The Clockwork Cocktail Company — Restaurant in Thanet

A Tale of Two Staff Members: Disappointing Visit to The Clockwork Cocktail Company

I've visited The Clockwork Cocktail Company a handful of times since they first opened, and back then, the vibe was good. Cocktails were tasty, reasonably priced, and the place had potential. So, after a lovely meal at Buoy and Oyster, my friend and I thought we'd spontaneously support the space again. They had a happy hour deal, and it seemed like a great way to cap off our evening.

Now, it was a busy night, and I get that things can get hectic behind the bar. My priority was to seat my friend, who is blind, first before heading up to order. Simple enough, right? That's when the night took a turn.

I approached the bar, ready to order, and was greeted (if you can call it that) by a female-presenting staff member who immediately barked at me, "You need to queue!" Fair enough, I thought, but where? So, I politely asked, "Sure, where does the queue start?"

Instead of a helpful response, she snapped again, more aggressively this time, "You need to queue." Confused, but still calm, I asked again, genuinely wanting to follow whatever rule I had missed. But instead of pointing me in the right direction, she yelled at me about a sign outside. I was startled but figured I must have overlooked it in my hurry to get my friend seated.

Sure enough, there was a small, easily missed sign—nothing special, just an A4 printout on a cheap stand. Realising my innocent mistake, I hurried to collect my friend, but the way this staff member treated me left a bad taste in my mouth. It wasn’t just a quick comment; I felt as if I was being talked to like I was beneath her.

And then came the flip side.

A male-presenting staff member approached us as we stood there, and he was the complete opposite: super friendly, understanding, and helpful. I explained my situation—how I was just trying to seat my disabled friend—and he kindly found us a table right away. He handled it with such warmth and care that it made the earlier experience all the more jarring.

But despite his kindness, I couldn’t shake the negative energy from that initial interaction. I wasn’t rude, confrontational, or difficult, so I can only assume they misjudged me as someone not worthy of their establishment. For whatever reason, it felt like I was being treated as though I didn’t belong there.

It’s been a few weeks since that visit, and honestly, I’ve hesitated to write this because the memory still leaves a sour note. In the past, I’ve had great experiences here, and maybe others will too, depending on who they interact with. But for me, I won’t be returning. It’s unfortunate when one rude staff member can overshadow what could’ve been a...

We have always enjoyed coming here and had a good experience last night up until it was time to pay. We were a large group and paid for everything we had ordered. There were two cocktails left on the bill that no one in our group had ordered. When we pointed this out, the waitress insisted we had ordered them and spoke to us in a way that felt unnecessarily rude. While the issue was eventually resolved and we were allowed to leave without paying for the cocktails we hadn’t ordered, the interaction left us feeling uncomfortable and unwelcome. It also seemed as though we were spoken to this way because we are younger. This isn’t the first time cocktails have been mistakenly added to our bill, though in the past your staff have handled it politely and revolved it quickly. I’m genuinely gutted to feel like I can’t return after this experience, as it has always been a place...

If It was just on drinks I'd give 5 stars but it was a quiet night and its supposed to be table service with covid restrictions unfortunately we had to get up every time we wanted a drink table next to us seems to get more attentive service not sure why. We were out for birthday drinks and were really happy when we were able to extend our original hour slot so thought we'd have a couple as we were no longer rushed was a bit unimpressed that the server made a joke we must be pouring the drinks in to our bags because we happened to have a couple of rounds. Aside from that...