The Black Penny | Covent Garden — Restaurant in London

I am not one to ever leave reviews but I felt the need to warn others who want to come here. Came here based on the reviews and the food wasn’t bad, but wasn’t the most amazing and wasn’t worth spending ANY money on considering the service provided. The staff and servers were pretty nice the issue was with the hostess who was seating everyone. We came in with empty coffee cups as we had drank coffee on our walk to the location and there were no bins to toss our trash so they were just in our hands and the server took it while saying “no outside advertisement” to which I laughed and thanked her because I thought she was joking… unfortunately she was not and was some super uptight little lady who was ordering all the staff around and saying random commands to customers waiting around. She made me feel second hand discomfort with the way she was treating her coworkers.. my fiancé had a small bottle of orange juice with him and she instructed him that he was not allowed to drink it because it wasn’t purchased there even though we ordered food and other drinks while we were there. After we finished our meal we paid and as we were waiting for our receipt to leave she told him “you are ruining the other customers’ experience” because he TOOK A SIP from his bottle of orange juice???? It literally took me a second to even process what she was saying because I thought she was apologizing for badgering him about his small bottle of juice previously during our dining experience, but NO she was just going out of her way to be unnecessary and rude. I genuinely can’t believe she has a job there because we can’t be the first ones to complain, she was even telling her coworkers how to do their jobs… she ruined the entire experience for us and it was such a waste of our money to pay just to feel uncomfortable the whole time and to be told “we are ruining the other customers’ experience” when we were kind and thankful to all the servers and staff because we know how difficult their job is. I genuinely feel awful for all the people who have to work with her and don’t think they deserve to work in that environment with that woman. Her coworkers were even embarrassed with her behaviors and comments, she definitely shouldn’t be working their with her attitude...

I'm not normally one to complain about a restaurant but I truly found the service here unbearably disappointing. I came here with my family of 3 for brunch, and one of our relatives was running 20 mins late due to traffic. After sitting, we told the waitress we were waiting on someone before we order. She said she had to check with her manager as there is a 90 minute time limit. I was initially fine with this, as I understand table turnovers are important in restaurants and I knew that we would finish within 90 mins anyways.

However, another waiter came by (I assume the manager), who was extremely rude to us. I explained that we will have coffee and tea first and order food together as a group when the last member arrives. He said 'this is a business" and he told us we have to eat now and when our guest arrives he can eat after, essentially forcing us to order drinks and food at the same time and without our guest! His attitude and the experience made my family extremely uncomfortable. As I said, I can appreciate table turnaround times and an imposed 90 min limit. But if we agree to keep within our time limit, you shouldn't dictate when we order our drinks/food. If the waiter suggested an alternative like ordering drinks in the cafe area while we wait, and then giving us a table in the dining area after our guest arrived to avoid taking up a table, we would have been perfectly happy to comply. Instead, he just rudely repeated that "this is a business". At the end, he had the audacity of asking us why we chose not to pay the 12.5% discretionary service charge. Coming from North America, I've always been happy to leave extra tips for good service. But, I've been to countless brunches/cafes in different countries and have never found a service as underwhelming as this. Those restaurants are all businesses too, none of them found the need to passively aggressively tell me that they are a business as if I was an idiot. I'll be sure to take my business elsewhere...

The experience of waiting to be seated at the Black Penny is akin to the day after payday when more goes out than has gone in. Now I do appreciate it's a Sunday, brunch time etc and do expect to wait as it was busy. But having waited in line for at least twenty minutes, several people left and yet no one was let in to be seated. We had still not been acknowledged by the waitress or given any kind of idea of how much longer the wait would be. Then, finally, there were just two ladies before us who accepted seats at the bar. There were two more seats available next to them, we could almost taste our food. But alas, we didn't even get in the door.

The two ladies changed their mind about sitting at the bar - absolutely fine - but the waitress, who already knew there were no seats available, because she'd just said so, went on a hunt for another table. Only to return several minutes later and say the same thing. All this while the four seats at the bar were waiting to be filled. When my friend asked if we could sit down she was met with a rude, dismissive reply. "These customers were before you," she said. As if we didn't know that. But she'd just told them they'd have to wait until a table became free! So what else did she need to do for them in that moment? Wouldn't logic permit that if those customers want to wait for another table that the next customer should be offered the one they passed up on? Meanwhile, you guessed it, four seats at the bar still sitting unused. At this point I decided that the Black Penny would not get another minute of my time, or a penny (ha) of my money. I came home and made cheese on toast instead. At least it didn't...