European Bartender School  Reviews 157

Great teachers, professionalism, a lot of funn, i’ts hard to leave once i’ts finished, this world gets you and the people too.
They helped my find my hown method of studying and this changed everything
Great investment for my career
Be back soon !!!

I attended the EBS Barista Course and honestly I cannot recommend it enough. My teacher was Arsham, and I genuinely have so many positive things to say about both him and the whole experience. Thanks to his amazing teaching and support, I passed my course and I am absolutely over the moon.

Arsham was so professional, patient, and genuinely such a lovely person. At times I felt stressed and doubted myself, but he always knew exactly how to comfort and encourage me. He made me feel confident in my abilities and never made me feel judged or embarrassed if I needed extra help.

You can truly tell that Arsham teaches with so much passion and care. He explains everything so clearly and makes learning feel enjoyable and comfortable. His enthusiasm really motivated me and made me want to do my best every day.

I also want to mention his team because they were all incredibly kind, welcoming, and always smiling. From the moment I walked in, they made me feel safe, comfortable, and never awkward or out of place. The atmosphere was so positive and supportive, which made such a huge difference to my learning experience.

This course has honestly boosted my confidence so much, and I’m really grateful for everything Arsham and the team did for me. Thank you again for such an amazing experience — I’ll always recommend EBS to anyone wanting to start their barista/ bartender journey! (I was at the Bermondsey Branch)

attended a 2-day mixology course at the Delhi (Kalkaji) location of European Bartender School, and the experience was extremely disappointing.
The training environment was not professional. There was no air conditioning despite extreme heat, which led to dehydration and illness during the session. Even after raising this concern, nothing changed the following day.
There were serious hygiene issues as well. Pigeons were entering the classroom and were present in areas where glassware and bar equipment were kept. The overall cleanliness of the space was poor, and there were questionable practices during demonstrations.
The class itself lacked structure, and at one point the instructor left the session unattended. There were also multiple individuals entering and leaving the space who did not appear to be part of the course.
What is most concerning is that, despite raising all these issues and providing evidence, the complaint was dismissed and no refund was offered.
As someone who does not live in India and had specifically travelled for this experience, this was extremely disappointing. I have also not received my certificate, which adds to the frustration.
Given the global reputation of the school, I expected professional standards, but unfortunately this experience did not reflect that at all.

i was looking for a bartending course for not more than 2 months. i saw the ebs advertised on instagram, i first thing i check was how long was the course! so, as it is for just 4 weeks i called over and boom! here we are!

I left the course because I got tired of waiting for instructor outside of the bar in a cold weather, because he couldn’t manage to show up on time. I requested refund. But instead was told that there are no refunds for those who started the course. Be careful about this organisation. They are fraudulent!

Having the best instructors Roxy and Tegan, their passion, teamwork makes the whole experience at EBS much more enjoyable and fun.

The staff (Sara and Ella) were really helpful and knowledgeable—you could tell they are genuinely passionate about the bartending industry and are keen to share their knowledge. The facilities were well equipped—there was a room that converted between a conventional school layout and flair/free pour stations with another area for bartending practice and a live bar.
The day generally consisted of a small written test on theory/drinks that were learnt the previous day. We’d start studying theory and history of specific alcohols, we’d split into two groups focusing on either flair and free pour OR live bar practice where we’d recreate drinks that we’d been taught previously at a fully equipped mock bar (with bottles filled with coloured water). Afterwards we’d review the alcohol theory we’d learnt earlier that day and go through 6 new drink recipes, then head to the live bar where the instructors would make a speciality cocktail usually based on the liquor we’d learnt earlier in the day and the students would get a chance to create and taste the cocktails they’d learnt.
The atmosphere at the school was fantastic—even if you weren’t staying at the hostel, there were heaps of opportunities to spend time with the other students, with optional activities like barbecues, surf camp and karaoke planned almost every night/weekend.
EBS is well established with schools and experiential courses around the globe resulting in a great network on completion of the course.

The things you are able to learn in just one month is amazing. If you want to learn from the best and meanwhile have a great time and making new friends, i would definitely recommend doing an EBS course <3

It is professional and thorough, efficient and enjoyable.

💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯

When I started a was a little overwhelmed by how much we had to learn, but how ebs structured the days and the way they teach us makes it so much better and easier. Everyone is very enthusiastic and nice to each other.The fun activities after school ours are amazing it's helps to keep the spirit up!
One thing that ebs could do better is inform us about the extra cost for the activities because for me as a backpacker it's alot of extra money. You don't have to do these activities but it's makes it so much more fun.
Still I would definitely recommend this course!

I recommend this school for every bartender out there and everyone who wants to start bartending they got really good teachers and really good technique of teaching to be honest I didn’t expect this school to be that good but they really know what they doing and I made a lot of friends and had an amazing month with a lot of fun in it
Keep up the good work ✌️🫶

If you’re just looking for fun and no hard work, not the place for you. But if you want to mix the two just like your drinks. Perfect place to be at.

I would definitely recommend EBS to anyone interested in bartending and wants to understand more about the world of bartending. The instructors are knowledgeable and super easy going which elevates the learning experience in to another level of fun.
The study materials are informative and useful to help brings your foot into the bartending industry.
Overall, I enjoy my time studying with EBS sydney.

