The bar itself is nice. The smoking area and toilets are cool (With the cassette tapes on the wall)And too be honest that's as good as it gets.This whole idea of entering to the next bar/seating area through a wardrobe is a total hype! Its just a normal door... you just walk through...with a wardrobe type exterior. The reason why i gave this bar 1 star is ALL due to the customer service and the rudeness of the staff. Pushing past customers, passive aggressively telling you to move (no please or thank you)I had booked a booth at Callooh Callay for my birthday. I booked the booth for 10 people. When arriving to the bar, i was made to wait for the booth. Finally me and my mates all tucked into the booth with our drinks, having a good catch up. Then i realised 3 extra people had turned up (Partners of friends) I thought, oh this should be fine as we all fit in the booth comfortably apart from 1 person, so we kindly asked for ONE chair for the end of the table. (Where there was space)This is when the bar manager realised that we had more than 10 and demanded 3 of our party drink in the other bar..... Because OF COURSE we want to be separated on my birthday.The manager had NO customer service skills, he was rude, pretentious and unaccommodating. He acted like they had NEVER had a party come in with a few extras before. It was not like i had 5, 6 or 7 extras!We then spoke to the head manager and he seemed a bit nicer but still wouldn't budge. It was not a capacity limit issue. It was JUST because they only seat 10 at that particular table. They didn't even seem to care that it was my birthday and we would of spent the whole night there if they gave us ONE more chair. RidiculousWe finished our drinks and left. I will never ever go back there. We went to the Elbow rooms, which i would highly recommend! Lovely staff and music.

Used to be a good bar but now it is really rude and pretentious. Hen do's and leaving parties usually book the tables and the staff make you feel really unwelcome if you haven't booked. The cocktails have also gone downhill. There are much better places in the area.

Absolutely terrible customer service, this bar is incredibly pretentious and staff are rude and arrogant. Also, there is nothing special about the cocktails- they are weak and stingy; there are certainly better cocktail places out there. The discretionary service charge is a joke- we were harassed to buy drinks by a rude waitress who rolled her eyes and said "why is everyone not drinking"-because we were sipping at our own pace and attempting to enjoy the company of our friends (it was a birthday event) and not particularly enjoying the weak, tiny cocktails in the first place. The waitress was trying to push us to buy overpriced (at £9plus a go) cocktails rather than having any attempt at customer care. As someone who has worked in the hospitality sector, I found this behaviour outrageous. A year ago, the bar was good; friendly bartenders who would listen to your requirements, gramophones to drink out of- quirky and fun. However, now it's heading down the tacky route with drinking bowls instead of the gramophones, and cheap-looking menus. They also told the head of our party that a £10 charge for any person under nine people required to book would be charged (upon what legal basis I do not know). All in all, an experience I would not repeat.

I celebrated my birthday here on 26 march, with a pre-booked table for 15. amazing service and drinks, although i didn't fancy your chances of getting in without a booking. wonderful place though. can't praise it highly enough!

Love this bar, I think maybe the staff are more stressed than arrogant, it's always busy on weekends so I book when possible.
I live in Shoreditch and this is my favourite cocktail bar, only downside is how packed and hot it is on weekends.
Great cocktails, suprisingly good food. Favourite place to sit is by the windows. Good place for a treat or a date xx

Confused. Comhad a lovely evening there with fairly decent cocktails and great waitress. Spoiled at the end however. We happily paid over the 12.5% 'discretionary service charge' on the bill in order to tip the waitress, and didn't understand why she looked so upset and accused us of not leaving a tip for her. When we double-checked her sums and pointed out we'd left her more than the automatically added amount she told us that this wasn't for her. When raised with the manager we were told that this 'discretionary service charge' was actually given to the management for our use of the table and the right to have drinks served to us there, and that we should therefore tip the waitress in addition to this if we were happy with her service. Surely this isn't right? Surly the 'service charge' is for the service from the waitress and/or a pot that all the staff share in addition to their wages? Was this lovely (eastern European) girl being exploited by the employers of this otherwise great bar? Or can we really be levied a 'discretionary service charge' that is in reality a hidden 'cover charge' that results in an additional 25% on our expenditure that night? Can anyone clarify the legal situation here? Thanks

Went to Calooh Callay for the launch of their new summer menu. And what a menu it is. This bar just keeps upping its game and the quality of cocktails served was absolutely first rate. For the uninitiated the menu may be a little daunting with lots of less common ingredients being used, making it difficult to imagine what the finished cocktail will be like unless you are a regular cocktail drinker. However, if like me you enjoy nothing better than a night of well balanced, interesting and delicious cocktails then this bar is an absolute must. The service is also very good and the bar snacks are an absolute must as well, very delicious. I cant recommend this bar highly enough.

The music and seating/lighting was lovely. However the staff were rude and pretentious and the drinks are expensive. £15 for two drinks (spirits and mixer) doubles which was assumed, and not asked. Not impressed and would not go there again or recommend it as a venue for friends.