The Folly is an aesthetically pleasing venue, it's also spacious and in a central location - this is why I chose it for my recent birthday drinks. The service was however shockingly bad and tarnished the evening. I prey-ordered a number of platters and the entire process was very smooth, the evening seemed to be going well until I noticed that we were missing some of the pre-ordered food. I eventually spoke to a manager after some discussion, he informed me that everything had been sent out. I actually went back and reconfirmed with my guests (really as a courtesy) - but we definitely had not received the missing platters - moreover we were seated in our own area where no one could encroach on our food. Therefore going back to management and insisting that there was still a problem - he proceeded to explain to me that we had had a conversation (that never took place) and that the cupcakes we ordered were not available & we had agreed to accept brownies. I was disappointed because I ordered cupcakes in lieu of having a birthday cake but given that neither had been served we had a bigger problem! Whilst we were talking, he was leading me back to my seat - but it was the wrong area! Apparently they served my food to other people who were only too happy to accept! This level of disorganisation was surprising. Eventually they did arrange the food to be sent but by then many of my guests had departed as it was a week night. I put the matter out of my mind but when it came to settling the bill I noticed that I had been charged for cupcakes instead of the that we actually received. I queried this and the same manager sent the response that they cost the same. Bull. It wasn't even about the money - it was the principle - that aside from making me run around trying to sort out the platter problem now they want to lie & overcharge me as well? Fortunately I had the original order on my phone but this damaged my birthday. Never again. If you do, check your bill carefully.

Spent the evening here last night for a friend's birthday and had a great time. I've been out in the city before on the weekend and usually it's pretty dead, but the folly was really good. Buzzy atmosphere, very nice and attentive staff and above average food for this type of venue (though I would say it is hard to compare the folly to anywhere else as it is very unique, I'd love to know who designed the place). I'd definitely recommend the folly as a good place to go in a usually soulless city over the weekend!

I was looking for a place to sit and have a drink and bite to eat when i stumbled upon The Folly. It was really beautiful and felt like a haven from the sometimes harsh city. The butternut squash and feta salad was great (and healthy) and the atmosphere chilled and friendly. Im definetly coming back with my friends.

Wow, what a fantastic experience me and my friends had at the folly last Saturday. We walked in last minute as we messed up a reservation somewhere else and were served and greeted like kings. The cocktails are amazing and we didn't even have to wait too long to be served even though the bar seemed a bit busy for a Saturday evening in the city. I do work locally and the folly will be my new spot from now on as the food my friends ordered was also quite tasty.

What a pleasant surprise... i was sceptical after reading a couple of reviews- but all of my friends work in the city and this was the best place for us. We had a group of 12 of us for dinner last Friday night and got a fantastic table and the food was very tasty- Steaks were very tender and the girls mostly had one of the massive range of salads- we had a lovely waitress who took care of us and managed to get us a table downstairs in the bar and we partied late on to the night. The barmen were great and made the us loads of cocktails which were amazing to say the least. Thank you Folly we will definitely be returning on mass.

Unfortunately The Folly lives up to its name! If I could give it no stars I would. Whilst it looks good the service and food can only be described is shocking, appalling and disgraceful. It is a toss up as to which is worse. My work colleagues and I had lunch there today. After we sat down were ignored by the waiter for 25 minutes. When I had to get up and find someone to take our order I was told it "wasn't it his fault, there were only two of them on". (1) that is not my fault; and (2) where was the apology for the lack of attention? When our orders were eventually taken I asked the waiter to ensure my food was served hot (it was freezing the last time I ordered it so more fool me). But even warm food could not be even achieved. Given I had waited a further 25 minutes from ordering the food to actually receiving it I really couldn't be bothered to try and attract a waiters attention again (another 25 minutes of our time?) to ask for edible food (basket of scampi, fish and chips - not a tricky meal). We had to all leave the table to pay the bill as we still couldn't attract a waiters attention. But much to our amazement the waitress who dealt with the bill didn't need to ask where we were sat despite her not visiting our table once! Never again

It seems that working in city has destined me to eat pub lunches or grab and go sandwiches, so to find the folly caused me to sigh in relief, how I didn't find it already I don't know (it takes up a good chunk of the gracechurch st corner!) Promptly greeted by a cheerful girl on the down, we were sat down in some lovely arm chairs in the downstairs area. Lunch was in full swing and at least 200 other city go-ers had the same idea as us! As we are fast approaching summer, I opted to try the butter nut squash salad with feta & sun blushed tomatoes, could have been a bit more seasoned but happy to add myself! My stick thin colleague went for for a fish & scampi, which is served in a fryer basket..so cute. Staff were friendly & helpful, were happy to let us ladies gossip away! Overall a great experience. Folly I will be back!

