Café Westend — Restaurant in Vienna

The Worst Dining Experience of My Life

No Card Payment Support: The restaurant doesn't support card payments, and the staff didn't inform me, nor was there any signage in the restaurant. I only found out when it was time to pay.

Rude Manager: The manager's attitude was extremely rude. After I attempted to withdraw cash from the restaurant's ATM and failed, I asked the staff if I could pay with US dollars that I had in my hotel. The staff told me yes. I offered to leave my phone as collateral in the restaurant and went to the hotel to get the cash. Upon returning, the staff then told me that US dollars were not accepted. I could still understand the confusion at this point, as it might have been a language barrier issue with the staff. However, what happened next was outrageous.

The staff asked another man, who seemed to be the manager, and he told me, "We are in Europe; why do you think you can pay with US dollars?" It wasn't my idea but rather what the staff had told me. Moreover, the manager's attitude was terrible; he had no intention of solving the problem. He eventually said I could come back tomorrow to pay, but he wouldn't return my phone.

I suggested leaving $100 as collateral, and after a lot of hassle, the manager finally agreed. Due to my distrust of the manager, I asked to take a photo to prove that my $100 was left at their restaurant. The staff refused, and when I said I would call the police, they tried to prevent me from doing so. Only after I insisted did they finally agree to let me take a photo.

Throughout the whole process, the manager never approached the issue from a problem-solving perspective. Instead, he kept questioning why I didn't have Euros in Europe. On the other hand, I was trying various ways to resolve the issue, but every communication was extremely difficult, and the manager was utterly uncooperative. Even another female staff member couldn't believe how her colleague was handling the situation.

In conclusion, I've been to several countries in Europe, including Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Except for certain areas in Germany where cash is the only accepted form of payment, every other place supports card payments or Apple Pay. Moreover, in Germany, places that only accept cash will have clear signage. This restaurant had no such indication and no prior notice before payment.

The most serious issue throughout this ordeal was the manager's rude attitude. Not only did he fail to resolve the issue, but he also created more problems. I strongly suggest that the restaurant at least post "Cash Only" signs or inform customers in advance to avoid similar issues...

Kind of glad this was one of the last places we ate while in Europe. The service was incredibly lacklustre and magnificently horrendous. If this were the first place, it'd have stained the entire reputation of great service that Austria has built while we were there for 2 weeks for our holiday.

We made our way to the table we were pointed to from the entrance, but when we got there we were rudely told by the waitress; a slightly older, blonde woman that the table was not ours. Which was fine really. We were given the table right beside it, which was uncleaned and had crumbs of food, bread and sauce left over from the previous patron. We mentioned it to the waitress who half-heartedly cleaned it and said, 'here it's cleaned' without a glance in our direction. Racism? Maybe. Condescension and absolutely peasantry-styled etiquette? Definitely. Oh and the crumbs were still there so we get to keep the last customer's food in case we were hungry after our meal.

There's more.

There was no attention paid to us when we were ready to order. We were told to wait. But wait, there's more. Apparently the table beside us were ready. We signalled the waitress; a slightly older, more haggled blonde lady that we were ready to order. She mentioned to wait and proceeded to take the orders of the table beside us. The table came after our repeated attempts to get in touch with the servers, but nah, apparently we were to be seen and not heard. The blonde haggled lady took the order of the table beside us and left, completely oblivious to the egregious stain she left on the great work done by the rest of Austria's and Europe's service staff.

Food was lacklustre, highly overrated and quite the rip off considering the quality of food and service.

Vienna was our last stop before flying back to Singapore and thank god it was.

Cafe West End. I don't know. It's old. But not gold.

It left an indelible mark on our holiday where we were greeted with so much warmth across all of Europe and Austria. All to be squandered by the rudeness and horrific double standards of an uncivilised waitress.

Cafe West...

SCAM!! ASK FOR YOUR TICKET! We live around the corner and used to go there when it was run by different owners. It used to be a cozy place with very nice service and food. Today we wanted to try the new Westend. The atmosphere is not the same, service was quite meh, and the experience in general was underwhelming. But what really shocked us was that when we asked for the bill the waiter came an told us “23,30€” we payed and said €25, to tip them. He asked if we wanted the ticket, we said “yes” and when we saw it,it was actually €21 and €4 tips. WHAT!?!?! So we called him back, and asked him what was going on. He said that they are “asked by the manager Theresa to charge 10% on top of every ticket for the service”. That is not written ANYWHERE. It’s a scam and they are trying to steal money from people, because if you don’t ask for the ticket you will never notice. He gave us the extra 2€ back and we left. We will NEVER COME AGAIN, and hope they don’t abuse from tourists and travelers that just pass by because of its great location....