Queen of Hoxton — Restaurant in London

Absolutely AVOID. Booked for a private event. Venue appointed staff at the door to check guestlist / keep an eye on people coming in and out of the "private" room. Random people of the public managed to slip in from time to time, had to ask people to leave (not my job to do), and this was just the beginning. At one point, a security guard barged in with a random girl looking for god knows who, apparently "lost her friend". Had the door staff done their job properly and checked the guestlist for names, anybody not on the list would not have "gotten lost" and wandered inside in the first place. Who knows what they would do, stolen valuables? Caused trouble if they were asked to leave the private room? Harass us? Confronted the security guard about this, he immediately burst into anger and got in my face screaming, "I can go anywhere I want with this badge!". If this wasn't bad enough, I asked the assistant manager, who was also present when this ordeal happened, if this was the type of staff they're hiring to represent their venue, he and another senior staff brought me to some shoddy staircase, locked me in, explaining my ears off why they are allowed to do this. The point being, we hired your venue for a PRIVATE EVENT, and as paying customers, this is the least we expect. Wouldn't open the door until I fully agreed with their actions. This went on for a good 5-10mins. Midway through, I took my phone out to record the situation, their whole aura changed. After another 5mins, they let me out and actually turns out they're pretty generous, they wanted to buy me a drink, obviously not to shut me up about locking me in their staircase, of course not. Moral of this review, expect less than professional security guards and private events to be semi private, if not, fully open to the public that decide they want to escape the main room. One positive I will say, "Luli", the bar man serving our room, absolute star. You lot are privileged to have him as a member of staff.

UPDATE RE: Response from QoH:

It's disturbing to comprehend how QoH are "proud" of how your staff acted. Knowing that the safety of your customers' is a massive concern to your venue, it would also be fair to say that this was not considered for your guests' who booked your private room for a safe and protected environment. You've not addressed the risk you put your guests' in the private room in, with the incompetence of your door staff, who's job was appointed to manage entry into the "private" area. Seeing that there is no security inside the room itself, as you'd expect, the point of security lies in the hands of your door staff to allow/disallow guests on/not on the guestlist. This was not the case, as groups of random male guests were able to wonder in several times, and seeing as the group in the private room were predominantly female, your venue exposed the females inside to potential dangers, mitigating their requirement for safety.

The security guard in question acted brash, aggressive, and quite frankly his demeanour, very frightening. He had no intention of explaining his actions or de-escalating the situation (which I can assure is a fundamental part of his role, had he gone through adequate SIA training). In turn, this reflects VERY poorly on your venue, proving that your venue are not screening security staff properly, which in it's very nature directly contradicts your argument that safety of your guests' are your main concern. Not to mention, when confronting your staff about this threatening behaviour of your security, your staff illegally detained me in the staircase and would not allow to leave upon request. Need I say more? So to reiterate, if this is the actions and measures QoH are "proud" of, then your senior management team need a really good think about the disturbing message being put out there to other guests planning on coming to your venue.

In other words, if you choose to visit Queen of Hoxton, you will...

We booked a table for the Queen’s Masquerade on the rooftop bar, and they promised us a ‘cosy, heated wigwam’ - what we actually got was 5 groups of people at 5 separate tables, too cold to at any point take off their winter coats, hats, and scarves. Every time someone asked about heating they were told that ‘the heating is on’ - however there clearly wasn’t any heating inside the wigwam, just inside the actual building, some of which made it out the open door to the wigwam, but then also straight out the wide open tent flap, into the cold night air.

We had booked a table for 5pm, however stood on the street, outside the closed doors, until after 5 o’clock, before they venue finally opened. If you’re not going to have the venue ready and open just before, or at least at 5pm on the dot, then maybe don’t take your first bookings until 5.15pm. Easy solution.

The member of staff at the bar was perfectly pleasant and very jolly, considering the frigid conditions he was working in, however when we tried to order one of the hot cocktails on arrival we were told they’d need another 20 minutes to heat up properly. Again, maybe make sure that everything you are offering is ready for 5 o’clock, if you’re going to allow people to book tables from 5 o’clock.

The drinks and food were very nice, hence the 5 star rating, and reasonably priced for the area and type of establishment (the food especially). The service wasn’t bad as such, but there was one person manning the bar and taking orders for the food, and it was self service, which would normally be fine, but was made extra difficult by the slippery slightly icy outside area of the rooftop, hence the average rating.

The satin drapery and mask and feather decorations were cute. I didn’t exactly feel transported to the magical world of the queen’s masquerade, but it was cute enough. However we left over an hour earlier than we had planned to leave, because we were so cold it had started to become difficult to chat through our chattering teeth, and really all we wanted was to go sit in a warm coffee shop for 30 minutes and get the chill out of our bones before starting the journey home.

So yeah, I suggest fixing the heating and giving the timing of everything some serious thought. People are going to stay longer and spend more money, if they’re not worried...

10 of my friends and I visited here on Sat 7 Jan 2023 to have a few drinks after we finished our session at Hijingo. I left feeling very disappointed and upset at the way in which one of my friend was treated by staff. I completely understand that staff have a duty of care to search patrons on the way in. I get this. However out of the 11 of us only 1 person was searched - The only tall black man within our group.. If they need to search people we all should all be searched. Not just one person. I remarked that my friend was a paramedic and he’s just the sort of person they’d want in the club, clearly try to make light of it.. He obviously complied and said it happens every-time - it’s fine. As the night went on someone accused him of touching her, which didn’t happen. Some other men started to be aggressive towards my friend. However is was just my friend that was taken outside by security. We all followed him out. I told the door men that they had on 2 occasions they singled my friend out and felt it was racially motivated and retold the story about he was searched on the way in. The security guards claimed they search everyone. I pointed out that simply was untrue. I went round our group and they all confirmed they were NOT searched. So their claim was a lie and easily disproved. We’re a group of men & women in our 30s / 40s with professional jobs in HR/Teaching/ Medics/Fire Brigade/ Finance - we were simply out to have fun, but instead the night took a turn. I left feeling awful for my friend. I’m not accustom to drama on nights out and I’m certainly not used to witnessing such blatant racial profiling. In future it may be more prudent to search everyone, rather than...