Augustiner am Gendarmenmarkt — Restaurant in Berlin

Just literally had THE WORST experience in Berlin in terms of service!! One of the youngish Indian waiter had absolutely no sense of service and the worst attitude I had in Berlin, or even, let’s say, all over the world I have been to. I worked for hospitality as marketing and PR for years, I cherish good service and always appreciate their jobs. But this one, I’m not sure if we are paying or the other way around, he’s complaining all the time. To start, we have 9 people from different world and not everyone came as the same time. So 3 of us ordered some drinks and starters to start, and when more people came we order more, instead of order everything at the same time. He complained this was too much work for him. And wouldn’t want to bring more plates for us to share some starters. Not everyone wanted to have their own starter and some of our friends are first time in Berlin so we want to share and try everything. I think it’s not too much to have plate and knife and folk for everyone no? My Indian friend asked him if he could speak Hindi and spoke with him in Hindi like just chill man, just tell us how many tips we could give and get us some plates please. That’s not even the bad part of the night! He recommended to order 6 sharing dishes, 2 schnitzels and one gulash; we ordered 4 sharing instead of 6 instead and the 2 schnitzels and gulash. That was already a lot! We have 6 guys and 3 girls we still couldn’t finish. So my friend asked for take away. He came back with plastic box and the worst and thinnest plastic bags I’ve seen. Even in Turkish market I’ve had better ones. Then when I asked do you not have paper bags, like even uber eats bags like other restaurants give? He said no we don’t have. I said that’s not very sustainable no? Then he said if you want to have paper bag you have to pay. Lol that was after we paid the bill and left a big tip!! How on earth someone could say something like that?! Either the restaurant is cheap and not sustainable, which I doubt, or he’s just not supposed to work in hospitality. There’re so many better restaurants near by just borchardt I’ve been a few times already and always delightful from every part. This restaurant is a definitely not return just because of the very...

I've been here a few times and my review would be that this place is very hit and miss.

The physical restaurant is quite impressive inside and evokes a true Bavarian Brauhaus. It's a great touch that the waiters and waitresses wear traditional Bavarian dress too!

What's more, the food can be quite good and they offer good sizes of portions. If you're a beer drinker, you'll have a lot (both in size and range) to choose from too.

That said, the place can be quite short-staffed or rather the staff could perhaps be more organised. Some of the staff handle the stress better than others too and some will be very curt and abrupt with their 'service' when in a rush. There can be a lot of waiting around and you don't really feel greatly welcomed by the people working there typically, but again, this does vary from person to person (although the service is on the colder side all in all).

Something I found very disappointing in light of the above, was the staff being very forceful when it comes to tipping, which should never be pressured upon someone to do and is not common practice in Germany. Especially when the quality of service was not that good.

The prices are definitely very expensive relative to the rest of Berlin and this is likely due to the heavy footfall from tourists (which also explains the lack of effort from the restaurant in places).

There can be music and great atmosphere from the guests themselves however and I have had some really great evenings here.

A minor note is that the toilets are effectively chargeable as there is a kind cleaning lady who politely sits at the loos for tips. But it's not anything major to think about and she was very friendly.

All things considered, it's a decent restaurant for the atmosphere and fits if you want a Bavarian experience while in Berlin. But the customer service and efficiency of the restaurant needs a lot of work, especially since for the 2x premium you pay to go here, I...

Now I’m not expecting the same friendliness from folks like in the US, Philippines or France (I was given a heads up) but some of the German servers do say hallo and Guten Tag but then again, some don’t.

I guess this could be cultural, it could be that there’s a language barrier and finally it could be that the server may just not like you.

On this occasion we ordered the homemade pork filled with onion, cucumbers and it came with red cabbage and boiled potatoes. It was just ok and was a solid three (3) stars.

I personally got the (Bavarian) white sausages and the “freshly” baked pretzel, served with sweet mustard. This was a 3.5. The pretzel wasn’t warm at all and didn’t seem too fresh.

I also got the Augistiner Hell bier, which was light and refreshing. I’d give this a 5, it was cold and crisp so I say Ja! (Yes!).

Ok now here is the rub, the server, well she was unfriendly from the onset, and that’s ok, we’re here to eat, she’s not a long awaited friend. But she elected to not to give us the lunch menu with the specials, we actually found it on the table. She had given us the full price menus. Finally, when our bill came, she automatically rang up our bill and added a tip. What the? I guess you could say strike three, we’ve had many good experiences but we were planning to give her a tip and she helped herself. Note: Usually they give you the little credit card machine to show you the amount and wait for you to tell them the tip amount. She just gave us a receipt and provided tip for herself.

Others from our group mentioned the same thing and they gave cash tips, not knowing that she helped herself.

So in conclusion, the bier was sehr gut (Very good), the food was fine and the service...