Employees Only Restaurant and Bar — Restaurant in West Hollywood

Taste :4.3/5 Environment: 4.4/5 Service：4.4/5

The manager was very accommodative when we had to reschedule our reservation the following night. On first impression, the bar has a retro design ( like a call back to the 1920s ).

The waiters at the dining section were dressed in black while the bartenders wore the signature white uniforms ( like a cross between a chef and bodyguard’s attire). Our culinary adventure started with 2 cocktails ( both were suggested by our waiter ). I had the mezcal based “Ready Fire Aim” and my partner had the rye forward “Golden Smoke”. Of note: these cocktails are very strong. Especially the GS.

Cocktails: Golden Smoke: Should be more suited for men. This is a smoked cocktail ( the glass is filled and covered with scented smoke to enhance the aroma ). As a presentation, our waiter poured the cocktail mixture on an EO logo etched large clear ice cube. Ready Fire Aim: a mezcal based cocktail. The smokiness of the mezcal clearly stands out. You can also taste pineapple and honey in the background. The RFA is complimented with a few dashes of crushed pink peppercorns.

Onto dinner: Appetiser: Japanese sweet potatoes. They were paired with a coconut paste. The coconut flavour played well with the crisp sweet potatoes. Main: Wood Fired chicken. Surprise of the night. The order consisted of ONLY TWO PIECES. It cost $36 and came around 25 minutes after the JSP. Yes it was tasty, the inner texture was soft and succulent and the skin had the consistency of pecking duck. But again, this meal is clearly lacking in quantity provided.

After dinner cocktail: we moved to the bar area and finished with a Hibiscus Rising. It was similar to the RFA but had more of a floral taste.

Final impressions. If you’re not a fan of straight hard liquor, you can request the server/bartender to use less of it in the cocktails, because the hard liquor can sometimes overpower the other ingredients. EO is a chill place if you’re on a bar crawl or want to experience unique cocktails with great service.

EO has been listed as one of the World's 50 Best Bars and continues to garner accolades for its cocktails, food, and...

This patio is super cute and the inside vibe was buzzing, so I’m very disappointed I have to leave this bad review. We had a birthday celebration Saturday with 15 people and came in for some drinks and some apps. We had a horrible waiter named Kyle. When we sat down we had about 10 people already there and the waiter right away told us we had wait until the whole party had arrived to order drinks. We pushed and said no we would like to start ordering now seeing that others would slowly join over the next hour. After finally ordering he pushed us and said that wasn’t enough food and that we should really order more. He was oddly aggressive. He also stated that we already ordered 4 focaccia which we absolutely did not and the kitchen was already making them so we could not refuse them? It was so weird since we had just sat down like 10 minutes ago. We gave in and ordered our drinks with that focaccia and some orders of fries. He was rude the entire night and kept on bringing drinks over that were not ours and telling us we ordered them when we we did not. He had such a bad attitude, it really put a damper on the night.

At the end of the night he gave us our bill that clearly had some drinks on it that we didn’t recognize but we all just chipped in. The most inappropriate thing I have ever seen then occurred…. My friend gave her credit card to pay and when the bill came back it was charged higher than the bill we had all just agreed on and split evenly. He claimed some of our party had ordered drinks at the bar that were not Included and that was the reasoning. This is the craziest thing I have ever witnessed. As a server for 4 years you do NOT charge a credit card more (like $35 more) without showing or approving by the customer. This was completely absurd and we were all livid. Kyle clearly has no understanding of customer service nor respect.

I really wanted to go back and try again, but I am not sure I ever will. What a horrible experience and all because of the service. To be honest everything was also way overpriced. We all ended up paying $70 for 3 rounds of drinks with...

Wow, I am still speechless over what happened here. I wanted to have my birthday party dinner here. Rather than trying to accommodate my party, their manager, Leah, looked at us opportunistically and tried to corner us into a buyout or prix fixe dinner. Two weeks prior to my birthday, when I originally started to talk to them, I figured I would have at least 10 friends, but no more than 20, which I told Leah from Day 1. As the day got closer, it was 18 people, and Leah bait and switched and would not sit more than 16 people at a table without a Buyout, nor more than 10 people without prix fix, and would not even offer 2 separate checks for that large of a table. So my friends and I just decided to book separate tables at Employees Only because we didn't want to figure out what 18 people ordered at the end of the night on one bill anyway, or have to order the same thing as everyone else, or overpay for items. I had merely asked for 3-4 separate checks for that large of a party. Leah actually cancelled 4 of our reservations. She wrote: "Unfortunately, having 10+ guests dispersed throughout the dining room, but wishing to be part of the same party does not work for us." So they did not want our business? My friends were so upset. I didn't care because there are tons of other places that would happily accommodate us...we ended up at Catch Steak, in their gorgeous red room (very speakeasy-ish), with 30 paying guests. Basically, as soon as I told my friends about Catch, so many more were in. Catch made thousands of dollars on us that night and threw in extra appetizers and birthday cake. We had such a great party. If we had more time, were going to go by Employees Only, walk through, and give them a scene from Pretty Woman - "remember when you wouldn't wait us the other day...BIG mistake, HUGE." But I just felt sorry for the nice bartenders and servers that I had encountered. It's not their fault that the place is mismanaged. The 30 people at my party all know of this terrible experience from Employees Only and none of us will ever go back there. I think others...