Great course so far! I haven't followed it to completion but now I'm at the point of revision and I have plenty of thoughts about the course so far. Especially on the contents that are involved

Theory and Cocktail Making / Preparation:

This is by far the most important and heavily headed part of the course, which I am happy to agree with. These facts are perfect for understanding and creating classics and new favourites. While personally I believe some of these are outdated and should stay in the past (Blood and Sand), there's also some I love. As for the theory I think everyone should know the history about where their favourites spirits and liqueurs come from. It also helps with knowing the methodology and components of the drinks.

Flair:

While personally I don't see any practical use for flair I still think it's a great skill to practice if there's certain careers or competitions you'd like to compete in. I do see why we learn it, it has it's uses and merits within bartending.

Free-Pour:

This is pointless, it's not even legal in Australia. I understand how essential and convenient this may be for European students, especially those studying within this course and for Australians who would wish to work abroad. But I must say, flexibility in a course should be given for this area, I understand it's a lot to ask for but at the end of the day jobs in Australia will not care about this and it has no validity for job proficiency

Extra-Curricular activities:

I love all the interactions with local distilleries, events and members of the community both general Sydney and Liquor brands that we have been able to interact with, makes it easier to really see the bigger picture.

Our instructor Sarah does a great job at teaching the complex EBS curriculum in a way that is memorable and actually sticks. While our event coordinator Jamie is always excellent for going out of her way to ensure the students have an excellent time around Sydney.

I was in the course in Phuket, Thailand from May to June and unfortunately wasnt very satisfied.

The school charges for accomodation but does not show pictures on purpose because otherwise most people wouldnt book it. I had paid additionally for "premium" accomodation (2 people instead of 8) and was very dissapointed upon arrival what premium actually meant for them. I have seen their private rooms which were not an option to book online unfortunately and those rooms are much nicer.

My room had very hard beds just inches apart and no safe to store valuables. Even though there are balconies, students arent allowed to smoke there, apparently because people threw cigarettes off and the building caught fire in the past. Which could just be prevented by providing ashtrays.

Anyway, I informed the manager that I wasnt satisfied with the accomodation and tried to reason with him, asking to be refunded the cost of the accomodation so I could instead move to one of the nearby hotels. He just told me I was free to move, their rooms are fine, he doesnt believe the beds are uncomfortable, I should have asked for room pictures and private accomodation beforehand and if I wasnt happy, thats more or less my problem but no money back.

The whole building, rooms, hallways and classrooms are riddled with mosquitos because the lights are on constantly and all windows are open. Almost everyone was riddles with bites because even mosquito reppelant doesnt work if you are sweating it off. Which brings me to the next point.

The course costs 2000$ per person plus 200-500$ in accomodation plus 250$ in food with 50-60 students each month which results in a minimum of 120'000$ per month or 1'440'000$ per year generated from this single school (not even talking about all the extra costs for excursions, the bar, the restaurant and other things they constantly try to sell you quite obnoxiously - literally they had like 4 sales presentations everyone needs to attend, one on the first day already). So how is it possible none of this money goes to upgrades to the facility? Instead of repairing or buying three AC Units in the bar training rooms, the school opted to just install fans which do not help. Everyone is drenched in sweat each day by the end of classes. Only the theory and flair rooms do have AC. And AC units arent that expensive.

Now about the course itself. I love making cocktails and I was excited about the course and learning to be a real bartender. I had learned for years on my own by watching youtube and such and always go to the best bars to try their creations plus I already had a formal education about all kinds of alcohol and how they are produced.

Positives first:
The staff is great. I loved all the instructors, event staff, housekeeping, bar and kitchen staff and my critizisms has nothing to do with them.

The other people you meet in the course is what made me stay and what made the time fun. Most of the other students were genuinly nice and enjoyable to spent time with, study with and party with.

The theory part of the school, called masterclasses are definitely good for people who do not have a formal training in this field even though learning names and dates or brands for tests doesnt seem to make too much sense as that hasnt really anything to do with what a barkeeper does. Knowing how alcohol is produced, what its made from and what varieties there are however does.

The daily tests are challenging but they do help to learn your recipies and the knowledge you need for the final tests quite effectively. However again, this comes with a big caviat as the school is really annoying about the slightest little thing. Even everyone knows its gonna be meassured in ml, its wrong if its not written or its wrong if you dont write "fresh" or the brand names of their sponsors (thats the most annoying one). So you can have everything in the recipes correct but because of such stupid correction methods get none correct in your tests.

In my opinion there was only 2.5 hours worth of useful training per day out of 4-5 hours.

Bar training, which is what I came for, unfortunately only consisted of one hour per day.. One other useful hour was the above mentioned theory and then there was the bar showcase at the end of the day which usually took 30-45 minutes but which wasnt too useful overal as you would rarely actually get to work with the real alcohol due to the size of the groups.

The rest of the day was filled with stuff thats isnt actually important to be a barkeeper. At least not in any bar I would frequent or want to work at. These two classes which I hated with a passion like many of my classmates were "freepour" (meassuring by counting -something you only see at terrible bars with bad drinks) and "flair" (doing fancy tricks).

I dropped out of the course end of week 3 because it did not meet my needs.

Like the way they are teaching how they are taking care of the students and very supportive. And mostly the fun Friday

Best school for Bartending. Detailed information is given in a short period of time. Humourous instructors

Hand an amazing experience of learning the basics of bartending along with the history of various spirits and how to use flavours to compliment each spirit. The instructors are very approachable and have a good knowledge of this industry, both hands on and theory.

My course was cancelled one week prior. I was supposed to receive a full refund up to 30 days after cancellation. It's now almost 2 months, and after multiple calls no one is able to update. Often I don't even receive response to e-mails, I have been sending reminders every week.