Karen's Diner: On Tour Reviews 

Wouldn’t even give a 1 star if I didn’t have to press one.
Cancelled the event for us (no big deal, these things happen) but then I’m 5 weeks later and over 17 emails and till waiting for my refund.
This company’s after service is a joke!!!
How they can justify holding on to my money and not given it back!!!

Cancelled an hour before at Newcastle. No coincidence that Loosefest was cancelled and the venue advertised that they would open earlier so basically cancelled because the pub could earn more!

Promised a refund in 7 days - nothing, then asked for my bank details. Still nothing! We were booked for 5th August and are now £178 out of pocket and from reading other reviews they having refunded others. Absolute disgrace

Event moved - in fact to another country … not feasible for us to attend. Requested refund several times … no response or refund.

Rip off!!
We had seen the YouTube clips and even though it was £45 a head for burger and chips and an ice cream we thought the rest was for the “entertainment” our table was for 6pm we waited over half an hour from 6pm to be seated we waited an age to be served our food and when we received it only half our party’s food arrived then when we all got our food the place started emptying. We were then told eh had to make our way out but we hadn’t received our dessert. We were given a number of excuses for this and the last one was we have no ice cream left! Found that hard to believe as the reason they were wanting us out was for the next sitting! The security staff were very nice and understanding.
My advice go to MacDonald’s and spend 90 quid you’ll have more fun.

Where do you start with this disgrace of a business?!

Queued for over half an hour to be seated. Had to ask twice for food and eventually got served just before they wanted us to leave our seats for the next party to come in!! No sweets served until we complained and they insisted we ate downstairs, they were awful btw!! No rose or white wine and we didn’t get our second drink.

No entertainment whatsoever. I actually felt sorry for the staff as they were out their depth and agreed service was lousy.

Was given a managers number to complain but no one has read my message or reminders. Shambles of customer service and when you have saved money to attend you are left bitterly disappointed. £45 for something that you could get in McDonald last for £1.99!!!! So not attend this as you will be really disappointed. I suspect the reviews that are five star are made by the staff as no one was happy on the night.

Karen’s tour Edinburgh. I had read some brutal reviews on here prior to attending. I found the experience to be excellent. Some great waiters, very funny hats handed out. Food was great, all delivered to our table at once as you’d expect. One of the drinks waiters (Eddie Izzard lookalike) was a top bloke and worth a mention. Great fun for everyone there. Games were good fun too. You have to be able to take a joke if you come here. Great night!

An absolute shambles from start to finish. Definitely wouldn't recommend this pop up show. Don't waste your money.

Edinburgh Tour Was Absolute Garbage. Please do not waste your money on this total scam.
What you see online in the full time diners is NOT what you get in the pop up tour.
Waited 45 min in a narrow staircase to get seated.
Another 40 mins to get any food and drinks - we knew to expect ‘bad service’ but this was on another level.
Absolutely no interaction of any kind from KD staff, young KD ‘waiters’ thinking walking around with a sullen face is entertainment, a few swear words as the only ‘laughs’
Seriously a total waste of time and money.
The global franchise should be ashamed and embarrassed at such a poor effort.

Should not be allowed on the Edinburgh Fringe ! Total lack of humour, boring boring to death! We had the burger and left when their undermining games started,
life is too short to suffer this!

Crammed in with 6 strangers who seemed very nice but were still strangers to eat overpriced store bought food in a very loud environment is not fun. I get the staff are meant to be rude that's the experience but I saw little of even that. The staffs "attitude " wasn't sarcastic or funny. The only real insult was the price.

Absolutely dreadful. Just a massive disappointment. Waaayyyy too many people in a warehouse with dreadful acoustics.. 4 or 5 servers for probably 200 customers, all of whom had to firefight a chaotic food and drink situation. This all meant literally seconds only of interaction with staff, when you could barely hear a word they were saying.

Just dreadful. Good concept, delivered absolutely dreadfully. Felt sorry for the staff, as they literally had no opportunity to perform.

