Lebensmittel in Mitte — Restaurant in Berlin

I am surprised at all of the positve reviews. This restaurant has the worst service out of every single restaurant I have been to in any country ever. I have never encountered a more pretentious/rude manager or terrified staff.

We (table of 4 women) were the only customers indoors (outdoors was full). We ordered 3 different dishes to share because we weren’t that hungry. We were then informed that there would be a 3 € “sharing fee” for the singular extra plate that they would be giving us (that we didn’t ask for.) I have never been charged for any empty plate to be brought out to us, but at least they informed us of it beforehand.

The food was average for how much it cost. At the end of the meal, an older man, who I am assuming is the manager or owner from all the negative reviews I have read about him post-meal saw one of us take a drink from our OWN water bottle and he proceeds to rudely yell at us, “You are not allowed to drink your own drinks in here!”

In German, he yells at the waiters too, who seem terrified of him and behind us he is aggressively tapping on the server’s screen where they add stuff to our bill. From what I can glean from context clues he was asking them why they didn’t see us drinking from our bottles of water. At this point we know absolutely NOTHING about what is happening but it seems that most of the servers are uncomfortable and/or scared of him.

We pay for our food because we believe nothing is wrong and that he was just warning us. We only see our detailed receipt AFTER we pay and we find that there is an extra charge (3.50 euros) that we were NEVER once informed about. If we hadn’t asked, they never would have acknowledged it. After translating it, we know it’s a fee for drinking our own drinks (aka, our own water bottles full of tap water.) Out of every single restaurant I have ever been to there has never once been a FEE for drinking from water bottles that weren’t even on the table. As we are traveling from elsewhere we obviously have water bottles with us and we find it inconvenient to buy water from a restaurant when we already have it in our bags.

We ask one server what the fee is about and he seems scared and tells us to talk to a different server. A different server comes over and begins to explain to us that the drinking fee is because if we want to drink water we should have ordered water from the restaurant itself. He proceeds to show us some vague fine print all the way at the back at bottom of the wine page (which we did not look at because we did not want to drink that day) which is in german, which is a language we don’t fluently understand, and he tell us that it says that we can’t drink our own drinks.

This rule is generally understandable, but our own water bottles? In an establishment that’s not even high-end? And getting immediately charged with absolutely NO first warning is highly absurd and unreasonable. It’s not hard to have manners and say “please don’t drink from your water bottles in here.” The water bottle wasn’t even on the table. The waiter chuckles and tells us that we, apparently, “should have” looked through the whole menu, which is illogical to expect anybody to read every word on every page of a menu.

We ask for the server’s name so that way we can leave a review for terrible service but he refuses to give it to us and condescends us by saying “Why would you need my name? You don’t need my name, you can just describe me. The tall and smart one.” The real description of him is dark hair, tan skin, has facial hair and slightly tall. This policy is not that specifically the waiter’s fault but he was being very snarky and the owner/manager was impudent. As we left we even watched the owner/manager pop open a beer.

I would never reccomend that anybody go to this restaurant because of the ludicrous mystery fees and the horrible service from the manager/owner and the one server who refused to give...

Very disappointing unfortunately. Probably this time of the year, after the holiday rush it was just an unlucky night. It was very quiet, early evening. Maybe 3 other tables occupied. The food seemed to be prepared without any care or love. The meat was overcooked and the dish was luke warm at the most. My companion's dish was barely warm, too. Unfortunately we weren't checked upon after we had gotten our food. It took quite a while until I caught someone's attention and by that time I had reluctantly eaten half of my plate. The service was very friendly and super attentive at first and they were also trying to accommodate us when I voiced my concern. The chef came out to talk to us and half heartedly apologized yet he tried to correct me and we were offered desert. A minute later the waitress showed up and offered to take my dish off the bill. I was a bit surprised but thought, ok, fair. The desert was a little burnt and nothing to write home about but I appreciated the gesture. When I received the bill I noticed my dish hadn't been taken off so I tried to clarify the situation. I was being told that I can't have both, a complementary desert or the food off the bill. I tried to tell them that this is what I was told and therefore I am surprised. I tried to communicate that there should've been clarity about this. I hadn't asked for the dish to be taken off and I didn't expect a dessert. I meant to leave constructive criticism. It was very unfortunate that we hadn't gotten attention after we got our meal or I would have voiced my concern right away. The chef came out again to tell me that the dish was cooked properly while he didn't want to hear my critique when I tried to explain my opinion again and he responded in a rather condescending way. All this time I tried to be nice and respectful.

It's totally understandable that some nights are just off. The wait staff tried to handle my complaint in a friendly and respectful way. I did not appreciate the way the chef talked to me. I have a lot of respect for kitchen staff and wait staff since I worked in the industry for 30 years myself. Yet I've never witnessed staff talking down to a customer and trying to correct them.

Mistakes can be made and after the Christmas holidays F&B staff is usually pretty worn out. But unfortunately it's part of the business that customers aren't always happy. Besides, there was a lack of communication and the whole experience would've only been half as bad if there had been clarity about what was being offered to us. "I thought you knew you could only chose a complimentary desert or your dish off the bill", I was told. "There is nothing we can do now" were the final words. I payed the bill and left a tip. It wasn't about the money. I was prepared to spend more. But when you pay a premium compared to many other places who offer a similar cuisine then one could expect a higher standard and conduct.

I was really looking forward to have dinner there. I'd been thinking to go there for the last year and a half. I had witnessed the beautifully presented plates while passing by there in the summertime. Unfortunately it wasn't meant to be for me.

For the future, though, I recommend, that when the owner isn't there to look after the customers when a complaint arises, to have ONE person to handle the responsibility and leave them in charge. There is a reason why there is a front of the house and a back of the house. Have one person in the front be responsible of the operation when management is taking a night off. I had three different people talk to me and that was part of the problem. There wasn't sufficient communication between them and ultimately to me. I also know a lot of Chefs. I've seen too much. Had there been one person to accommodate me then I wouldn't have been offered two different things that in the end weren't adhered...

I have visited this place many times over the years and always had a very nice experience in terms of food, wine and service. My latest visit was made yesterday and it was terrible. We were a group of 14 people who had booked a table well in advance. We were seated inside, which would not necessarily be a problem, if hadn’t been 40 degrees warm and oxygen deprived, making for a very unconfortable experience in itself. But on top of that came the service, if you could even call it that. We were basically treated as of we were in some sort of military training camp. One of the waitors basically shouted at us and had absolutely no patience, although I do not think that there was placed any unreasonable demands on his time. Firstly, a few of us wanted to have a look at the wine menu, but the same waitor didn’t want to wait for us to make a decision and just came with what he thought we should have. That would have been fine if done in a charming and convincing tone, but he was rude and condescending. Secondly, we were only allowed to order food from one set and limited menu, although there is another menu with more options. We were simply told in a very unfriendly way that it would be “too complicated since you are such a large group” (something that is strange considering the place considers itself “good for groups”). One member of the group for instance asked if he instead of the ‘meat and cheese platter’ could just have cheese, because he doesn’t eat meat, but they refused to make any exception from the set menu, so he didn’t have anything at all. Thirdly, when it came to the wiener schnitzel and the fish, there was hardly anything but batter and on a general note the food was mediocre the price taken into consideration. We were all so disappointed and upset after leaving the place, that I can safely say that I will never visit that place again. I really do not know what...