Went in The Folly for the first time today since recently starting work in the area. Myself and two of my colleagues had a great lunch there, so I have to say that seeing previous negative reports comes as a bit of a surprise to me. I had their shepherds pie which I can't fault, it was full of flavour and well seasoned. Both my colleagues had the tofu salad which they were also very approving of, we all commented on the great quirky presentation they seemed to provide on all their dishes. A chap dining on the table next to me was having what looked like fish and chips served in a frying basket which looked amazing, and even though I really enjoyed my meal, I must admit a little food envy. The service was great and very speedy, but not too in your face like some places tend to be. I will definitely be back to this place, from what I've seen so far I think it's my favorite spot in the city.

I visited the Folly after work on a Monday and had to leave after trying to order a drink.

I ordered two cocktails from the waitress behind the bar who kept serving other people inbetween trying to do the cocktails.

Then more staff appeared from behind the bar only to serve other people.....so 3 people or so ended up being served and getting their drinks before me.

I say don't put fancy cocktails on the menu if you don't take the time to make them.

I was stood looking stupid waiting at the bar for about 10 minutes....this is annoying and unacceptable to me so I told the waitress to leave them, and left the bar.

I have been previously and always find the service slow.....

I will never go back, and will not recommend to any of my friends.

This massive place is my usual watering hole after work, and I'd just like to say that the unique mish-mash of decor and furniture makes the place timeless. Add to that the casual but attentive staff, and I'll be going again tomorrow

Went here for the first time a couple of weeks ago and now cant stop going back. Great bar always busy, full of very attractive city types. Food and drink are lush and the vibe is very cool. No idea they were open at weekends too but have just had brunch here and their egg benedict is to die for.

Love it here! I work in Monument and The Folly finally brought a great venue to the city. Drinks, food and service all great. Its always busy and has a great vibe. Cant reccomend it enough.

I was invited here for a night out with the girls after work, however after reading these reviews, I must say I was rather hesitant. I did go on a Wednesday night where I am sure isn't as chaotic as the end of the week, maybe this is why to my dismay, that I had a great time.
We started in the restaurant, where the food was all dressed up in gingham and quick, and I was quietly impressed with the wine list, all sorts of weird and wonderful options. Although the waiter couldn't pronounce the wine I wanted, at least he had a sense of humour.

During dinner, I saw all these amazing looking concoctions whizzing past us, so I told the girls to skip the desserts and move right on to the cocktails. I was impressed as I didn't think that this place was known for its cocktails, notwithstanding we ended up on a special table in the garden with a chap called George making us cocktails, which he calls the Mixo Table... cute... Wednesday night is the new Friday I think!

The decor of the place is great and offers a lot of seating. however it is invariably busy and takes forever to find a place or get served. the cocktails are good and food is half-decent but the service is very poor. On one visit, we wanted seats upstairs for dinner but the woman at the counter kept saying it was full when i could clearly see that they were empty table with no reserved signs. after i pointed this out she reluctantly cleaned up the tables and sat us. The other waiters were polite and friendly but over all not that great an experience. I would only go back for the decor and ambience and maybe the cocktails on quiet night. not worth roughing it out on a Thursday or Friday evening.

The place had potential. Lovely open spaces, natural light, good ambiance. We were there for a friend's birthday and the service although slow was ok for a relaxing Sunday pub lunch. The roasts were pretty good but a bit expensive. I would say before the last 20 minutes it would have got 4 stars. However, we saw a mouse in the dining room. We told the manager there and instead of apologising and being outraged all we got was 'they are doing construction work so the mice are coming out. They aren't in our kitchen though'. Unless there was an invisible force field the kitchen was open plan and there was nothing between the dining room and the kitchen! It seemed like they have had complaints before of mice but haven't done much to rectify it. This definitely put a dampener on the occasion.

The space is beautiful and quite original; certainly something different and appealing in the City.
Service is shocking as many reviewers have said and they are unable to deal with party bookings with the smallest degree of competence.
Party platters and canapés are expensive and mediocre.
Overall you can have a good time here purely because the decor and ambiance is so pleasant but its a shame its obviously run so poorly.

