French House

The bar staff almost immediately took a dislike to us, I suspect because our group did not fit their preferred clientele profile. i.e. pretentious and Caucasian. They were very rude almost from the outset and one female member of staff was particularly set on making us most unwelcome. Although the doorman was stood approximately 2 metres away and paid us no mind, the aforementioned female member of bar staff (who was at least twice the distance away) started shouting at us to "shush" across the noisy bar room in a very aggressive manner. She was particularly picking out my Chinese girlfriend as the source of the entire din in the bar. On two occasions my girlfriend wasn't actually speaking at the time when she was ordered to shush and when she does speak she is softly spoken. A couple who sat near us protested her innocence as they saw she wasn't actually speaking at the time. We were a group of 4 (one Iraqi, one Chinese and 2 English) and we were not making more noise than anyone else and we certainly were not being rowdy, she just didn't like us. People do talk in bars but not this one, not unless you want to be confronted by a growling barmaid and thrown out. A second female member of staff followed us out and started shouting at my girlfriend in an attempt to escalate the situation on the street. The place is staffed by unprofessional, aggressive, vacuous, pretentious, wannabees (with the exception of the doorman who was professional and polite throughout). This is the first bar I have ever been in where the bar staff try to start fights. All style, no substance and certainly not the place to go if talking to friends or having a good time is your thing!

Very busy in the evenings, a bit more relaxed in the afternoons. Drinks are only served in half pint glasses which means more trips to the bar, but the staff are efficient. We were impressed when one of the bar staff asked someone to stop talking on their mobile phone - a no phone pub! How civilised :-)

Good quality food and always something interesting going on this Soho classic