Promising great food with terrible service, Karen’s Diner is touring the UK. We went along to the pop-up restaurant in Newcastle to try it out.

Karen’s Diner isn’t for the faint-hearted. First launched in Australia the concept is simple – the customer definitely isn’t always right. Expect abuse, eye-rolls, and terrible manners from the wait staff.

Currently taking a ‘pop-up’ version of the diner around the UK, ‘Karen’s on Tour’ arrived in Newcastle this weekend (February 4/5) and so myself and three fellow Northern Echo colleagues put on our brave faces and went along to try it out.

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Before you even enter the venue the insults begin as staff come and target you in the queue and as you arrive at the front desk Karen gets going.

After being asked whether we understood the concept of the diner and whether we were going “cry like a little b***h” we were shown to our table.

The Northern Echo: The rules of Karen's DinerThe rules of Karen's Diner (Image: DANIEL HORDON)

Karen’s Diner venues normally boast a cute American-diner-style décor but the pop-up had taken over the Bohemia nightclub and bar on Newcastle’s Diamond Strip. A few extra neon signs had been added to try to alter the vibe. “F*** off,” one simply read. “One star service. Five star food,” read another. It’s not quite the same but it works.

The wait staff have crafted their act well, presumably equipped with a bank of insults to pull out at every opportunity.

Twice a moody waiter arrived with a drink of trays and with a face like thunder told us to “take them off yourself then”.

Another waiter barged into my chair on the way past, almost knocking me over.

And I received countless side-eyes from our ill-mannered waitress. For me, these little quips are what Karen’s Diner should be all about.

The host who greeted us at the door took to the floor with a microphone, picking on diners and comparing events including spinning what can only be described as the wheel of doom.

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Cowering into your chair you pray you aren’t picked out of the crowd to be completely humiliated. Some poor diners were picked out to do animal impressions or even compete for worst outfit in the room. It was hilarious to watch, although to say I was relived not to be picked out myself would be an understatement.

The event was branded as a bottomless brunch-style affair, promising bottomless pizza and certain booze for your £40 entry ticket. We certainly made use of the bottomless drink, feeling like we needed it to get ourselves through what we’d signed up for.

Sadly, the food was lacking. And no, that’s not me being a Karen.

Despite Karen’s Diner being famous for its burgers and cocktails, only pizza was available at the pop-up. For £40 we presumed you’d be served a whole pizza each, but instead just one solitary, cold slice was served up. This was branded as bottomless, but I didn’t see anyone having more than one slice and quite frankly I was too scared to ask one of the wait staff for another slice.

The Northern Echo: Karen's DinerKaren's Diner (Image: NORTHERN ECHO)

“Please sir, can I have some more?”

This also came slightly at the detriment of the entire act. Part of the fun of Karen venues elsewhere is that the staff throw the menus at you, tell you to hurry up deciding, chuck your food at you, and so on. Let’s be honest, if you’ve ever worked in hospitality, you’ve most certainly had the urge to do that to an annoying customer. Maybe we had misinterpreted, and the Karen’s Diner tour was designed as a drinking event over a diner but as it was harder to rely on these quips it was a lot more insult, swear and humiliation heavy than we’d expected.

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After our 90 minutes of the “bottomless” experience were over we were politely told to “f*** off” and leave.

We’d had a right laugh, probably aided by the drink which made the bizarre and quite frankly terrifying experience slightly easier, but couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed that we only got one slice of pizza each for a £40 ticket.

If ‘Karen’s on Tour’ does come back to the North East hopefully they’ll prioritise the food, because ironically for a bar with rude staff, it wasn’t the service which let the event down.