:(nope

Absolutely awful. I keep giving it second chances because it looks so beautiful inside and I live nearby but I am always disappointed. Ran out of tonic on a Friday night, then they were annoyed that I didn't want a different mixer with the gin they had already poured. Door staff have a comment to say about everyone that comes in and out of the door, either taking the p*ss or sexist remarks. I sat at a table with no 'reserved' sign and was told 'you have to move', when the place was empty in the middle of the afternoon. Wait at the bar is at least ten minutes even when there's only 2 waiting. Staff are absolutely incompetent and look at you as if you are speaking another language when you ask for anything. The bathrooms run out of loo roll at about 7pm on a friday and saturday and are never replaced. I haven't had any food but I was there for the opening party and wasn't very impressed with what they were offering even though it was free!

I am sorry to say it because I want to like this place, but please don't bother, there are some really excellent places if you cross the bridge to borough or go a bit further north.

Despite reading a lot of very bad reviews my friends and I decided to brave a trip to The Folly - it is very pretty and funky and we couldn't resist.

We went for lunch at about 2 and it was very busy however we got seated within a few minutes and drinks and food followed not too far after.

The food was good - nothing fancy but had a club sandwich and chips - chips were lovely chunky and crispy. One of my friends had muscles and said they were excellent.

The decor of the place is fabulous lots of quirky touches - pots of herbs as table decorations, beautiful candles on tables, chips served in flower pots.

The service was OK not fast and think that if you went in the middle of lunch time you may have trouble getting done within an hour, but we were on a day off and spent the whole afternoon their.

Staff were friendly - some a bit scatty but nothing to get angry about.
Cost was average for a city lunch with the girls and about £10 for club sandwich and chips. Nice to go somewhere orginal rather than usual run of chain restaurants.

My verdict is if you're not in a hurry go, sit back and enjoy the buzz.

loved the place! great ambience, beautiful venue - a true gem in the city! we had a b'day dinner there - the food was absolutely fantastic, I've tried on of their daily specials it was sooo yummy! spot on guys! we'll definitely be back.

Amazing Service, Great Food and Wine and a amazing atmosphere! Highly recommended. Was our first visit and will be going back

Went here on Saturday for a relaxed Hen's lunch. We had arranged the bookable "chef's table". First off the venue itself is great, cool space and looks funky. That is where the positive comments end. We arrived and told the waitress we had booked the chef's table, she went away and came back a minute later and said "sorry the manager is on it, I don't know when he will be done, how about sitting at this high table". Ok, so what did that all mean? It meant the manager, who wasn't actually working that day(!), was sprawled out on the table (which seats 12) with one mate, just chilling. Now I felt a little bit sorry for the waitress as I could see she felt uncomfortable going to tell the manager to move, however this shouldn't have been an issue to begin with (we booked for a specific date, specific time and specific table well over a month ago - which the folly confirmed earlier that day)! Anyway, after coaching the waitress to speak to whatever management was working and would not be intimidated to tell the manager to move, the issue was eventually resolved (read 25 mins later). Small apologies from the waitress. Anyway, we were there to relax and have fun. Which I guess would have been achieveable if we didn't have to constantly prompt the waiting staff for menus, drinks, table clearing and bills. I think it is important to make clear that I am a big fan of review sites (but this is the first time I am writing a review). I always take what people say with a grain of salt. But in all honesty - this place has potential but at the moment do not get lulled in by the cool aesthetics as the service is complete rubbish, the food is passable and the drinks (when we got them) only just made the experience tolerable.

Nice venue, nice décor, I went there for drinks on Tuesday night, but the food is a let down, chip’s looked over cooked and old, not just the first time around, so I guess that’s just the way they are, fish (in batter) bar snacks were indeed ‘battered’ and we didn’t even get the food the first time around, as the waiter just dumped them on the table next to a larger group of people who decided to eat them! Not sure if I’d go there again in a hurry.

Well designed bar, and busy even on Monday nights. Food and drinks are good (when they arrive!) but service is shocking. Drinks for one table do not arrive at the same time, in fact you'll be lucky if they arrive at all! And the staff could not care less. Hopefully they sort these teething problems out very soon.

Terrible Service. I am on their mailing list and was sent a January special, stating that all you had to do was quote the name of the special. When we tried to do this all the staff either didn't know what we were talking about, or asked for a voucher. When pressed, they spoke to the manager, who requested an email address to verify that we were on the mailing list (how would we know about the special if we weren't). So it took 30 mins to place an order, then the food came within 5 mins, while we were still waiting on drinks, then 5 mins later the drinks came (one was wrong) and we were still waiting for cutlery. Cutlery came and the food was cold. The drinks staff were rude when they delivered the drinks. When they cleared the plates the first staff member couldn't understand what I was saying when I was telling him the food was cold, when this was explained to another staff member who came to us he just said there was nothing he could do. I appreciate that we were using a special offer but I don't like feeling like I am begging, which is how I felt at the end of the experience. It is a funky place but the surly service lets it down! Go somewhere else.

