Punta Est — Restaurant in Bruges

The waiter should ideally not be allowed to work anywhere near people, let alone in the services industry.

Asked to wipe the table, as someone else was sat there before us. The waiter angrily brushed the crumbs off in such a way that they ended up on our clothes.

He then got very offended when I asked for tap water and said they didn’t serve it here. (Fine if that’s not a thing in Belgium, but maybe don’t be so aggressive about it).

Then he didn’t bring the whole order, forgot a coffee. By that point we couldn’t be bothered to trouble him again.

Then he refused to split the bill.

Towards the end I jokingly said « you must get great reviews here », to which he replied with « it’s rude of you to order nothing but tap water; this is not a library; you can’t just sit here and expect good service when you don’t even order drinks »; and then he stormed off.

I did order a drink mate, you just didn’t bring it.

Oh, and they don’t check Covid...

Following our host’s advice not to eat in the city center—because it’s expensive and not worth it—we stopped at Punta Est. Service was quick and friendly, with smiles from a really pleasant guy and girl working there. Prices were reasonable—the biggest plate of spaghetti Bolognese I’ve ever seen in my life (the three of us shared it and barely finished) cost €19. It could have used a bit more sauce for all those noodles, but hey! Nobody’s perfect, not even me, he-he! They made up for it with cheese, though—we got a small bowl completely overflowing with grated cheese. The beer was excellent too; I had a draft IPA and I highly recommend it. We also tried tacos, chicken pasta with cheese sauce, and sweet potato fries (excellent). We’d seen all kinds of reviews online, but maybe we just got lucky—what can I say? We really enjoyed our stop at their terrace; it was exactly what we...

We went to ask if the kitchen was open (we’re tourists in Bruges, hungry after a long day walking, around 10.40 pm) The only thing we said, in a friendly way, was: "Hello, sorry, is the kitchen open?"

Besides the “No” and a face full of disgust from the guy who answered us, someone yelled from the back: “Every kitchen is closed hahaha” in a very mocking and disrespectful tone.

We honestly think they might have been drunk, and we felt very disrespected — they were clearly making fun of us. We knew the kitchen was probably closed, but we asked politely, and honestly, we didn’t deserve that kind of treatment. This completely ruined our impression...