Ristorante Da Ponte — Restaurant in Berlin

3 times I made a bad experience at this place, I always thought maybe next time it will be different but it wasn't. First bad experience was at 'Casa Matti' so I don't know if it's the same staff. We came with a friend and throughout the evening we noticed a very different treatment compared to visiting with our parents. Staff was rude and ignored us.

After almost 2 years we decided to give them another chance - restaurant called 'Da Ponte' now. We have been served iced red wine and again they reacted very weirdly after our complaint. They exchanged the wine, the food was good so the evening was ok.

2 days later we went again, reserved a table. When we arrived they couldn't find the reservation and placed us next to the entrance right next to their desk, which ment staff and customers right next to our table. The guy was showing me the handwritten list with reservations, indicating I haven't reserved otherwise my name would be on that list. The restaurant was full so we didn't make a drama out of it and just enjoyed the evening. We ordered redwine again and it still came cold, when we asked for the temperature the waiter said he could bring some ice cubes. Clearly it wasn't meant to be a joke, he was just stressed and annoyed.

Food was good, risotto was slightly overcooked and very thin, probably due to the amount of orders. Everything was ok, one waiter was extremely nice (smaller and bold) unfortunately the one for our table wasn't. We asked for the bill and payed. And this was our final reason not to visit this place again. When we paid the waiter was actually complaining in front of us about the tip. He was being sarcastic saying: 'Are you serious, wow thank you!'

It was the third time they weren't professional and even being rude so this was definitely the last chance we gave them. A pitty as the food is good, but for me even more important in a restaurant is...

I was looking forward for a long time to get a meal in this restaurant. A friend of mine recommended it to me. Since I am living close by, I finally decided to take a chance trying the menu. First of all, this was my first attempt, if it would have not been for such a cruel event, I might have been less disappointed. I got the house Tagliatelle and for a 17 Euro noodle dish, they were served with tin mushrooms (the waiter was saying, they were probably not cooked enough; yes for sure, then they always look like the tin version... I have been cooking meals for more than 30 years by now, I might be able to tell). The house wine was (at least what I am used to) below average (specially me asking for something tasty...). Standard Grappa was also not really pleasant, even at the (pseudo) Italian (Albanian) restaurant (a Trattoria quite close to the east) it is way better. Service was actually really great, I appreciated it (4,5 stars).

If you are looking for a place which does look good and is asking the prices for it (and you do not care that the food is mediocre), go there, service is excellent! If you want to go for great food (and actually care for it), go elsewhere (I probably should not give it away, less than a kilometer NNO you get to taste very good Italian food).

Will visit in the future and update the review; hail to good...

Without giving us the bill, they charged us 90€. After carefully calculating the bill, we realized that we were scammed with +10€ by the server. When we asked for the bill 1-2 minutes later, he said threw it away but can give us “another one” that is more and “better” for a Bewirtungsbeleg (this is illegal and not what we asked for?!). After speaking to multiple servers, it turned out that he could find our bill in the system (took 10 minutes and he was denying that he can fond the bill) and said that he made a mistake, apologizing with “soy italiano” but I don’t know what the different nationality has to do with the scam that he conducted.

After all, he gave me the difference in cash and apologized but it did seems like a well-played out trick as he was making jokes while we were paying, using the pos terminal as a phone and talking to it as a joke which was supposed to distract us. It worked for 2-3 minutes but then we caught on.

I am a fan of the food but PLEASE always ask for the bill and check if everything is correct, especially if you pay with card - the food is already expensive enough. The man was tall, white+black hair and balding with bad teeth and an...