Barça - Canal-side Bar, Castlefield - Manchester — Restaurant in Manchester

There are some serious personality disorders amongst the management in this place, extremely sociopathic in their communication and general approachability. My partner and I were interested in booking a civil partnership ceremony and dealt with Vicky (Sales, Events & Marketing Manager). Nothing major planned, just us and a couple of friends. We were told that there is a flat rate of £1000, which we tried to negotiate given how small we wanted to keep things. I even out of desperation walked into the venue to talk to Vicky in person to see whether anything could be done on the price and was advised by Vicky that she would speak with the owner and see whether there was anything that can be done. I chased her on email the next day to which she replied with "I already told you on email we can't do anything" - referring to an email that had been sent before i went in person to see her (before she assured me she would speak with the owner) - red flag number 1, dishonesty. There was no room for negotiation at the end of the day, which was absolutely fine by us; hey, it's your venue at the end of the day, so your rules. We got back to Vicky to say that we were happy to pay the £1000. She replied to us to say "As mentioned previously in my emails, the owner has said this is something we could not do at the venue even at the £1000 with the short notice and the circumstances they would not feel comfortable to accommodate the booking." This is a flat out lie, she never said they were uncomfortable hosting, she said we would need to pay £1000. Vicky clearly doesn't realise that lying in writing does her no favours whatsoever. Vicky clearly doesn't realise that lying to prospective clients, whilst being otherwise generally rude and unapproachable, will lead to negative feedback such as this. I for one agree with every other 1-star review for Barca in Google Reviews when it comes to booking the venue for weddings and parties, and it wouldn't surprise me if Vicky is the reason why.

EDIT: my partner advised that she spoke to the venue on the phone. Apparently they changed the goalposts again and said they would now need £7000. These guys are clearly the lowest of the low in their profiteering methods, clearly thought they could pull a fast one. Good luck trying to find someone willing to pay £7k for your stinky, unclean venue (read the other reviews, they're accurate).

EDIT 2: I have the full correspondence in writing and can share it with whoever wants to see it, obviously with it not being commercial and as an individual I have absolutely no obligation to follow GDPR. What Barca have replied with is an outright lie, we were told the minimum spend would be £1,000 (all on email) and it was only when we agreed that price that we were told it would cost £7000 (over the phone). For Barca to respond in the unprofessional and defensive manner in which they have should provide you with all the...

I went to Barca two weeks ago after getting a good offer. It was two courses for £8.00 with a glass of wine which I thought was excellent and because of the location I thought I would have a nice evening.

I love that Barca is sat on the Canal and doesn't attract the masses like Dukes. You can actually enjoy a conversation and find a seat. They have tables right near the water, heated lamps for colder days.

Inside it is a gorgeous building, they have a well lit section that is airy and shows exposed brick walls that give it a rustic feel. The back section is more dimly lit and romantic.

We sat down and ordered our food and drink and waited for 20 minutes and still had no drink or food. We asked where our drink was and was told they presumed we would want that bringing out with our meal? This makes no sense from a business point of view, as surely you want customers drinking and spending? The wine came and it was a further ten minutes for our food to come. We were famished.

The food. It was poor at best and they seem to have an obsession with paprika. It was on and in everything. I got the Thai Mussels with noodles, the plate for some reason was dusted with paprika and rather than the mussels tasting Thai, the paprika just drowned it out. The noodles tasted stale, I had broken mussel shell in the plate, one mussel hadn't opened and there were greasy finger prints on the plate.

My partner got the black pudding fritters and they were a lot nicer. Very tasty and filling, yet still a dusting of paprika??

The wine was just standard house wine. We weren't actually told what type of wine it was.

We waited twenty minutes for the mains to arrive and both commented on the slow service.

My main was sea-bass and the plate was again covered in paprika. The skin had paprika on, but this was fine as this was actually described on the menu. But my fish was all skin and no fish. My rice was completely tasteless and it was accompanied with guacamole which I thought was very weird. These things just don't go to together.

My partner had fish and chips and he shared some fish with me as I was still hungry after my tiny sea-bass and his was actually quite nice. Fairly standard and something we could cook at home. But it filled a hole and was a good size.

The toilets were nice, apart from you get dry hand gel found hospitals to wash your hands with. I found this strange.

I would go back for drinks as the setting is lovely. But i'd never eat...

As per usual once again after contacting PM and promising the owner would contact again nothing. I expect my deposit by no later than 12pm on Monday 7th Feb via cash or Bacs otherwise I will be proceeding with legal action, small claims court to get my 650 deposit back and reporting this company to the authorities as you are not accommodating and I want is my money back. I would rather go to a venue who responds within a few days and not weeks it's not good enough. Do not respond to emails or contact you in four weeks. They owe me 650 for a deposit for venue hire during covid. They was not accomodationg and used that as a clause to get out of paying my deposit back. I have spoken with other venues and my business advisor and now I am aware that this is not great practice and I am entitled to my deposit back. If I do not get a response by 12pm today I will be taking it to the small claims Court and reporting to trading standards about this poor service to consumers.

I will proceed as this practice should not be happening and they know the law and can not blame their unprofessionalism on this I will not tolerate it and I have spoke to citizens advice, my financial business advisor many venues in town and they said my rights.

Unfortunately because, of the lack of professional response I have been given I will have to do it the legal channels via claims court and trading standards and informing the media of their mal practice.

As it is not acceptable and I would not trust them if they are getting potential customers to pay up front be warned. Avoid if you don't want a legal battle god forbid you have to reschedule of no fault...