I went to the folly recently for someone's birthday party. I can tell that the service is awful! they take ages to serve your food, get your orders wrong and forget what cocktails you ordered! It took about 4 hours to have a main and a desert! I know a few other people who have also had the same problem. The only good thing I can see is that the decor is cool but I bet there is somewhere else you can go nearby where you can get that and get served!

Love-Love-Loved my Birthday shindig I had this weekend at The Folly :)
We had a few nibbles (which were scrummy) but I rather enjoyed my liquid dinner -working my way through the cocktail list (choosing helped with the calorie content included!)
If I'd had not enjoyed the drinks as much I'm sure I'd have been back yesterday for a Sunday recovery lunch!
So, Cheers to you FollyFolk for helping me forget that I'm one year older :)

Whoa! This place is massive... beautiful... and understaffed!

I'm not a 'suit' and so am already a minority in here... but i still love it! There's such a difference when the place isn't rammed, when you get to see all the quirky touches they've got.

Lunch times are to be avoided (not for the food or the service... for the uber demanding city customers!) I prefer late afternoons when a bottle of wine and sharing board is what you crave... (or later on when you can hide away in the deli area!)

So, I look forward to going back to The Folly in the New Year (and hoping to see more staff around the place) and seeing what changes they have planned...

The customer service is appalling. Have boOKed a couple of Xmas parties for work with this place and they never return calls, acknowledge orders or send through confirmations. Its a really shoddy set-up - I wouldn't recommend if your someone who likes their emails being responded too. Food is ok, drinks service very slow.

The customer service is appalling. Have boOKed a couple of Xmas parties for work with this place and they never return calls, acknowledge orders or send through confirmations. Its a really shoddy set-up - I wouldn't recommend if your someone who likes their emails being responded too. Food is ok, drinks service very slow.

The food at the folly was lovely and my colleagues and I had a great meal there. Up until a knife flew from the stairs above our table past my colleague's nose and directly into her lap bouncing up into her plate.

At first we were in shock and saw this as quite a funny incident, on later reflection the way that the matter was dealt with and the blatant mis comprehension and dis regard for health and safety is some what much less humorous.

We emailed the folly after our meal to let them know that although their profuse apologies ( within hysterical shock and laughter from the member of staff who had dropped the knife) was good, that they may need to re look at their set up in regards to carry food down stairs where there is tables situated underneath.

The folly have not responded to this email at all and my colleagues and i are completely disgusted that the incident did not even deserve a formal response.

The corny and barrow across the road may be smaller but i think we will be dining there from now on as they comprehend the meaning of customer service!

Terrible customer service - had to wait ages for drinks, then the waiter even started making fun of us even once we had complained to the manager, who didn't seem to care either!! Needless to say we didn't leave a tip.

AWFUL - AVOID!

After losing our booking (and lying about it, despite a clear e-mail chain) we finally made it only to discover sub-standard food and service. You'll have a better time at a Motorway cafe... such a shame!

Just had lunch here great venue very comfortable chairs great layout
from the moment we walked in staff where very helpful shown to table straight away given menu and drinks order taken within minutes we ordered the folly burger chicken club sandwich and deli sandwich
the presentation and quality of the food was outstanding served on wooden platters and the chips served in flower pots
the staff were very good
A++++++++++++++++++++

This bar was a huge let down, it was all show and no substance. The food was average and would have been acceptable if only the service wasn't so appalling. The only highlight of the night was the toilets. Definetly not somewhere I will be going again.

A very poor dining experience! Service was awful, staff were unhelpful, inattentive, bordering on incompetent even though the place was less than half full on a Saturday at 6pm. Some dishes were ok but some were rubbish and of wetherspoons standards. Will not be recommending it not even for drinks because of the useless staff and will not be going again.

Having been here for lunch which was good, breakfast was a complete contrast and a real disappointment. In short I would not recommend it. To start there is no-one to greet you, so everyone is wandering around wondering if they are to seat themselves, if this is the case as opposed to lack of staff attention you should put a sign stating so. Finally, once acknowledged by the waitress everything was just slow from receiving the menu, to receiving our order. Including the staffs recognition of food awaiting service. My husband noted his breakfast had been sitting there 5mins so when served the lightly toasted bread had already started to go hard. For myself I ordered the field mushrooms and cherry tomatoes. Is it not expected should you not have an ingredient to let the customer know, giving them the option to change should they wish to?? My breakfast arrived with normal grilled tomatoes, which I was most disappointed with. Whilst I would still go back for lunch, breakfast is a definite not to be bothered with.