then told (by someone who appeared to be the proprietor) that entry would not be until 12.30/1am. Obviously it became evident that we were being messed about. We henceforth decided it was time to leave. The issue I have, is that given the Jazz Cafe made an initial mistake with their advertising, there was NO GOOD REASON why they then decided to make us wait an hour if there was no intention to let us in. We were not intoxicated in case the reader wonders. My friend was visiting from Vienna, and it cost time and money to get to Camden, for what was a wasted trip. What I take exception is that as a long time patron of the Jazz Cafe, during Covid, when they were experiencing exceptional challenges, they reached out to their patrons to seek support. It seems that now everything is FINE FOR THEM, they now think it's okay to treat their patrons with disdain. An egotistical power trip, they really did not need to waste our time in this...

A Total Rip-Off – Misleading, Unprofessional, and a Waste of an Evening!

I wish I could give this place zero stars. My wife and I were completely conned by by this place and I strongly advise others to avoid it at all costs.

The start time on our tickets was 7:00 PM, so we arrived on time, only to find the venue nearly empty. We were then informed that the band wouldn’t start until 8:30 PM—a fact that was not mentioned anywhere on the ticket. Instead, we were advised to arrive early for no reason other than to sit around and waste time.

When the band finally came on at 8:30 PM, we thought we’d at least get a decent amount of live music. Wrong. They played for just 37 minutes before taking a so-called “short break.” That break lasted 45 minutes! The second set didn’t start again until 9:47 PM—almost an hour after they stopped!

By this point, the entire evening was ruined. We had expected at least two hours of live music, but all we got was 30 minutes! The crowd looked as fed up as we were, and the whole atmosphere turned miserable.

I expressed my frustration to the doorman, who casually told me that the band would be finishing at 10:30 PM. So, after waiting around all evening, sitting through endless delays, and enduring an utterly disrespectful schedule, we were expected to settle for barely an hour of actual music? Absolutely disgraceful.

We didn’t even bother with the second half—we left after five minutes because we were too angry to stay. This was supposed to be an enjoyable night out, but instead, it was a frustrating, disappointing waste of time and money.

The management of this establishment should be ashamed of themselves for misleading their audience like this. If they’re going to sell tickets with a 7:00 PM start time, they should either be upfront about delays or actually deliver a proper concert. Instead, they pulled a bait-and-switch, and we will never be coming back.

Final Verdict: AVOID THIS PLACE.

★☆☆☆☆ (Only because I...