The Strangled Cat Newcastle — Restaurant in Newcastle-under-Lyme

Our hen do was a complete disaster. We booked a bottomless Sunday roast dinner and cocktails, but they didn't deliver at all. Instead, after we'd already ordered our first round of drinks, they told us the Sunday dinner wasn't booked properly on their end and offered a 'light bites' menu instead. This was apparently because management failed to inform the venue that we'd booked (weeks in advance) for the Sunday Roast brunch.

To make matters worse, a lot of that replacement menu wasn't even available! And there was no chef. Please note guests had allergies that were communicated to the business prior. This is a real concern if the single bar staff in the kitchen instead isn't trained on food safety and handling allergens.

The staff did not tell us about the change in menu before we ordered our first round of drinks and insisted the light bite menu was worth the same price as the Sunday roast we'd booked. After the second round of drinks we learnt that the light bites menu was super limited and missing many items and we decided that options such as nachos (and no dip) were not suitable meal substitutes for anyone, especially our pregnant guests, as well as guests with allergies. The limited light bite menu with many items missing was also supposed to still be paid at full price (£35 each).

We ended up with a £185 bill, and even though they deducted our £70 deposit (which was paid for the Sunday dinner), we still had to pay £67.50 for drinks we thought were going to be part of a bottomless experience.

After complaining by email, they offered to refund the £67.50 we spent on drinks, but they refused to refund the £70 deposit (paid towards our bottomless Sunday dinner), claiming it covered the drinks we ordered before we knew the full extent of their screw-up. Honestly, the customer service was awful, and they were completely inflexible about fixing the situation to an acceptable standard. Any charges that we incurred due to their failure to uphold our booking, and to not communicate this to us before we ordered drinks, ought to have been absorbed by the business in accordance to our understanding of customer service laws. This is because they failed to tell us about these changes in what we would actually be purchasing before we ordered drinks. I don't think we'll be getting our £70 deposit refunded to us as I was told via email interactions with the business.

It ruined what should have been a special day for the bride-to-be. We left without food, ordering only two rounds of drinks, and forcing us to go elsewhere. The whole night was ruined by Bloom. We understand that the business is closing; if they couldn't offer full service and also fail to inform us ahead of time about these changes, then they should have just cancelled and refunded our deposit.

Thanks for the partial refund and absolutely nothing else. Disappointed, drained, and let down.

This review isn't because of the money wasted; this complaint is because of your failures as a business to communicate properly both internally and externally, wasting our time and energy, failing to deliver on our agreement, failing to offer suitable concessions on the night to save our hen party, and refusing to refund the deposit after everything.

Good luck in you future endeavours, and please don't allow this experience to happen to another hen party (or any booking) if you return to the customer...

Stopped by on a very quiet Sunday for a bottomless brunch. Service was fantastic, our drinks orders were taken quickly and without delay.

The rest of our visit however was extremely disappointing. Which is a real shame because our previous experience of the food & cocktails at Bloom Newcastle has always been of a very high standard, one in which we had grown accustom to.

The Salt & Pepper Chicken was dry and tough - inedible really. Popcorn Chicken was unavailable, which we were not informed of until after we were served with an alternative we didn't ask for - one which turned out to be another crime against chicken.

With only two other tables to accommodate, I fail to see why the kitchen felt comfortable serving such substandard food.

Not only this, but the cocktails themselves seem to have dropped in quality too. Cheaper ingredients being used perhaps? And to top that off our drinks were repeatedly served in dirty glasses, which is frankly unacceptable.

Now admittedly, this is our first visit to Bloom since they were acquired by their new owners. And it would seem standards have slipped away rather quickly.

Bloom was one of our favourite places in Newcastle, and we always agreed we needed more places like it locally. They had a winning formula, but it seems to have lost that magic...

Shared an evening out tonight at Bloom in Newcastle-Under-Lyme and I must say, I was highly disappointed. The picture that this bar paints on the website and Social pages are nothing alike. This was my first visit and unfortunately will be my last, me and my husband payed for two over priced 'cocktails' of that's what they like to call them and left the bar with the worst reflux and belly pain. There was nothing but cheap alcohol and some sort of awful citrus juice that entered our glasses. Music was far too loud for such a tiny Bar, not relaxing at all, Ladies and Gents Toilets were out of use, one disabled toilet remained and this was not fit for purpose due to broken tiles and poor sanitisation. Staff served us very fast, so fast the Barman was dropping stuff unnecessarily ( there were 4 people, with us in the bar) not exactly rushed of their feet... primarily I came out of the bar feeling deaf from the ridiculous music player and the worst heart burn. Will not be returning, wouldn't waste my breath thinking they stay open untill 1pm as stated either on a Saturday night as shutters were closing at 11.30pm and what appears to be customers that may be a regular, walk past you to tell you that we have to leave in 20 minutes! !...