Bedouin, Smithfield

A group of us went to this bar on a Friday night. We had booked a table and were planning on eating. We got in there at just after 8. This is not my idea of a good place to eat and I would not go back. (Read reviews on the 2nd page - the 1st page are all decent, but not the 2nd page!). The "tables" are fairly low and so you have to pick your plates up to eat, there were loads of options unavailable, and the quality of the food was absolutely appalling. I had veggie couscous which was bland and boring. For nearly �10 I'd expect a lot better. This was a complete rip-off. The good things; the music is good as is the ambience and we had a waitress who was actually polite but did take her time. I didn't see the bill so don't know if the 12.5% service was on it or not - I suspect it must have been. However, I will not be going back to this place. The ladies toilets (only 2) are an absolute disgrace. No locks on the doors, toilet pipes leaking, cracked toilets, you cannot flush anything down the toilet and the bins provided are tiny and have no lids, this is nothing compared to the sanitary bins which had obviously not been emptied for weeks as I couldn't even open it! Washing your hands was done by candlelight and the bin for the paper towels was also tiny and overflowing by 8.30pm! This surely must all go against Health & Safety and must be a fire hazard? I complained to "the management" who doubled up as the doorman - I had to stand outside and speak to him and was interrupted everytime someone wanted entry. He told me they'd had a problem with the toilets for weeks and did apologise, but did nothing for us by way of compensation - he told me he would get back to me but he didn't. When we left he had 3 ladies outside demanding their entrance money back (and they were almost having to beg for it) - don't know the reason for this, but I don't blame them. Beduin is in Farringdon, London, not some back of beyond hovel in Morocco where you'd expect the toilets to be bad! I'm just glad we were in there early enough not to have to pay entrance.

16 May 2005 12:05