FRIEDA — Restaurant in Berlin

I visited Frieda for the first time with my partner, and honestly we came away incredibly disappointed. The food was excellent, but the service was a catastrophe that ultimately ruined our entire experience.

I have worked in the service industry for years, and as such I’m quite forgiving of slow service at peak hours on the weekend or if they’re obviously slammed. Similarly, I understand that sourcing local, high-quality ingredients or employing a highly-trained staff may result in a higher price point. But frankly there is no excuse for how we were treated during our visit last Tuesday evening.

Our frustration began almost as soon as we arrived. We had a reservation, and were directed to a table outside. Our server immediately asked if we’d like some water – it was a very warm evening – and we said we would. Once we had settled in our seats and read through the menu, we noticed at the bottom of the menu’s backside that a bottle of still water cost €5, because they are “investing in as [sic] system to filter water instead of serving it bottled.” Even taking into account that many restaurants charge for water, I found the price a bit absurd. But my real issue was that we were upsold on this bottle of water before we had even pulled in our chairs or opened the menu.

We first ordered a bottle of wine, then continued to browse the menu. Just a minute or two after our wine had been poured, a different server came to our table to ask if we were ready to order, and we said that we needed just one more minute. In hindsight, that was a mistake – we didn’t see either of them for another 15 minutes, when our original server finally returned to take our food order: bread, two starters, and two mains (which our server read back to us to confirm).

And so the long slog began. After 10 minutes, the bread arrived. Another 20 minutes went by until the gazpacho starter arrived (curiously delivered by a chef), which tasted superb. Our soup bowl was silently bussed from our table. And then… nothing. We hit an hour and a half since arriving, and all we’d been served was water, wine, bread, and a cold soup.

Finally the two mains arrived, but where was the cucumber starter we had ordered? The food was dropped so quickly that we didn’t even have a chance to raise the question to our server. Our now-ravenous appetites, too, likely played a role in not being able to interject in time. Thankfully the mains at least delivered on flavor.

Our server returned to bus our dishes, asking if we’d like to order dessert. Having passed two hours at this point, we couldn’t be bothered to wait on another course or even the missing starter, so we said we were content. We waited for the bill to arrive, then waited some more, before desperately flagging them down after 15 minutes to ask for the check. They promptly delivered it, complete with a charge for the starter we never received.

At this point we mentioned that we had been charged for something that never came. Our server then asked if we wanted the starter now (of course we didn’t), before saying “oh, you should have to told me,” then running off to amend the bill and fetch the card reader. We paid and thanked him, but were honestly a bit shocked at the whole interaction (and by extension, our whole experience). Not once did our server apologize to us for their mistake. Not once did they offer any sort of comp (a coffee? a digestif? a dessert?). Not once during our meal did they ask how the food was tasting or whether we needed anything else at that moment.

We left mostly full, with a €140 hole in our wallet. But most disappointingly, we were left with the bitter taste of having been neglected, ignored, and talked down to over the course of two and a half hours. Even the most immaculate food in the world can’t...

Update 06.03.2023: instead of contacting me, the restaurant owner threatens me again with some clumsy legalese!! For a second time!!

Update from 07.01.2023: the owner contacted Google to delete my comment as they hold that I didn’t really pay a visit to the restaurant and made up this story just to slander them. They wanted to know my real name and the receipts to verify my identity. I don’t know the exact intention behind this, but I did hand in my payment details for the two visits from one year ago. This is the first time things like this happen to me, and I feel threatened even if it was not intended.

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Update: after my second visit, I have to rate this restaurant down to where it belongs. We were asked to leave our table even though we only had one dessert to finish; as a result, we had to be reseated next to the DJ and opposite to the front door to quickly finish our last course - this actually takes more time than just 5 minutes at the table to swallow our last highlight. Wouldn’t it make more sense to kindly ask the new customers to sit at the bar as they would skim the menu first? I don’t get the logic.

If you offer your guests a menu that contains at least three courses, shouldn’t you make sure that the time slot is long enough for them to finish the food or you may have to hurry up the service pace?

I ordered a wine to the main course and had to ask the waitress to bring the wine after the food arrived - it was clearly forgotten.

In general, that audacious dining policy may overshadow every good impression a person had - despite the food quality.

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Frieda definitely deserves better ratings! I don’t know what happened before, but our experience there was wonderful! Warmly received and well attended, we enjoyed the chicken hearts and the pork very much - the skewers reminded us of authentic Japanese 焼き鳥 or Chinese barbecue, and the little clementine slices just added cherry to the top - family resemblance with Mrs. Robinson’s, we see it! If you crave some good food and an elevated but modest vibe in Helmholtz Kiez, Frieda is the right one for you. It’s another culinary gem for P-Berg! We were also a bit intimidated by the below-four rating, but guess what? Nothing is truer than your...

Edit3: After they sent lawyers after the reviewers here on google maps and moved themselves from 3.9 stars up to 4.5 stars again, the trajectory’s clearly going down direction below 4.0 again. Time to send lawyers again I guess…

Edit2: After This place sent their lawyers after reviewers now their rating jumped from 3.9 to 4.4+! Be aware that this current rating is therefore fake. Give this review a like, so people can see this.

Edit: I got an email from a lawyer because this place is now using lawyers to remove critical reviews like mine from Google Maps. I guess you can take the current reviews with a grain of salt - since they are trying to get rid of honest reviews. It’s a lot of work to defend a review and many people just won’t do it. So what you end up with is a fake review page with only positive reviews to lure in customers. I am trying to defend my review, but it will be one of the few that do that. Give this review a like to show businesses that this is bad practice and that it can backfire.

Original review: Not refined at all despite all the hype. It will probably fool some people due to fancy looks, but anyone with an understanding of various cuisines will be baffled of how bluntly bad this is. Croissants swimming in syrup, iced coffee full of sugar, the gnocchi literally SWAM IN OIL and were over-spiced with simple pepper and chili. The Tartar they serve is barely a tartar at all. The meat is just spread out, and again SWIMMING in olive oil with some lettuce and parmesan thrown on top - really anything but a (great) tartar. The self-made bread was nice btw. and after complaining I got an iced latte without sugar (not on the menu) and it was good. By comparing the taste they must have thrown at least two tea-spoons of sugar into it before.

The fancy menu names, the hype and especially the prices really implied something refined. Sadly it...