Proud City — Restaurant in London

We had a great time until our bill came - read their reviews carefully before booking!! It's a long review but it's worth the read - do yourself a favor and don't get scammed like we did!!

We booked our tickets online and paid £178 for two people. This was advertised as a show and a 2 course dinner which seemed fair enough. The food quantity was disappointing, you could finish the main dish in two bites. We left the place hungry and had to make dinner at home afterwards. The quality of the food was okay but nothing special. It wasn't horrible but it tasted like nothing.

During the show, we ordered a couple of drinks and a bottle of wine. We genuinely had a great time as the host and the performers were amazing. What really ruined it for us was the final bill which included an entertainment fee and other unexpected charges of over £60. It was based on the amount that we spent at the venue, which means that the more you spend there the higher the charges are - not a way to treat your customers! We didn't expect these extra charges, especially for entertainment, since the price online was said to be for the SHOW and the dinner.

The owner of the venue, Alex Proud, made a speech during the show on how we need to support local venues... I'd be glad to support your venue and come back if you conducted your business in a fair way. And if you PAID YOUR STAFF!! Unfortunately I didn't read reviews of this place before booking, but as it turns out many people working for Alex Proud complained about not being paid. So where does that extra entertainment fee that your guests have to pay goes? After finding this out, the fact that we had to pay this extra fee makes it even worse to digest.

Additionally, Alex is a married man but still brought his other lady to the event and of course her group got special treatment. We wouldn't even know that she was there but he announced it during the speech. Tasteless if you ask me. When I go to a venue I don't really want to hear about the boss' escapades.

The way they handle the payment is also a disgrace. The waiter came up to our table while the show was still going and presented us with a credit card machine and made us pay before we even saw the final bill. We expected it to be high since we ordered drinks and wine during the show but not THAT high. After we paid, we got the bill that showed all of the extra charges. There was no way for us to dispute any of this as we were rushed by the waiter to pay immediately and we didn't even know what we were paying for since we didn't see the bill beforehand. Yes, we could have fought about the amount before we paid but there was a performance going on and we didn't want to cause a scene and disturb the other guests and the performers. We could see that as the waiters were going around tables and collecting payments from guests, the atmosphere shifted and people looked disappointed. So I know that we were not the only ones treated this way.

The toilets are also disgusting. When I entered the ladies toilet, I felt like I was at some sketchy cheap club with sticky floors, dirty toilet seats and horrible smell. Not what I expected at all.

The only good thing about this place are the performers, especially the host (Sam) who made this whole evening very entertaining. I really hope that everyone who worked that night gets paid fairly since, as I mentioned before, Alex Proud doesn't seem to be paying his workers what they deserve (or not at all).

He's clearly making a lot of money from extra undisclosed charges and then whines about people not supporting his local business. I'll be completely honest, if we weren't smacked with those charges at the end, I would have definitely be back there multiple times as the show was entertaining. But I will take my business somewhere...

This is a hard one as the show itself was amazing but the organisation, prices and food were not. The host and performers were top notch and performed brilliant acts - the host really knew how to work the audience 👏 There were regular intervals and a good gap inbetween each course of food. Just be aware you may have to flag the servers down as it's quite dark and they are busy.

Now onto my moaning. We booked the VIP 3 course dinner (£150 per persom FYI) for a birthday and received an email asking us to complete a mandatory pre-order form. Fine, not a problem. Opened the link in the email to pre-order. Took me to a 2 course spring menu with dessert and sides at an extra cost... Having read that the pre-order was mandatory, I emailed them to ask if they could send the link to the VIP 3 course meal pre-order page. I got nothing back but maybe I'd left it too late. I figured we would sort it at the place.

Arrived at the venue and was seated at the front (VIP included up front tables) but the chairs were set up so one person at the table for 2 had their back to the stage... there were a few tables like that. Odd considering you're there to watch the show, not stare at the audience.

The server asked if we had pre-ordered and I explained why we hadn't. He then gave us the 5 course menu and told us what 3 options we could have... which was basically a meat option (ironically with a vegetarian starter) or a vegetarian selection. We chose meat and had no other choice in what food we got served. Fine, it's basically a set menu, I can handle that.

I asked about the bubbles we were supposed to have upon arrival (part of the VIP package along with half a bottle of wine). To be fair, the server said he'd give us the full bottle of wine instead of half as he couldn't give us bubbles... I didnt question as to why not because I like wine.

