The Boundary Farringdon — Restaurant in London

We booked a table last night to watch the Utd vs Liverpool match. Paid £40 deposit which was to be redeemed against food and drink purchased on the night - fair enough. Upon arrival we found our table and took our seats - a fairly menacing member of staff came over and standing banging his hands on the table saying "you use table service, yes?" - we all looked at each other totally confused. So replied "we've made a booking and this is our table, sorry I'm not sure what you meant by table service?" - he replied "Oh, you don't want it then, OK" banged his hands on the table again and stormed off. Utterly bewildered, we sat down. It really wasn't clear whether we were supposed to order from him, the bar or the app.

Having waiting 10 minutes or so, we assumed that he wasn't returning to our table so decided to order a round of drinks on the app - which stated the drinks could be redeemed against the deposit with a code. After a few minutes our drinks arrived. We mentioned about redeeming the drinks from the deposit and were informed that you had to order from the table. Ah - we thought! Perhaps this is what the member of staff had meant from his 'eloquent' and 'customer friendly' manner by repeatedly banging his fist on our table. After 20/25 minutes, we ordered another round of drinks (3 drinks - so not a large table by any means) from the table. We waited 30 minutes and no drinks arrived. We ordered again with a different member of staff. Waited another 30 minutes and no drinks arrived. What seemed ridiculous is that the bar was relatively quiet with people coming and going with drinks frequently - but apparently this option wasn't open to us because we had to redeem the deposit using table service.

With no drinks forthcoming and it being now well over an hour, my friend went to the bar, explained the situation and came back with 3 drinks - thankfully redeemed against the £40 we had already paid. You can appreciate that at this point we are genuinely wondering whether this is all a deliberate ploy to only serve drinks to customers who are paying there and then - rather than those who have prepaid.

Having complained about the lack service, one of the two previously ordered drinks arrived at our table. So having waited 70 minutes or so - we all had 2 drinks (well, 2 is better than none!) and thought that would probably be the end of the evening.

But oh no, our good 'friend' the-menacing-fist-pumping-crazy-angry-guy came back to the table and demanded a credit card from us. Literally shouting. We explained to him "we don't need to give you a credit card, we have already paid £40 and we have purchased 6 drinks which totals £40, and don't intend to have any more drinks". He smacked his fist on the table and demanded a credit card. He went to the till and came back with a bill - listing all the drinks we had ordered BUT HAD NEVER SHOWED UP - with a total bill of around £65. We explained again that these drinks had not arrived. He was extremely angry and intimidating. We asked for the manager. It wouldn't surprise me if other customers in that situation would have paid up given his threatening behaviour.

Another member of staff came over and we explained the situation - they corrected the bill.

It was without doubt one of the worst bar experiences of my life - certainly the worst in London - and I sincerely recommend going elsewhere to avoid awful service and being treated appallingly.

As if the service wasn't bad enough - the bar was ridiculously hot (it was 18 degrees outside, so not one of those hot summer days) which created a stuffy /...

Subject: Complaint regarding poor service and unprofessional conduct

I am writing to express my deep disappointment and dissatisfaction with the experience I had at your pub on 6th June 2025.

On the morning of the same day, I called your venue to ask whether a specific football match would be shown. I clearly provided all the necessary information: the exact time, the broadcasting channels, and the match details. The person who answered the phone, identifying himself as a supervisor, assured me twice that the game would be shown.

Relying on this confirmation, my friends and I traveled nearly two hours from outside London and arrived at the pub 45 minutes before kick-off. Upon arrival, we were told to wait 15–20 minutes because the person in charge was on a break. In the meantime, we ordered drinks, trusting that everything was as promised.

At 7:45 PM — exactly when the match was starting — we were informed that the game would not be shown. No valid explanation was given, no alternative was offered, and not even a single drink was offered as a gesture of goodwill for the obvious inconvenience.

I find this not only highly unprofessional but also disrespectful to customers who invested time and money based on a clear commitment from your staff. Despite having around 20 screens in the venue, none were showing the match. Instead, they displayed cricket, tennis, American football, and other sports — none of which were of interest to the few patrons present.

The whole experience was disappointing and absurd. I myself have worked in the hospitality industry for years and have never witnessed such a lack of organization and customer care.

I hope you take this...

We booked a table here to watch the world cup semi final, 8 of us in total. The reservation was for 4.30pm and we were required to prepay £50 each to secure the booking. When we arrived at the bar just before 4.30 we were met by the "manager" who abruptly told us that they were not open and we had to wait until 5pm before we could come in even though there were clearly people drinking and eating in and around the pub. Even after we explained our booking was 4.30 and we had already paid he was still very unaccommodating. When we finally got into the venue we went to the bar to order a drink and some food but was again abruptly told "no you cant order food". we explained again we had a booking and had prepaid and a rude and reluctant staff member took our order. The food was terrible! When it came to settle the bill we were pretty confidant that we had kept within our budget of £50 per head but was presented with a bill that was £300 over the amount we prepaid. Firstly they had applied a £70 service charge when there was no service, everything had to be ordered at the bar. At the start of the evening we asked the cost of a pint and was told £5.50 ish, however when we looked through the bill they had added about £1 to every pint bought coupled with a ridiculous amount of drinks that were nothing to do with us. We then spent about 30 mins arguing with the manager but they refused to budge and due to the fact they had our card details there was nothing we could do. We were then man handled off the premises.

These people are con artists and are obviously happy to steal money from hard working people... Avoid this dump...