Review of Dukes London 5*

My three girlfriends and I went to Dukes Bar on Friday 6th April (2018). I'd been a couple of years before and had a great experience so wanted to show them what the fuss was about. I am rather embarrassed to say that it ended up being a bit of a disappointing experience all round. The website says you can’t reserve a table in the bar area (even though about 70% of the tables had ‘reserved’ written on them when we got there). One of the waiters asked the Manager, Alessandro, if we could be seated somewhere and I must say that he didn’t seem to be in a particularly good mood! But we were seated and waited for our other two friends. When our third friend arrived, Alessandro (with some hostility) told her to move her chair to make way for the large group of businessmen who were going to sit next to us and started shuffling her over. He then told us to put our bags away behind us or next to our chairs! We asked about putting our coats in a cloakroom but he rather dismissively said “whatever makes you feel more comfortable” without actually doing anything about it and walked away! We just found him to be rude from the outset and somewhat annoyed that we were even there. The businessmen next to us were chatting and catching up with somewhat raised voices (which is normal for a bar area! ), however, as the evening progressed Alessandro walked passed us to attend to someone else and made a gesture with his hands to shut up one of our friends! We couldn’t quite believe it. Firstly, we have been to many a smart bar and know exactly how to behave and, secondly, we all felt a little victimized by his approach. We were not being any louder than anyone else, and were certainly more quiet than the men next to us. My friend went to speak with him to find out what the issue was and what he meant by his gesture, and he told her that two tables had left because of us and the noise we were making. Such nonsense! I almost feel like he had his wires crossed or had picked the wrong table! He then asked what she thought she was going to “get out of this” as if she, or our whole party, were looking for free drinks! I also walked over to try and defuse the situation but found him to be very aggressive and extremely dismissive of us. There were people around him staring at us which was extremely uncomfortable. I was disgusted and also embarrassed as it was my idea to go to Dukes in the first place. I’m not quite sure what Alessandro’s problem is but he needs to be made aware that he isn’t working in a members bar. All people from ALL walks of life are ALLOWED to enter the bar and enjoy drinks. They must get hundreds of tourists coming through wanting to have a ‘James Bond martini’. Do they get this treatment also? I have a feeling that his hostility was against four women who were quite happily saying goodbye to the working week and ABLE to pay for their own (slightly overpriced) drinks. We don’t need our Dad telling us to be quiet when we were perfectly well behaved. I’d imagine he’s been there for quite some time but he needs to move with the times and not stay stuck in the 1940s. We don’t need permission from our husband’s to go out and have a good time these days. I shall not be returning to Dukes Bar and I certainly won’t recommend it to anyone. There are thousands of other very smart and lovely bars in London with much kinder and more appreciative staff. Save your money and go elsewhere!