The BARN London — Restaurant in London

We booked a table at The BARN London for 9 people for a Sunday brunch. Arrived promptly, table was there, all fine. The problems started when ordering things, as waiters were every now and then trying to bring us stuff we did not order (e.g. a takeaway coffee - why would you even do that when eating in? Then e.g. an extra juice, etc...) Often times we had trouble hearing each other with the waiter. The food was nice, so that's great at least.

However the real trouble started when trying to leave. We went up to the counter to pay, the 8 of us (8 came out of 9 ppl in the end). We all knew what we had, and were paying separate, as a group of 3 couples and two singles, making 5 payments overall. The waiter produced a bill that was just useless. I have attached a picture of this. This offers no way for you to argue about why the charges are there or even what those are, and in itself this looks very shady. This would have been okay if the waiter could have produced accurate notes taken while waiting our table reflecting in some form what we had, but we were not presented such a note either. After we all paid for what we thought we had, there remained a significant, approx. 28 pounds charge, which we obviously immediately challenged.

We were quick to point out strange things that stood out on the bill for us, like charging for an asparagus poached egg 10.9 while it was 9.9 on the menu. The person was insistent that overall the bill reflected our consumption and should we leave without paying, they would charge our card. Our reaction of course was telling him that if he charges, we will challenge that with our banks. In the end we spent roughly 15 minutes arguing and accurately reconstructing our bill based on their menu. It was us even who had to go and fetch a menu for this, indicating that the waiter had no real interest in reaching a prompt resolution that would satisfy everybody. Ultimately they accepted our reconstruction of the bill, significantly reducing the charges. If I remember correctly, we reduced charges to approximately 10 pounds more than our own initial reconstruction, but 18 less than what they wanted, and this still included a service charge which they claimed not to be optional.

I would have expected different treatment in an establishment that seems to position itself as a high-end café. Much better waiting at tables, much better treatment at payment, and most importantly a way to produce a bill that is an accurate and verifiable record of what the guests have consumed. While waiting our table had problems, that was still totally within acceptable norms. Contrary to that, I found the experience of producing a bill and paying to be absolutely unprofessional, and altogether this will make us avoid this café...

The food was fine but the service was terrible. I had yogurt and fruit with honey, it was nice enough. There were two of us. After breakfast we had two hot drinks. We were then going to also have lunch, having already had breakfast and two coffees, so asked for the menu. We had decided what we wanted and another guy came over and instead of asking what we'd like, said 'excuse me, if you aren't going to order anything else I have to ask you to leave.'. We were on our laptops which maybe made him think we intended to sit with one coffee for two hours (despite having already ordered much more than that). I said, 'but we want to order food'. He said, 'that's fine if you order food you can stay, otherwise you have to leave'. We'd been there an hour and 15 minutes by this point. He was very rude and I couldn't fathom why he wouldn't just ask if we'd like to order something first, then if we said no, explain that they want a high turnover on the tables to make more money and could we go so he could do that...but in waiter-speak :) All round, upsetting and he had a terrible manner. The two of settled a bill of £27, begrudgingly of course as in fact I didn't want to give them any of my business. I'll not be going back to give...

When we arrived around 9.30 on Saturday morning there were no other customers.

Not really impressed by the flat white and the matcha latte had not been well prepared - there was a blobby mess of matcha powder stuck on the spoon. Not a nice thing to taste at any time but especially not when expecting milk froth.

We ordered our drinks upon entering and then sat down. Nobody approached us after delivering the drinks to see if everything was fine or to take further orders, so paid on the way out.

By the time we left, there were other people having brunch, so the ambience was better. A few big tables for groups and one in the bright room at the back of the cafe.

The space feels welcoming and comfortable with the wooden furniture, dark green leather chairs and warm lighting. The seating is a few steps down from the street so not wheelchair accessible but helps to create a cosy space.

I had walked passed a few times and wanted to like this place - good reviews and close to home - but I can't get that powdery matcha experience out...