caramia Focacceria Gelateria — Restaurant in Berlin

UPDATE DEC 2023 I have been notified from Google Maps that the Imbiss(the place is certainly not at a restaurant level) filed a complaint against a bunch of negative reviews including mine. I am submitting a stack of proof to Google Maps that my experience was genuine, and AnDi(Berliner Antidiskriminierungs-App) received my statement back in October 2021 already.

There are exactly 108 reviews with one star, and quite a few more that are telling the same problem - the owner has been showing an anti-social, rude, racist behaviour to their customers for almost a decade.

There are too many people who are aware of this problem. The place needs to admit their wrongdoings and get better at treating customers fairly.

Final note: It's your choice to go to this place, I would rather go to many other Italian restaurants that serve fantastic, delicious dishes and even friendly at their customers.

---- ORIGINAL REVIEW OCT 2021 -----

Wish I could give a zero star, but that's a bit mean I suppose.

The food was fine - above average quality, an okay price.

However, the behaviour of the owner at the end of our evening ruined the experience completely.

We ordered pizza and pasta dish with a beer and water. We admit that we had stayed for a long time - probably for around 2 hours. It was never intentional of us to stay there for so long, it just happened.

I noticed the owner didn't like this. He removed our plates without even asking if we were done, then came back a few minutes later to tell us that "This is not a place for poor people(to stay ordering nothing, I suppose?)" and that we must leave.

This comment alone was extremely unfortunate - surely, there are hundreds and thousands of different ways of telling the same in a polite manner. Yes, the restaurant was busy, but, it wasn't as if there were tens of people standing in the queue to find a seat.

The owner also grabbed my water bottle that we paid for when it was still half full - I let this go at this point and proceeded to leave, then the owner goes, "Here, I gift it to you" adding "...your kind of people should go back to where you come from"

I am an Asian woman, an immigrant living in Europe for the last 15 years. I have lived in London before I moved to Berlin, stayed and travelled many countries and cities, and I have not quite had such an experience at a restaurant where I paid for my food AND (a little bit of) service in anywhere else.

Sure, I have been cat called, name called, followed, harassed, threatened by all kinds of people before, especially in Berlin. But, mostly on streets, not as a guest at somewhere I was supposed to be treated fairly.

The level of discrimination this person with possibly no working brain cells in his skull displayed was incredible to experience, almost refreshing, as I thought I misheard him for a second.

First of all, making a "poor people" joke alone is unbelievably low. I hope no homeless, beggers would happen to stop there just to be discriminated for existing as human beings. Then, he made himself even lower as a human - I would say not even a human, but that's too brutal I guess? - by telling an Asian customer that she should go "home". That Asian woman has been living in Berlin for 7 years, paying taxes, running businesses of her own, never asking money from the state and trying to be kind to her neighbours - because Berlin is her home.

I hear from a number of people around the area that this sort of a behaviour from the owner is not an unusual sight. What a pity. He can cook great foods, but his head is buried in his arse.

In short, no, I do not recommend this place at all, and I hope the owner does learn a lesson at some point of his life. Hopefully not in a brutal way - but, if he treats everyone around him like trash, he will be treated as trash by others.

Really, I wish I could give a...

Update* After more than 1.5 years I was back in the area and decided to give this place another try. I was hoping the owner wasn’t there based on my previous experience. I didn’t see him as I walked in and was relieved. However, as I ordered with the nice woman that works there, I disappointedly saw the owner. He was busy in the kitchen. It had been a while since eating there so I decided to give the owner the benefit of the doubt and trust things would be better. Big Mistake.

I received my pasta and drink. My dish wasn’t the best but it also wasn’t horrible, I was able to eat it. The pasta I ordered comes with fresh tomatoes which I’m allergic to so I ate all of my pasta but left the tomatoes. When I finished my meal, I took my plate to the counter and paid my bill. As soon as I finished paying, the owner rushed out from the back screaming. My mind raced, I ordered a drink, ate all my food and didn’t stay in the restaurant long. What could he possible be upset about? There were 2 other tables full of guests and everyone froze as the owner screamed at me. I turned to one of the guests and asked what the owner was upset about. The man told me the owner says you didn’t eat the tomatoes and you should have said you didn’t want the tomatoes. I was shocked. I was fine with the tomatoes, I actually like that I’m able to have a slight flavor of tomato even though I can’t eat them. I was so confused and it wasn’t helping that the owner continued to scream at me until I left the restaurant.

Never again will I go here. Berlin has too many other cheap Italian restaurants with much better food.

Original post:

Disappointing food and poor hygiene. Owner is very rude, will suddenly scream angrily...

Lively restaurant with self-service in an amazing neighbourhood. Possibility to get a table inside while waiting for your food. Terrace in the street is always full. However, it is very easy to order it for take away, a close park near the church offers some benches. Focaccia and piadine are freshly baked for you, amazing taste, good produce and spices used. Different topings available, from veggies, salami, etc. Open kitchen, you can observe the work and the great atmosphere. Reasonable price. One focaccia is fine to split between 2 persons if you are not very hungry, just feel like eating...