Leinster Arms — Restaurant in London

Unwelcoming to POC– refused us service.

My partner, his friend, and I visited Leinster Arms yesterday to watch the football match, as it was conveniently located near us. When we arrived, we noticed a free table with only one chair. We asked if there were any extra chairs available, but were told there were no free tables. That was fine—we decided to stand, look at the menu, and wait for something to open up.

Eventually, when another table became available, we moved a chair from the earlier table so the three of us could sit together and face the screen. Throughout this entire time, we were not acknowledged or offered service, even though staff were actively serving other tables around us.

A member of staff (notably, also a person of colour) came over and told us we couldn’t sit there because we were “blocking the way”—even though other tables were arranged similarly without issue. She asked us to sit at a different table where the view of the screen was much worse. Confused but cooperative, we moved as requested. When we tried to order with her, she completely ignored us and walked away.

We ended up sitting at this new table for 45 minutes– unserved, unacknowledged, and clearly being avoided, while every other table received friendly regular service.

I’m writing this review not only because of the experience itself, but because I saw how it visibly affected my partner and his friend. No one should feel unwelcome or invisible because of who they are. There are plenty of other pubs nearby, and after a very dismissive response from the manager (“Do you want to order now, or…?”), we left and had a far better experience elsewhere.

To the team at Leinster Arms: please take time to reflect on how your service, or lack of it, comes across to customers, especially those from underrepresented...

The service I received was shockingly rude and accusatory when shortly after I paid I was told my credit card transaction “did not go through”, despite me seeing a big ol’ approved sign on the terminal. I also asked “Are we good?” and got a nod of approval from the server and the receipt. From here we took our drinks and got a seat, not even five minutes later the server rudely interrupted me and stated it didn’t go through, I asked them to “Can you prove it?” While he looked I checked my credit card transactions and yep all good with me and my bank. Then the manager Liz came over and was as adamant that we hadn’t paid and was pressuring me to pay again. I showed my credit card transactions and the excuse was “it will bounce back” and guess what it has not “bounced back”. The server, the other server and Liz were all staring and I felt rather intimidated by the situation so I paid in cash. Choosing to trust the bounce back reasoning despite my doubts. I wanted to assume positive intent. We finished our drink, and Liz eschewed patience and reassured me. I went back the next night after 24 hours Liz again stated they checked with their boss blah blah. In essence, I paid £30 for two drinks (I was unfairly double charged) and trusted I’d get paid back for one instance and was lied to, cajoled, and deceived despite evidence to the contrary. The Leinster arms pales in comparison to The Swan (The Swan is a 2 minute walk from The Leinster and with a much friendlier staff). I will be initiating a visa charge back and shall leave subsequent reviews on other sites.

Edit: Email address provided by @Steve below is the only thing that is bouncing...

Didn’t expect to leave 1 star review for a pub, but here we go.

I had a booking for 4 people for England’s game tonight. All was good, but they contacted me and moved the booking 1 hour earlier. Still, fine with me, I understood they wanted people to be seated and served before kick-off. Then, when it was 24h before the game, they contacted me again, saying that I have 2 hours to send them IDs for all people from my booking and another booking, because I indicated that I knew them. Two bookings combined - it would be more than 6 people, which was against the rules. A little bit confused, I called them and it appeared that they thought that we wanted these 2 booking to be at the same table, that’s why they asked for IDs. Sorted the things out, I was sure all was good. However I received another call from the pub later on. They told me, that since they knew that I knew somebody else who would be there, they needed to cancel these two bookings. Sounds absurd, but they reassured me these were the Governmental guidelines (of course, they were not). Looks like they were afraid we’d be ‘mingling’ with another booking, so decided to cancel them altogether. Finally, they were kind enough to leave 1 of the bookings there, and cancelled only another one. And this all happened 24h before the game 🤦‍♂️

I don’t expect the pub to react on this feedback, just warn the others what may happen to them. Probably it’s safer to book another place.

ps We’ve booked another pub that doesn’t ‘invent’ the rules and enjoyed the game. And booked it for the next...