Sfera — Restaurant in Berlin

I wouldn’t come back here for a full meal personally I find it to be more of a girl dinner place to nibble on brioche, have drinks and catch up with friends while people watching if you’re coming here for a full meal I personally wouldn’t recommend it if you think food in Berlin is generally mid-tier (aka people who know food and have gone to restaurants globally and been exposed to authentic cuisine from every culture etc.) do what the smart people I saw doing which is just getting a piece of brioche and being on your merry way. Had I done what they did this would be a 5 star review. But I had to be me and order two things on the menu to get an idea of the place.

This place is definitely for the instagram crowd and if you, like me, do not have social media and are looking for a hearty brunch, don't do it here.

I felt so bad not even taking the food home but I also felt it's more wasteful to ask for packaging to bring food home that you would never eat at home.

Mapo Tofu review: tastes like a white person googled what mapo tofu was then recreated it with limited supplies from a Vietnamese grocery store. Also I understand this is not an authentic Chinese establishment - but to TAKE THE THE NAME AND IT DOESN'T EVEN TASTE GOOD? They be doing the Chinese culture DIRTY FOR THIS and I'm Korean 👀 If you get the nuance of this review then you get me. If you don't, just order it and be happy with mid-tier food and your mediocre taste palette. At least your eyes will be happy with an aesthetic bowl of food. Portion is great though.

They have cold brew yay ~ I will think any coffee that isn't burnt tastes fine so idk if coffee here is considered "good" I just know my brain and tongue processed a cold coffee with ice and I was happy so 🤷🏻‍♀️

I would return and spend money here again on a day when all these things occur simultaneously: I wake up with the audacity to to walk into an establishment I left a less than stellar review. Craving a brioche and have the capacity to mentally prepare my gluten intolerant body the time I will spend blowing up the toilet and being in pain in bed for hours. When I'm bored people watching from my balcony and feel a nosy tingle coming so I can listen to people's conversations for fun.

TBH - if I lived even 10 mins walk away I would never re-visit. But because it is less than a 5 min walk from me, it's a local spot I would re-visit just for the brioche.

To the server/cashier that had me, sorry I couldn't lie and say the food was amazing - I'm super autistic and I...

Maybe I was there on a bad day for this place, but I defo can’t share impressions of other people in reviews.

It was afternoon on a working day, place was 75% full.

It took ages for a waitress to finally acknowledge us and take only order for drinks. I was starving. By the time they brought drinks, we’d been sitting there already for 20 mins. When she came back to take an order for food, my drink was almost finished and it was 30 mins since we came to this place. Time was passing, and no updates from waitresses where I food was or anything. Attitude was like we had an unlimited time to sit there and wait for them. I could not wait longer and had to give a nudge after another 30 mins, asking where our food was. So, in total, it took A WHOLE HOUR for our food to arrive 🫠. And this is only a half of the story… Now, food : I got oyster mushroom ceviche, which was… strange. Oyster mushrooms were swimming in coconut milk. Stange combo. my friend ordered a French toast. I took a bite and I loved the cherry souse (and I think there was also vanilla). But the real cherry on top (forgive my pun) was not completely baked brioche. Now that made sense to me, that’s why it looked our food was taking for so long : because they waited for that brioche to get ready (maybe), but it’s still wasn’t, sadly. I could taste that gooey dough, it’s just impossible to mix it with something else.

The payment process happened surprisingly quickly. I don’t think I had it before anywhere else, but a waitress without a single embarrassment asked me whether I want to add a tip 🫥

I understand it’s a new place, and there can be hiccups in processes, but there must be done some things to mitigate customers experience in case any.

What could have been done : manage your customers expectations and value their time. If you know you can‘t serve food for some reason for the next 50 minutes, be transparent about it. if a point above was overlooked and you have a customer waiting for that long, please at least offer a drink as...

Food is absolutely exceptional, with slight changes depending on the seasonal products, I’ve tried many dishes and they are all delicious and very creative. Bloody Mary is spicy and rich in taste. I always enjoy the gastronomic experience there.

However, make sure to reserve on the weekends. It was a nightmare of organization when I’ve been there last time on Saturday. I came a little later than the opening time, and despite being told to wait for 30 min, this turned to 1 hour 30 minutes, and after asking for multiple times we were advised to share a table with another group, when two tables behind us were kept empty (maybe someone missed a reservation? would be great to be offered to move there). I understand that it’s the weekend and very busy time for the team, but I would appreciate staff telling straight away that they are fully booked and can’t guarantee or estimate if me and my friend could sit at all - I would then not have waited in the cold for so long.

That said, on all the other days, the team was always friendly and accommodating. I will still be coming back, with the reservation...