A bar manager felt 'dreadful' after a customer fled the pub saying she was upset and embarrassed following an incident with a member of staff.
Friendly banter saw the customer walking out of the hostelry in a tourist haunt in Edinburgh.
A customer took to TripAdvisor and left a negative review of her experience after leaving the bar with her boyfriend without being served.
The couple were upset after comments were made at The Last Drop, in the city's Grassmarket.
EdinburghLive reports the woman was made to feel "embarrassed" after a senior member of staff stopped them in their tracks as they tried to order a drink in the dining area.
She said they were "mocked" for being in the wrong area and a member of staff made a huge deal out of it by involving people sat at nearby tables.
A response from the bar highlighted the tone used by the staff member was 'a bit of banter' gone wrong and insisted the same joke was made to everyone.
Typical jests included asking people for ID when they clearly look over 25, but the customer was not impressed by the joke
The woman said: "We walked into the dining area not knowing it was for food , as where we are from there is no dining area in pubs and there were no signs we saw to say this, and were stopped by a senior member of management who proceeded to embarrass and humiliate us and involve other tables in doing this.
"He made a big deal very loudly about how we were in the wrong area and then with everyone staring at us asked if I was over 18 in a mocking tone.
"I cannot express enough how loud he was doing this and was getting other tables to laugh at us as he tried to determine my age.
"He then said 'they'll help you over there' and walked away so we went to the bar.
"We were left standing at the bar ignored by bar staff until we eventually just left.
"I very rarely write reviews, let alone write one about somewhere I didn't even end up getting served.
"The staff seemed so rude and uninterested in serving us. Absolute disgrace, I have never been so upset leaving a bar."
The review eventually fed its way back to the staff member in question who insisted the situation was blown out of proportion.
And a response from the general manager noted that man "once asked my gran" for ID.
The reply read: "We regret to hear that you are displeased with your recent experience with us, I have fed this back to the duty manager in question who does feel dreadful, as, he is a very outgoing and loud character and certainly not mean this in a rude way, but was attempting to be jovial, asking for ID, its kind of a joke for him, I mean he once asked my gran."
It then continued to say that there were signs labelling the dining area as separate to the bar, but agreed this should have been communicated in a "polite and respectful manner."
Despite the review, The Last Drop has an impressive rating of 4.0 on TripAdvisor with nearly 1,000 excellent or very good reviews.
