Banyan Bar & Kitchen - Newcastle — Restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne

Thursday 22nd 6pm booking under my name. 3 booths left of entrance. Incase anyone at Banyan wants to check this over.

Where to begin, well with booking. Process smooth and the staff friendly on the phone. We booked our staff party for 13 of us on their "Bottomless Supper" menu we we're quoted £39.99pp which was weird as we had seen it as £42.50 on their online menu. However we booked and paid the deposit. 3 weeks later we received news it was incorrect and our new bill would be sent over. Personally i think they should have honoured the price however they offered an extra half hour onto our 2 hour package. For £2.50 we thought that was fair. (Until we arrived..)

Then we we're sent the menu to pre order, absolutely minimal compared to the websites advertised. However we sorted that. Then the strangest thing happened. I received and email asking me to pay the deposit for the extra 4 people i had just added onto the booking over the phone? I rang to explain i hadn't called. And was told politely "we just received a phone call from Jack who added 4 to your party" i was confused because they admitted the call was not from myself so i wondered why they would just add randoms to our group without checking. They then tagged his email in my private email chain with Banyan. They emediatly cancelled the cling ons. And apologised. Were super friendly!

Despite all of the above up to now they had dealt with situations well and were polite to deal with. This is where it changes. We arrive 10 minutes before our booked time 6pm.

We were then directed to 3 seperate booths 1 of which had people on! I'm sorry but when you book for a large party together you sit together not back to back. Also the fact people were removed from a table we had booked for 7 weeks. We were then pointed at by the staff member as they removed them which lead to an awkward feeling between those being turfed out. We were then sat and did not have a clue where to begin.

After 15 minutes me and my wife went to query 1st our ridiculous table set up and secondly what was the set up for ordering drinks. To the table set up we were told their was a lot of large tables booked, then the staff member pointed at a 20 and a 16. But the issue with that is, why is any other table as important as the other and maybe the table set up should be explained. Because it didn't look like any organisation had went into the booking system. Also thr fact we had people turfed off the tables they had "reserved". Then we asked about drinks and we were told they were so busy it was hard to get round. Surely when people are booking packages like "bottomless supper" there are designated serving members to each party or split across a few to ensure service? Anyway at 6.35 (there goes the extra 30 minutes) we got a glass of prosecco and our drinks order in. It wasn't till 6.50 did our full round of 1st drinks arrive. After all of this, we all smiled, drank and enjoyed the food which hit the spot. But overall for a simple booking we were left stressed and bemused over the whole event.

The 2 stars is for the lovely staff member who did serve us well the rest of our evening and the Korean Chicken burger which...

RUDE AND INTIMIDATING STAFF WHO MANUFACTURED A VERY UNWELCOME EXPERIENCE Two friends and I arrived tonight at 18 30 and bought a drink and took a seat a table that was reserved from 19:00. At 18:45 the staff informed us that we must leave the table as the booking arrived early. We said we would finish our drinks and leave before the 19:00 booking. The supervisor proceeded to call security over to the table which was both unnecessary and extremely hostile. The security simply smiled and walked away when he realised we were being polite and reasonable. We were entitled to finish the drinks we paid for as the table was still in general use until 19:00. We left at 18:55 and were met with further abuse from the two blonde female members of staff who were insulting and intimidating. The ironic reality is that our friend knew the girls who had the table booked at 19:00 and he spoke to them - they realised they were early and were happy to wait until their booking started at 19:00 (they were still in the line at the bar as it was very busy). The Banyan staff tonight created an awful atmosphere and were very rude both as we attempted to enjoy our drinks and especially as we left they made attempts to stoke the atmosphere and create a more negative situation. Very poor management and decision making from the employees that led to a very negative and...

Looked like a nice trendy upmarket place. Sadly that’s all it is.staff are all young but very polite and accommodating and professional. However the food is hurrendous. Ordered rustic steak ciabatta and gastro chips, 3 or 4 tiny burnt knarly bits of steak with burnt mushrooms (all cold) with the worst excuse for gastro chips I ve ever seen which were cold and stale and didn’t even look like potato and they wanted£12.50 for it so it got sent back and I did without, the mrs ordered bibimbap salad £13 which she said was bland with dried out salad and left half of it, on top of that it was a 54 minute wait for food and it wasn’t at all busy not even quarter full, You would think that with the prices these delinquents charge for food there would be a certain level of care and quality, sadly there’s none. Only saving grace is the front of house staff are nice and very apologetic, can’t say the same for the back room staff and management. We won’t be attending again . Avoid at all costs. Also when you email the manager in the response below you get ignored. They only put a response in to make potential customers think they are...