Isla — Restaurant in Berlin

Atmosphere is 5/5 Service is great 5/5 (staff always smiling and friendly) Price 4.5/5 laptop friendliness 2/5 (You are allowed only to set on the bar that faces the wall and no Wifi, but note sometime they make blind eye if you sit on the table that are inside so no street view).

When I found this place, it felt like the best spot to be in Neukolln, for laptoping...but then knowing that I can only sit on the wall facing bar felt like a bummer!.

I of course understand the business aspects, but I wish they could for example suggest to buy lunch to stay there, or make it available on a condition that the cafe is not crowded...

In the end most cafes do discriminate aginst laptoping crowd ,and this is no different to that end... maybe we need to revolt one day aginst this. I think the best way to revolt is, if we all go to those discriminating cafes and hold books and sit there for hours.... hahaha

Edit: As per owner reply, it's true, they serve/use special ingredients, I might was too quick or inaccurate it in first version of review.

Reply to owner's reply:

As per price, I have correct it, my apologies.

As for laptoping, please note that the reason I was disappointment is not because I made my order already, I would have been equally disappointed if I asked before. You know if your place is like a typical or an average cafe place, I wouldn't have been disappointment at all... There is pharse in Arabic that goes someting "Blame comes as much as love" :).

Of course I don't expect you or any cafe to be a coworking space by defualt, I was being sarcastic in some part of the review, being a laptop frinendly place just added an attribute not a quality, which to some people is a must in certian...

Paid 8 euros for a mediocre coffee and croissant. You would think that at this exorbitant price, they would let you work at least while you consume. But no: I just had had one sip of my coffee and not even started my croissant that I was told "there's a no laptop policy in this café". At this point, I had sat down for not even 1 minute, my food and drink were still full, the café was not even half full, I was not occupying a table while not consuming and keeping others to sit, so there was virtually no reason to keep me from using my computer. I wonder what comes next: "sorry you can't make phone calls in this coffee"; "sorry if your glass is empty for more than 2 minutes you need to leave or order something new". Gentrified hipster Berlin at its paroxysm, a shame.

Edit after owner's answer: you're right, I don't usually read house rules when I go sit at a café, so I didn't read the signs. I just thought you were a regular coffee place where I could get a coffee and sit as long as I was consuming, my bad. The comparison with a house is cute but you're not a private house, you're a business. So indeed, as you were able to grasp with such perspicacity, I am frustrated to have paid 8 euros to not even be able to stay in a place for more than 1 minute, and you're right, I do feel entitled to use my time as I please in a café if I'm still consuming in there, as long as I'm not bothering other customers. But well, not everyone has the same understanding of service. I am also glad we could share some light on how your treat your customers and the kind of answers you're able to provide when they're not satisfied with...

My friend suggested this place for their great sandwiches but on arrival they only offered a grilled cheese. While it sounded yummy I saw a Sicilian Caponata dish with miso cream. It sounded sooo good and when it arrived it looked great. Then I started eating it and realised it was nothing like a caponata and had zero miso flavour that neither me or my friend could determine - the creamy stuff tasted like watered down hummus or something.. honestly super sad, flavourless and dull mushy meal missing so many key caponata ingredients (didn’t have olives, capers, raisins, celery, parsley, mint, vinegar that I could see or taste)… and what was on my plate (eggplant, capsicum, zucchini and tomatoes) was super soggy and overcooked. For 14€ I would expect A LOT more. I make this dish at home, it’s really pretty easy to make it taste good with the slightest bit of love.

The staff here were friendly and helpful but very preoccupied chatting away (which is the nature of hospitality, I get it). I should’ve given feedback on the dish but I didn’t want to kill their social vibe at work.

Atmosphere I rate a bit lower too as almost every table has this very negative sign 🚫. It’s something about banning laptops which is fair enough but looking around the space these little signs were every 1m and it just felt like overkill and kinda rude. Not really a welcoming feeling anyway even as someone who doesn’t ever work from a cafe on my laptop.

I had a sip of my friend’s coffee, seems to be good!….Otherwise I...