The food came out and the starter was pretty good (chopped tomatoes with some torn mozarella and dressing, basic but tasty). It built up my expectations for the main course. As it was sold as VIP, I had high (maybe too high?) expectations. The main dish came and it was a small dry chicken skewer on a bed of rice, some yoghurt (luckily this helped with the dry chicken) and half a pitta.... suffice to say, I was pretty hungry after and not impressed! Thank god there was dessert.... a gooey chocolate bomb.

We ordered one extra bottle of wine and 3 bottles of still water... with service charge it was over £120. I'm all for a service charge and I like to tip regularly but for there to be a manadwtory cover charge when you have to have table service... so surely that's part of the job in general? It's not an extra cover because you fancy chilling at your table... you cannot physically go to the bar...

The service wasn't actually anything special - bog standard. Actually, I'd say it was sub-par. You had to constantly flag down the server if you needed anything. There was no "how is your meal?" or "can I get you anything else?" etc. So a mandatory service charge felt out of line considering the service wasn't anything to write home about.

The wine itself wasn't anything special (you got a choice of white or red, no actual wine choice). Let's say it was no Sancerre but it went down... even if it was extortionately priced.

I was juggling between here and The London Cabaret Club - I feel I made an error in judgement booking this one. However we really enjoyed the acts and performers, they were absolutely fantastic and cannot fault them one bit. All the periphery things around the show however... it needs a LOT of improvement to boast being the best cabaret club serving VIP packages... if that's VIP, god knows what the standard...

We had high expectations as had been following the venue on social media. Our initial thoughts upon entering was that we were somewhat underwhelmed as we expected somewhere larger and more grand in decoration. It's slightly basic and black everywhere inside.

The table we were initially shown to had almost no view of the stage as unfortunately there is a large pillar in the centre of the room. I asked if we could be moved and a member of staff did move us to another table that had maybe 70% view of the stage. Much better and that was appreciated. We were told that tables with an unobstructed view were a premium package. I noted some other guests also ended up moving tables as well. It's a really unfortunate layout with the large pillar being fairly close to the stage and in the centre hence it obstructs viewing significantly. As I mentioned earlier the venue is relatively compact and whilst this means it wasn't quite the grand stage show we were expecting the flip side of that is that the audience participation was excellent. So no matter where you were sitting you got chance to get involved. So if you want to feel part of the show and participate then this is the show for you. The performers were talented and put on a good show. The compere was also great.

So we would have left having had a good evening, but what tainted the experience was the bar bill at the end. Upon arrival you have a drinks price list on the table. This contains a wine list and a cocktail menu. It doesn't contain prices for soft drinks, beer or spirits. Upon seeing the prices which were £14+ for a medium glass of wine and £16 for a cocktail my wife said she would stick with a basic vodka lemonade as otherwise it would work out expensive. I asked for a pint of lager, but was told only botted beer was served. I didn't mind that as such. After the first round of drinks the waitress suggested my wife add a fruit juice to her vodka lemonade. My wife declined as wasn't keen on the idea. So the bill we were presented with for 3 vodka lemonades and several bottles of San Miguel was over £100. This came as something of a surprise as we hadn't ordered a bottle of wine or had any fancy drinks. Of note at this stage is that we had stopped for a drink at a nice bar on the way and a pint of lager and a vodka Lemonade was £13.50 so that's the ball park we were expecting, especially as I was having a bottle and not a pint. My wife doesn't like confrontation and I got the look that said just pay the bill and leave. So I did pay the bill. However having clocked the owner of the bar on the way out I felt compelled to complain about the drinks prices. He agreed and said it sounded like a mistake and asked a waitress to look in to it. She explained that a vodka lemonade was £13 or £16 for a double. The beer was £6.50 a bottle. The vodka was in a short glass and my wife said she could hardly taste it so it was certainly no more than a single. If you recall what I said earlier though the waitress was trying to upsell the drinks and I bet had she added the fruit juice to the drink it would have then qualified as a cocktail and been more expensive. I guess at this point I could have perhaps argued a £9 refund as we had singles not doubles, but to be honest I was feeling quite annoyed and I didn't want to spoil my wife's birthday by the situation potentially escalating. Some people at this stage would be claiming rip off etc, but I'm going to give this place the benefit of the doubt that it's an oversight on not having a proper, indicative drinks price list and that we just happened to have a waitress that was overly keen on ramping up the bill and hence her...