Karen's Diner to open first London hotel with deliberately rude staff

16 February 2023 by
Karen's Diner to open first London hotel with deliberately rude staff

A restaurant group famous for insulting customers is to open its first London hotel which promises to offer "a lack of room service".

Karen's Diner, known for its burgers and deliberately rude staff, has partnered with the Hadley Hotel in Barnet to open its first overnight experience on 10 March.

A Karen's restaurant will open at the hotel and the brand has initially been allocated up to 12 rooms to give guests a chance to be "an overnight Karen".

"We certainly won't be Claridge's," Paul Levin, who oversees the operations of Karen's in the UK, Ireland, and Europe, told The Caterer. "What you might experience in the restaurant won't be improved upstairs."

Karen's bills itself as an interactive theatrical experience and is based around the internet meme which uses the name to describe an antagonistic customer who typically demands to ‘speak to the manager'.

The group was launched in Sydney, Australia in 2021 by themed events business Viral Ventures Global and opened in Sheffield, Manchester and Birmingham last year.

In London, the Hadley Hotel will continue to run its own "normal" operation alongside Karen's.

"We won't get involved with their brand at all because we'd ruin it," said Levin. "[The hotel] are keen because they can offer a Karen's package of £199 a night for a room for two, and a meal downstairs where people can be slagged off in the restaurant."

He added that Karen's would offer a "completely different experience" for breakfast where staff would be "extraordinarily polite".

Karen's is set for a rapid UK expansion and will open restaurants in Newport, Wales on 17 February and in London's Islington on 14 April.

The brand is also going "on tour" to run pop-ups in cities including Brighton, Bristol and Glasgow this year.

Levin said the group was keen to explore different opportunities to expand Karen's across the country.

He added: "To use a piece of karenology, we don't care. Anything that attracts us that we feel could be an exciting experience for the public, whether it's a good one or a terrible one, we'll look at.

"It's escapism, you just forget about everything when you're in a Karen's, except of course surviving."

Read more: The Caterer sent its nicest reporter to Karen's Diner to get trained as a rude waitress

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media Group is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking