Y est allé·e le 16 août 2024
- Global 3
- Plats 4
- Service 2
- Atmosphère 3
We have been to Poco three or four times since it opened. It's a gorgeous space, with a concise but lovely drinks list. We are very glad to have somewhere this nice for drinks on our side of town.
However, our recent visit left a lot to be desired. We went on a Friday, responding to a promotional email telling us that they were doing cocktails for £7 between 5 and 7pm on Fridays, with an extra 10% off if you booked a table. So, we booked.
When we arrived there was no music playing and all the tables were full, but they hadn't put on any extra staff. So service was veeeery slow. People were arriving having booked and told there weren't any tables so they'd have to sit outside. The vast majority of patrons were pairs of people, we got the last inside table and would have happily shared our large booth if asked.
The two drinks we each managed to get were as always, utterly delightful, and the small free bread snack we had we nice but food was really slowing down their drink service with just two people on.
When it came time for us to leave - we had a dinner reservation elsewhere - I went to pay and had to wait about 8 minutes as the two staff members were busy and then the bill came to £36. I'm no maths whizz but even I know 4 x £7 - 10% is £25.20. The bloke went into a bit of a meltdown when I queried this, and kept trying to override the till with different numbers saying it's because of service charge. I'm happy to pay a standard 10% service charge. But that should bring it back to about £28. I ended up paying £29.52. Admittedly cheaper than the menu price, but why publicize a promotion if you're not going to honor it?
As we left another couple heard us discussing it and said they had had the same experience.
We will be back, but I urge Poco to plan staff levels and training to run alongside any promotions - people had clearly responded well but they hadn't planned for it.
