'The Den' downgraded

I've written about The Den before.

It used to scare me a bit, because it was such a notorious hooker pick-up place. It is much less so in the last few years, although I'm sure you'll still find 'working girls' in there occasionally. And I've never liked the clientele much: wealthy, mostly older expats, with a high proportion of rowdy rugger buggers. But their bar food is OK (not great, but good), it's open all night, and the service has always been way the best of any bar in town.

Lately, though, I think I've detected a slight falling off in standards of both the food and the wait service (the bar staff have always been a bit surly and gormless); perhaps it's just a seasonal curmudgeonliness on my part, but I have come away with a slightly sour impression the last half-dozen times I've been there.

And then tonight I had an utterly exasperating experience in there; an experience boosted from annoying to incendiary by the fact that the manager (a guy I've known, albeit slightly, for over 4 years now) was a complete arse in dealing with my complaints.

The draught local beer we were served was obviously from a bad barrel, absolutely poisonous - we complained after a single, cautious sip. The bar staff were unconcerned. We had to get the manager to intervene to get the beers changed. He seemed to have said that we could replace them with a different brand at no extra charge (which would be standard procedure, if they can't lay on a clean barrel of the beer we'd ordered), but then.... our waitress insists on charging the (small, but annoying) surplus cost of the more expensive replacement pints. We appeal to the manager again, and he won't budge on the issue. Damn, the local beer has often been a bit off in there lately, and I guess a lot of the time they get away with serving it to people who are too pissed to notice or care. But this beer was at a completely different level of skankiness: you could smell it was bad from a distance, and there is no way it should ever have been served. If that ever happened back home, you'd get a pint (at least one) COMPLETELY FREE. Maybe the boss here thought we were just being troublemakers, just trying to scam a slightly discounted pint of Carlsberg? Oh, please. Would anyone go to that much trouble to save 5 measly kuai? And I don't like fucking Carlsberg anyway! He never even attempted to check the beers we'd complained about (they were probably served again to some other unsuspecting mug a few minutes later; I never saw them being poured away down the sink); he should have known already that this beer was vinegar and pulled the barrel. But.... this is China. The Den, in the past, on its good days, has given the impression that it is much better than the average Chinese level in its customer relations. But now that seems to be falling apart.

I'd gone along with a couple of friends to try and catch some of the English football (FA Cup 3rd Round - knockout games, high excitement). In the main bar area, they were showing what turned out to be a recording of one of the league games from earlier in the week. It wasn't a bad match, and we watched half an hour or so of it quite pleasantly before we realised that it wasn't in fact a live game. In the restaurant area there were a number of other screens showing sport, at least two of them showing (different) FA Cup games. We asked repeatedly if we could see one of these in the bar too (the restaurant bit was heaved out), but were dumbly stonewalled by the staff. When the recorded match on our TV finished (only about 20 minutes into the live matches) it was succeeded by a general sports magazine show. We asked again for a live game; again no joy. I sought out the manager. He hid obstinately behind the excuse that one person in the bar had requested that channel. I doubt if there was any truth in that (I scoured the faces in there, and couldn't spot a single person showing any sustained interest in the video-clip mishmash on the screen); but even if there was...... well, get this, there are now at least 8 people requesting something else. Democracy - unfamiliar concept? And it's supposed to be a goddamned sports bar: it should be showing live sport - how can you not be showing a live game in your main bar area?? And how can you be so offhand and contemptuous towards one of your longest-standing (and best behaved!) customers??

I blame The Chairman. He has an unaccountable fondness for The Den, and keeps on suggesting, insisting on it as a venue for watching the footie. It has always been a lousy venue for watching sport. The TVs aren't much good; they're often showing several different events at once; it's overcrowded and overpriced; and, lately, they seem to have taken to playing loud disco music throughout the evening, which makes the atmosphere even more hellish.

The Den may have its uses. It's a good spot for breakfast if you happen to have been out all night. It's a possible early evening rendezvous for the Post-Work Gargle (that long weekday 'happy hour' until 10pm remains attractive).

But it is, on balance, a fairly shit bar - and it seems to be getting worse. After this, I am transferring it to the 'Hate List'.