The Understudy — Restaurant in London

Rude bar staff as they continually ignore people who are next in the bar queue and instead call forward other customers who are behind in the queue. I am a professional in my mid 40's who has gone to this bar once a month for the past four months with two or three of my other professional friends only because it is near Waterloo station on the way home. We have all noticed on all of our visits that even though there will be two to three bar staff when the bar is not busy, they are not trained to have the awareness to look at the queue to see who is next, but rather will ignore us and other customers who are indeed next and just leave it up to whichever customer rushes up from behind the queue and serves them, even when the next person in queue waves at them. It repeatedly occurs to everyone in my group every time we have attended, and to others with whom we have met in the queue. Being ignored at the front of the queue by not one but two bartenders consecutively while in the same queue really does cause a negative customer experience and builds negative goodwill when looking to have a good time with drinks after work, and should be an easy fix by properly training all staff members. Just yesterday the female East Asian bartender ignored the woman at the bar in front of me until I pointed out she was next, then she ignored me since I was next in line after another female brunette Caucasian bartender ignored me in the same instance. But all of this bar's bartenders do this. This needs to be fixed by training immediately. Pricing is average, the outdoor seating is good simply because of the waterfront location, and the unisex toilets are very poor since every stall is about a third flooded with spilt urine or water, which should also be an easy fix with regular staff cleaning of the toilets every hour. Due to the poor and rude bar service and urine covered toilets, I recommend you go elsewhere until they properly train their staff on queue awareness/management and toilet maintenance, as plenty of alternatives along the waterfront...

Health and safety gone mad!!!

Essay follows.

Everyone’s aware that plastic consumption is a problem*. The 5 R’s (according to the internet) are ‘Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle’ with the emphasis on Refuse first and Recycle last. Here you will find the first of the four “R’s” to be impossible. They will insist on dispensing single use plastic pint glasses, and if you bring it back to the bar for a top-up it will be refused on the grounds of ‘health and safety’. I can appreciate the predicament of a vendor not knowing the full history of a receptacle when it comes to serving food and/or drink but this is a problem that could be resolved by offering reusable containers. Enjoying an alcoholic beverage outside a theatre on the Southbank of the Thames in the twenty-first century is pretty much the precise definition of privilege when looking at a global picture. Why should we be so arrogant as to throw away a perfectly good container when we fully understand the long-term impact it will have on the planet. If you consider yourself ‘progressive’ in any sense of the word you should be challenging this and looking for a better way of living. Sanctimonious rant? Maybe. But don’t ignore the issue because it’s easy. That’s not why you exist.

*plastic consumption...

I reserved a table in advance at this venue for a large meet up event. The communication by email was really good, as well as with the staff on site. A few days before, I asked to change the table to outdoors, due to nice weather. However when I arrived to set up early, there was a staged performance going on outside and outside was crowded. So I asked last minute to have our original table indoors, because it was cooler indoors and the side of the bar was open allowing air in. Luckily, the table was still available. My group took over half the bar and enjoyed both the indoor and outdoor areas. I made sure to tidy up after my guests. Food is allowed in the bar, provided it’s from a National Theatre venue. Dogs are not allowed indoors, but outside is fine. Children are allowed inside with their adults, it’s a lovely family environment. The bar was busy, but we didn’t have to wait more than 10 minutes to be served, which is great considering there was a staged event outside which was proving popular. The vibe is chilled and on previous visits, they had music playing. I really like this bar and...