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