Chen's Beef Noodle House — Restaurant in Berlin

Let's start with the positives: The prices are amazing, and you get a lot of (really really) good food for what you pay. I went with two friends. We had made a reservation over the phone. But when we arrived the lady in the front acted a bit confused and didn't understand that we had reserved a table. Whatever, there happened to be space for us so it was alright. We're all tourists that don't really speak German. I speak it the best of us three. Me and my friends were all out of cash, so we were glad to see that there was a card payment option. However, after we ordered, the lady insisted we pay cash. She had two machines which worked so we could pay with card, and our bill was €50,- plus. Eventually she agreed to let us pay with card.

The food was good. I shared my shrimp dumplings with my friends, but then realised I had ordered the beef dumplings as my main, not the egg and vegetable option. I went to order again because this was my fault, and wanted to pay with card again. The same lady insisted on cash. The language barrier didn't help because neither of our German was perfect (she did speak it better than me though). I was surprised because I already told her the first time we ordered that I didn't have cash, and it was like fifteen minutes later. But whatever, maybe she had forgotten me. So I told her again that I didn't have cash, but I paid with card just fifteen minutes ago. But now she just kept insisting on cash, even though she had two working machines I could use to pay with card. I just didn't have cash, so I left the register annoyed. My friends let me eat their leftover noodles and we left. Still left a...

The food was very good. We tried the soup that the restaurant recommends, and it was really tasty. Nothing to complain about with the food.

But the welcome was very bad! When we arrived, we waited in line at the counter to order. When it was our turn, we stood in front of the cashier but she ignored us. She wasn’t really busy, just moving around and getting beepers, sometimes looking at us but never asking what we wanted. That was really weird 😅 After almost ten minutes in front of her, she finally asked if we had cash. We said no and asked if we could pay by card or PayPal. She said “cash only” and made a hand gesture telling us to move away, because there was obviously now a line behind us. So after waiting all that time, we were basically sent out of the restaurant. It felt very rude and unfriendly.

We really wanted to try the food, so we went to get some cash and came back. This time she served us, and again, the food was good. But the way we were treated was very disappointing. This is not how I expect to be welcomed in a restaurant.

The general atmosphere of the restaurant is not bad, but it is not really cosy either. A nice point is that the kitchen is open, so you can see how the food is prepared, which is pleasant.

Our soup cost 15 euros, which is quite expensive for a soup, especially considering the way we...

I have never felt compelled to review a restaurant before. I am a person of absolutes, with things and experiences usually falling into either being the best thing I’ve ever had, or the worst. Chen’s Beef Noodle House has broken the mold for me, by being the first place I’ve ever spent money at that was just totally fine.

I had the braised beef noodle soup. The broth and meat were the highlight, which I would say is the hardest part. The noodles were a little stuck together though, but that’s an easy fix. It was very tasty in all honesty, but it’s hard to really appreciate the complexities of a slow cooked broth with harsh fluorescent lights burning a hole in your retinas. The place could also do with some music, and the dishes maybe a euro cheaper, but I also get that the economy isn’t exactly making it easy for restaurants to charge prices we’d like to see.

It’s great to have a place doing good quality noodles in Neukölln, but there’s potential for this place to be great and I really want you to be. Not just for me, but also for yourselves and for Neukölln....