Schwarzes Cafe — Restaurant in Berlin

I must say I am highly disappointed by my recent visits here. I used to come here often, but lately it’s become a careless, noisy place with a complete lack of pleasant ambiance, and sadly very negligent and rude staff. Today was our anniversary and my fiancé and I decided to book a table, since this is where we had our first date years ago. Even though we had confirmation of the reservation, they had failed to hold a free table for us. They didn’t seem apologetic, nor did they care. A couple was just leaving, so we asked if we could sit at that table. As we sat down, the staff said this table is reserved. There wasn’t a sign of it. And they suddenly brought one and put it there. We said- maybe it’s for us, since we reserved for this time? They said no. It’s for somebody else. I said it’s our anniversary and we specifically booked for tonight… they replied in a defensive manner, that they will try to seat us somewhere else, but we may have to wait. Ok, we thought… though there wasn’t a hint it was truly reserved. (Nobody ever showed up). Minutes later, they said we could sit there after all. Not a big deal, though annoying. Then came the waitress, with a super runny nose that she was pulling up every 5 seconds! She obviously had at least a cold. She took our order, wiping her snot with her hand. Already not very inviting, we gave our orders, and waited…. And waited… 40 minutes later, after all our neighbors (that were even seated later than us) had food and drinks, we were still sitting there like at a bus station. So we asked about our order. The same waitress with the snot-nose, came over and said “ would you like to order“? We pointed out that we had ordered, and she said her colleague must have lost the order. We replied that we had ordered with her… she looked at us like she had never seen us in her life, and said “it was a very stressful day”. Of course I feel sorry if it’s true for her, but what kind of a place let’s their employees work when their nose is literally dripping on the table and they are obviously overwhelmed..!? And how is it ok to treat guests that have been here so many times & even reserved a table, without any regard or at least an apology… basically we ended up leaving and honestly, I will never support a place like this. A place, that forces sick waiters to work, and treats their guests without an ounce of respect. Additionally, it’s just freaking noisy...

On my last night in berlin I was looking for some schnitzel, we ended up in this café and the server was so lovely so welcoming, giving us a towel to wipe down the seats after a lot of rain. We felt like we ended up in the nicest place. we ordered straight off the bat without looking at the menu just three schnitzel and 3 small beers. It felt like such a normal place to sit with friends and just have normal food and a beer, really nothing special. the food came and it was average schnitzel, they were fine. we have another half drink and then we get the bill and it comes to €90 and we think somethings gone wrong but we look at the menu and realise that the schnitzel is €23.80 each and we actually can’t believe that it’s so expensive. we address this genuinely contemplating the idea of walking out because the price is so offensive for some sliced potato and basically deep fried bacon.

The waitress completely does a 180 on her attitude and starts spouting excuses like inflation on meat and being located in charlottenberg. She asks “where are you from” which was completely inappropriate and says that it’s our fault for not looking at the menu, but we had seen the prices on the menu outside which didn’t reach to about 15€. The waitress claims she didn’t have time to deal with us so we paid but honestly I regret paying because it was the most average bland schnitzel and has left the worst taste in my mouth (and still hungry) after the whole experience.

Hospitality workers like that are a huge problem with table service - having no humanity with the customer. If we had known it was so expensive we would have had shared and been happy. It’s not hard to be transparent or authentic with people. We are all out here struggling with our own rent/wages/problems.

Feels like a tourist trap or scam for young adults and it’s ripping people off blind. It’s probably the perfect place to stand in a queue for a seat with a beer but I would only take someone to eat there if I wanted to break up with them.

Edit: if i can give any recommendation it’s to steer clear and go literally anywhere else for normal priced food. A couple days before i had gone to ROJI on oderberger str and spent the same amount of money but had the worlds best sushi, service and experience. left so full i...

I heard from multiple people that I had to come here since I'm a big fan of traditional German food. We were in the area so I finally had my chance! We decided to sit in the back patio area, which is technically half-smoking/half-non, but honestly, you can't really avoid the smoke, though it wasn't too bad. I ordered the Kalbschnitzel of course and my date got the spinach Käsespätzle. Everything came out pretty quickly, which was good because we were hungry. The Schnitzel was decent. Not amazing, but solidly prepared and it hit the spot. The Käsespätzle was HUGE. My date could only finish half of it (with my help), so we had to take the rest to go. And it does re-heat well at home! For dessert, I'd heard great things about the Kaiserschmarrn, so we asked the waitress for it and sat in anticipation since it sometimes takes a while to make. We noticed a few other tables got Kaiserschmarrn before us and ended up waiting about 45m before asking the waitress if it was still on the way. It turns out it was forgotten somehow so we waited another 10m for a fresh one to be made. And while we were a little grumpy from the wait, we were both in ecstasy after digging in. The pancakes were so fresh and slightly undercooked (not sure if that was because they were trying to get it out so fast, but it made it more delicious), and the plum sauce (maybe actually cherry?) was great. While I wouldn't say it's worth an hour wait, I would definitely come back just for dessert and to give them another chance. Also, the vibe is really great throughout. It feels very authentically German while having a hipster vibe. I definitely recommend it if you're...