Rathauskeller - Der Melker Gasthof — Restaurant in Gemeinde Melk

Terrible food. We asked to replace the food, they refused and yet wanted to charged us full price. The staff is rude and yelled at us. The worst customer service I’ve ever experienced. ‼️‼️‼️‼️Editing my review after the restaurant’s replies, which have a very strange and not accurate way of telling the story. ‼️‼️‼️‼️

A - yes, we did return 2 dishes. One of them had HAIR in it. When we reached out to our waiter saying it has hair, showing him the hair, he replied by saying that the hair is from the mushrooms (??). We kindly ask to see the kind of mushroom that has hair on it, although it was obvious that the hair was a human’s hair. Once he couldn’t find answers he EVENTUALLY agreed to replace the dish. This took a 2 minutes of argument. My friend DID PAY for the other dish she got, so saying she wasn’t charged for it ia a lie!!!!!!!

B- the 2nd dish, the one that wasn’t eaten. My friend didn’t like the dish. The flavors were not good and she haven’t eaten more than 2 bites. We asked to call our waiter to see what we can do about it. We’ve waited 10 minutes until he showed, when my told him she doesn’t like the dish he was very angry & annoyed and told her it is her problem because she decided to order it. He DID NOT ask her if he can offer her something else or try to find a solution. Instead he was very rude, YELLING and constantly arguing with us, repeatedly saying it is “her problem”. He eventually took her dish without saying anything else and left. Again - and this is very important - he didn’t ask us, not once if we want something else instead, and he took the dish off the table without us requesting it.

C- When we got the check, the dish DID appear on the check. We asked our waiter to take it off the check because my friend did not eat the dish and the waiter took it off her table himself. He again started to yell at us, repeatedly saying that this is our problem- we ordered it so we pay. We’ve spent 3 minutes trying to explain to him that this is not ok. He made us feel completely uncomfortable. Eventually my friend confronted him and said she WILL NOT pay for the dish, he had no choice but to agree to take it off our bill. So saying the dish wasn’t on the bill isn’t accurate.

D - justifying the situation over culture differences is wrong, to say the least. We’ve been traveling throughout Europe for the past 5 weeks, been to 8 different countries. I was a waiter in one of the finest restaurants in TLV with customers from all over the world (OCD TLV), I’ve been a bartender for a few years and had my own business. I know how you should AND SHOULDN’T treat a customer, regardless of the country you are at. When a customer is not happy - first thing you need to do is to at least TRY and find a solution/replacement for him. You do not argue with him. Especially if the reason is simply because he didn’t like the food. Up until this point, including the very defensive comment the restaurant made on this review- I have not heard the place of business taking responsibility for the way we got served. Sadly- after traveling through Europe for 5 weeks - this is the worst experience we’ve had in Europe.

‼️‼️ANOTHER UPDATE ‼️‼️‼️ because apparently this restaurant is determined to tell their own story.

Screaming?? HELL NO. We were trying to explain REPEATEDLY to the employee why the food is not ok, while the employee was determined to make us feel stupid. Let me say that again - never in my life I was treated this was in a restaurant. Never.

As for the “regular” that heard us “screaming” - that regular was FOLLOWING US AFTER WE LEFT THE RESTAURANT trying to “understand what’s wrong” but in the end just told us we acted in a bad way and this is not ok and again made us feel SOOOO uncomfortable. Never in my life I saw a place of business that sends customers to confront other customers. SHAME ON YOU.

And as for the hair - again - we asked to see this strange mushroom with hair on it. The restaurant refused to show us. It was a...

UPDATE to the answer. We were one of the few tables that was occupied in the restaurant. Around 4 waiters were just standing around. That festival started at 18:00 and we were there at around 16:30 as I can see from the pictures I made so NO at THIS time there was NOT so many guests there at all, which even does NOT justify such poor quality. To say I have no idea of cuisine is very unfriendly since my mouth, as I wrote, is used to min. 2 michelin stars... sorry, but anyone can taste the difference between a homemade soup or just a ready packaging convenient soup!!! AND Kaspressknödlsuppe was not on the other menu. We were NOT even allowed to order from the menu on the picture even because it did not start yet. How else was I supposed to order that soup from the ordinary menu?? 🤷🏼‍♀️

AND OH yes, I can cook and know EXACTLY what I am talking about... sorry, this is a very bad way to put it. It is a fact that this restaurant IS using flavour enhancers, convenient foods and I am NOT the only guest saying that. THIS is a fact...

Original post:

SO what to say. THIS restaurant is recommended for people whose taste is gone. Restaurant is full of flies flying around, sticky tables, and unfortunately for a very hot summerday NO air-conditioning.

Soup, which is apparently made of real beef bones, never saw a bone but only flavour enhancer. When I told them the answer was that recessions from other guests were so good and I HAVE NO IDEA of food whatsoever.... well, yes. Eating in 2 michelin star restaurants, I DON'T know how a real soup should taste. RIGHT!!! Dumpling came right out of the freezer - the answer is convenient food, and if you don't mind highly priced convenient meals, you are just fine there. Very unfriendly and NOT to recommend if you want to eat...

We had a wonderful experience staying at the Rathauskeller Melk. We arrived earlier than the noted check-in time, and were given our room without hesitation. Room 3 was located up the stairs, with a lovely large window facing the back. This was the largest of our hotel rooms during our stay in Europe. The room was spotless, with a seating area, plenty of wardrobe space, and a comfortable bathroom with excellent water pressure in the hot shower. We didn't experience any of the noise the other reviewers noted, even though we stayed over a Friday and Saturday night. We literally heard nothing. The wifi was also very strong in our room. I might add that the food at the Rathauskeller is probably the best in town. The breakfast buffet was terrific, with both hot and cold options. On our last morning, the hot options were gone by the time we came down for breakfast, and the lovely staff made them for us especially. We had lunch and dinner in the restaurant and the food was excellent. The location is perfectly situated in the center of town, with the Abbey an easy walk nearby. If you visit Melk, I'd recommend renting bikes and taking the 24-mile easy bike ride along the Danube from Melk to Krems. A real highlight of our visit. We used the bike rental located by the boats (open from 9-4pm). The cost was around 36 euros total which included two bikes, helmets a basket and the ability to drop the bikes in Krems. We then returned to Melk by bus. We would absolutely stay at Rathauskeller Melk again if our travels bring us...