The Purple Turtle — Restaurant in Reading

After going to Turtle multiple times in the last year, I can honestly say it is an overhyped and terribly run club.

Ive been in the club more then once when it’s been either been over capacity or staff have been managed badly and thus has resulted in waiting for ages just to get 1 drink.

The bouncers are idiotic, rude, egotistical thugs who think their powers mean they can physically and verbally assault people. I was hired by the venue to play with my band on a Monday night. Only to be refused entry by the bouncers when I popped out to grab a Subway, because I’d left my ID inside. I completely get I didn’t have my ID but I had been walking around the venue for hours, had thousands of pounds worth of equipment in the venue, had been hired by the venue to play and had walked past the bouncers to get to Subway, not to mention I’m nearly 30 and have multiple visible tattoos. The manager was also on the door at this time but still didn’t even know that my band were even playing that night. Eventually I get let in after multiple staff members, the promoter and myself can prove to the bouncers and the manager that my band is playing, but only after the bouncers had already made multiple rude remarks and comments on me not being allowed in like a couple of over sized kids. I’ve never been to a venue to perform where the management and security don’t know what events are going on in their venue, especially when the venue approached us to play and not the other way round, just completely rude and unprofessional.

On another occasion I passed my girlfriend my bank card when we were in the club garden, this was so she could buy us a couple of drinks. On route to the bar she saw it was very busy and opted to go use the loo before getting drinks. It’s at this time that a female member of staff/bouncer decides to follow her to the loo and wait for her outside the cubicle. Upon my girlfriends exit of said cubicle the staff member frog marches her to the front of the building to the bouncers. Here she is made to empty her pockets and had staff and security members searching her persons without consent or even telling her why, even though she asked multiple times. This is already an issue but to make the situation worse she is autistic and has sensory issues, so being frisked without consent or explanation caused her great distress. Though this isn’t the end of it, once they had failed to find anything on her, she was told to ‘fuck off’ and ‘get lost love’ by the bouncers. This resulted in her being left alone outside, until she was able to speak to another member of management to be re-allowed entry, at which point she immediately found me and we left due to her being rather upset. This is disgusting, unprofessional behaviour and neither of us got an apology for either of these incidents. We have both worked in hospitality and understand the pressures, laws and regulations these establishments have to follow. But the management and security here have come across as over zealous idiots who seem to get a kick out of pushing around students.

Apart from these incidents, the club itself really isn’t all that either, there is one mediocre sized dance floor which when busy is impossible to move on. A garden which looks better than it actually is and can sometimes be plagued by a vile smell from the toilets. The very same toilets which are poorly located in the building and tiny..

In conclusion I would say the unprofessional, terrible management and security staff letdown a group of decent staff members and a potentially half decent venue, it’s a...

I like Purple Turtle's mostly for its happy casual atmosphere and its large and well thought out outside area. I do have a few griefs. Door supervisors vary from being very professional and helpful to aggressive and overbearing. It causes more problems to charge through a crowd and knock everyone's drinks over to get rid of a guy having a row! They allow a later entry for those who work in local bars but they are rude and draconian about seeing payslips. When will some bouncers learn that they are the first impression to customers of a business and need to be friendly!

Outside area with its shisha lounge, upstairs, downstairs, dungeon dance floor etc etc make the place because unfortunately they switched beer suppliers and are left with a pretty shoddy range. Ciders and ales on handpull are good still. Some new nervous staff who aren't really improving with time. Pints of beer are poured using the 'swill it around to create foam' trick which screams of poor training. A staff member who I think supervises the bar tenders thought my £50 note (I know, I needed to spend it somewhere...) was fake and ripped it nearly in two trying to do something with the metal strip he must have read somewhere. Other staff and customers got involved and was clear no one knew what they were doing. Bit awkward and held up a very busy bar. Lady on the shisha lounge looks extremely bored and unhappy left alone. Purple Turtle should rotate staff around to keep her from nodding off.

I'll still keep going back for...

To the causal observer the Purple Turtle could be mistaken for a place somewhat similar to the Old Pink Dog Bar on the lower south side of Han Dold City as featured in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. This however can only be passed off as a bad rumour; for one, because there is no evil-looking bird perched behind the bar screeching out the names and addresses of local contract killers. And two because there is also no old dead landlord's hand and forearm serving drinks and throwing out people who cannot pay. Instead this is a great rock themed bar with long-haired staff dressed and tattooed as you would expect. The drink choices are plentiful and the atmosphere is friendly. Though one or two of the punters may come across as being weird; but probably are mostly harmless. Five o'clock on a Saturday is not too full by all accounts, but certainly busy on the run up to the evening rush. By reputation and understanding, the place can get very packed. It's also not surprising, as I expect all the old clientele from the closed Rising Sun pub come here. There is certainly a good opportunity to see live bands here on occasions. They have a nice two-level outdoor seating area with some covered bits, a large TV screen and also plenty of room to get away from the football being shown on it. Like so many places now, they take debit cards. Though I did not ask whether they take...