Even 1 star is too much!!!

People, avoid Rude Karen's diner unless you want to be ripped off! Bought tickets for the on tour event in October in Bristol 2023. It was cancelled by the company & we found out through FB (they didn't let us know). When we asked for a refund they asked for bank details & said we were in the queue for a refund. I chased it several times & got exactly the same message back. Only way to resolve this was to raise a dispute via PayPal ( thank God I used them to pay). Now got my money back (after 6 weeks).

Definitely a company to be avoided at all costs.

The food was very good, the staff are very funny and the girl who was our waiter Evie was amazing, my friends had a great time and the mini game was great.

EDIT : PAUL LEVIN. - as UK operations manager can you guarantee us our money back?

Complete scam. I booked tickets for Glasgow (12th August) back in June. On 6th August I get an email to say it's cancelled, offering two alternative dates, one being in Edinburgh. I can't attend either dates due to being out of the country for one, and the opposite end of the country for the other.

I've asked for a £179 refund from them and the ticket agent - Hidden. Neither are responding.

I believe this is a mass fraud. DO NOT BOOK.

The Karens team arrived hours before the event was to open in the Bohemia in Newcastle. They were told that the caterer had refused to work and had left the venue due to the conditions being inadequate and unsafe. Then they were given a room that wouldn't hold the capacity booked. They had no choice but to cancel. The company found a nearby alternative venue but if people preferred a refund then repayments will be completed by close of business on Tuesday.The whole Karen's team lost money and so they are pleased that their company decided to take 'Breach of contract" legal action against the venue. They share the disappointment that all customers have had to experience.

Edit 01/02/24
I’ve emailed watchdog twice (no response) emails will now be deleted as they only keep them for a month.
I’ve now emailed Rip off Britain (no response as of yet, but it’s early days)
We all need to do the same or no action will be taken to stop these scammers.
I no longer care about the money (almost a year since I booked) it’s about shutting them down for me now.
They’re still taking bookings and need putting in their place, come on people, report them to someone who can help, please!!

Edit due to Paul Levins 5 star review!!
What about the rest of us Paul?? (Karen’s UK operations manager) you say the Karen’s team has lost money, well so have we and it’s someone’s bank account, do the decent thing and pay us our money back.

I too am having a frustrating time getting a refund from this awful company. We were originally booked in for 22nd July in Middlesbrough and now they’ve changed the date to 16th and 17th September and we can’t attend on either of the 2 new dates they’ve offered us. £170 down as 4 of us were going.
I’ve sent a few emails and I’ve had a response asking for my bank details for the refund but that was 3 weeks ago and still nothing!!
My mum has advised me to write to BBC Watchdog or Rip Off Britain. I’m hoping that I won’t be the first to do this and many others will do the same. We just want our money back!
Advice, Don’t book Karen’s on Tour!

BEST WORDS OF ADVICE, DON’T BOOK KARENS ON TOUR!!…
Booked Karen’s on tour for 5 of us to go and celebrate mine and my husbands anniversary in Newcastle on the 5th August 2023. Turned up to find the event was apparently cancelled, no email, no phone call, or apology, absolutely nothing & £112.50 lighter. Absolutely fuming as not only was it a big disappointment to our special day, but us and our friends are struggling hard financially with the current economy and couldn’t really afford to pay a second time to eat else comfortably without a struggle.

It's an absolute scam. Newcastle event cancelled with no notice whatsoever. Not even an email. Only found out when we got to the door. SCAM! Waste of time, money & no idea if we'll get a refund judging by other reviews.

Got to venue in Newcastle for 4pm to be told it had been cancelled no one to contact or ring loads turned up the same emailed the address no response the other email address was blocked so doesn't look like any of us getting our money back, it's a scam stay we'll clear !!!!!!!

Still waiting on a refund from the Bristol venue. Which they cancelled and changed the venue 6 days before. They’ve said 2-4 weeks for a refund after being added to the queue. Think this is bad seeing as I paid for this back in February!