Barabba — Restaurant in Copenhagen Municipality

Upon entering the restaurant we stood by the door for a while, unsure of where to wait. Eventually we were informed our table was not ready and to have a drink at the bar while we waited. This would've been fine except we then didn't get our drinks order taken. After 15 minutes we got taken to our table where our drink order still wasn't taken until I asked to order. We had already booked the tasting menu online but we were still sat with menus in front of us for sometime before eventually the server asked if we wanted to add on the pasta dish. I felt that this could've been asked when we were first sat... The starter courses were enjoyable- with excellent bread. We had a table of 2 sat next to us that had arrived after us. We watched as they received their next courses before us, we then could see one of the servers had realised that the next course had not been called for when we had our plates cleared. We could see that the restaurant was busy and my partner and I both work within the restaurant industry so we understand that sometimes there are bad nights. However, we found that the staff did not communicate well with us and we could feel entirely how stressed they were to a point of us feeling like we shouldn't be there. Obviously this isn't what guests should feel! We found the food to be bland, and I personally cannot stand when food is served only lukewarm which it was for every course. My partner, who is Italian and I love Italian food but unfortunately we found this missed the mark. I wouldn't feel so compelled to write a review had it not been so expensive for what was delivered. We also noticed on the bill that there were 2 charges for water. We said yes to water initially but the server refilled it without asking us if we wanted more, meaning we had to pay for the second jug that we didn't even finish. We are not bothered about paying a bit extra but it is the principle of not being communicated to that we feel disheartened about. We left the restaurant still hungry and dissatisfied with both the service and food. We are disappointed that we spent our last night in Copenhagen eating here when there are many other fantastic restaurants...

I had to cancel a reservation in October 2024 with less than the required amount of notice because my friend with whom I was going to have dinner ended up in the hospital with an injury. I called the restaurant to let them know and politely asked if there was any chance they could waive the no-show fee. I knew there was less than 1% chance they would do it and I was fine with that; my main goal was to let them know we couldn’t come. The woman on the phone was beyond aggressive and was pretty much yelling/talking down to me like I was a child and not even listening to me. She kept cutting me off and talking over me. As I said, I was making the point of being polite and knew the restaurant’s policy beforehand. It wouldn’t require her anything more than a tiny bit of empathy and letting me know it’s their policy, and I would have been perfectly ok with that. I went to Barabba multiple times (including for my birthday two years in a row) and took visitors from out of town there, but never again. Literally the worst customer service experience I’ve ever had in Denmark. Their food is good, but there are so many other great Italian places in Copenhagen that make fresh pasta, and you’ll be treated...

I do not recommend coming here.

The first bad sign was that we showed up on time for our reservation, and waited 10 minutes before being acknowledged. The second was how many guests seemed to be vying for the attention of the wait staff - frustratedly.

Back of house and front seem to be speaking different languages. Why is the chef in the dining room checking tickets? Why is the entire front of house nowhere to be found? How is it 45 minutes between courses? I observed when I went to the restroom that the restaurant was about 75% full, and not a single party had food in front of them, except one table had a dessert.

I asked some questions about the wine, the woman seemed annoyed and added superfluous details rather than directing me based on what I asked about.

The food, admittedly, was quite good - just bear in mind you’ll probably need to order the entire menu to leave full, which will cost you several thousand kronor. Seems like this place got written up, but they don’t know...