Shibuya Berlin — Restaurant in Berlin

TLDR; Clearly understaffed and unprofessional. “We are in Germany, speak German”.

Entered the restaurant, got pointed to a table by the lady at the front. Lady drops the menu without as much of a glance and mutters in English that it’s cash only. Fine, seems like a busy night.

Little did we know this would become half an hour of zero service. We seem to be one of at least four tables trying to get the waiter’s attention, to no avail - no amount of waiting, eye contact, or waving could get anyone to acknowledge the tables. There was a QR code that did pathetically little, as it led to a PDF of the menu rather than an ordering system, and the payment is useless since it’s cash only and someone will have to come handle the cash. Tough luck getting that to happen when everyone is too busy carrying empty glasses to take orders or guide potential customers to their seats.

At last, someone from my party had enough and confronted the lady to repeatedly loudly asking in English if we could order. For this I apologise. The concern should be voiced more reasonably, no need for raised volumes, and really we should have just left when it is clear the staff had neither the intention nor capacity to provide their goods and services. In return, it is the right of the business to refuse service.

However, I don’t think it’s appropriate how the staff reacted. The lady threw the menu on the table in response and repeatedly accosted the individual in our party saying how he should speak in German rather than English since it’s Germany. The other young man in the front hall chimed in to do the same.

To be clear, I don’t pretend that our party was faultless, I think tourists should not take English service for granted (although we have had the great pleasure of interacting with Berliners who kindly accommodated us in English or were willing to converse with us in German despite the language barrier), and I lament the situation escalated in the first place.

Still, I’m at a disbelief that she and her fellow staff would immediately resort to stereotypical xenophobic remark. How is this acceptable service? Had there been any care or even an ounce of acknowledgement on the lack of service in the prior half an hour, I doubt the situation would have escalated as such. Bad days can happen - it was a bad day for us and perhaps for the staff too - but it’s truly a shame to see this attitude used as a cheap defence.

Both restaurant staff and customers deserve to be treated with full respect, hence I focus my review on our experience up to the regretful confrontation: minimal service, wilfully disregards customers knowing that there will always be more gullible tourists wandering in at this prime location so who cares if their experience is horrific.

At the end of the day, clearly the staff are overworked just with collecting empty glasses from the outdoor seats. Maybe hire more staff, reduce the seats, or get a digital ordering and payment system that works instead of treating paying customers with disdain.

Here’s to better days for anyone who chose to visit this restaurant - especially English speakers - and the overworked staff members. Have...

The restaurant is such a missed opportunity, let down mainly by the staff who were rude, inattentive, and abrasive! Worst of all the staff seemed to take advantage of anyone who was a tourist or spoke English (not realising some English speakers also understand German fluently). In particular the short older Asian lady (who seemed to be owner/manager) and a portly ethnic man behind the bar - were very aggressive and rude, and continually argued with several customers and were very dismissive to many customers in my short visit to the restaurant. A few examples from my one hour visit illustrate why I think you should avoid this place, especially if you’re a tourist : As soon as they thought I only speak English they told me I could only come in if I paid in cash (despite letting in several German speaking customers before and after me who asked to pay by card) When the staff thought I didn’t speak German they immediately started gossiping loudly in front of me in German about me and other customers l and making offensive and crude remarks about their customers. Another English speaking table asked for some tap water for their 2 young children, the waiters flatly refused and said the customer would have to pay for either still or sparkling water if they wanted water for their kids. The customer was taken aback and advised them that this was illegal in Germany and they are required to provide water, but the waiter and lady manager continued to refuse and force them to pay for water for the children The staff are constantly speaking aloud to each other about customers in an offensive manner (especially customers who they think can’t speak German). And there were many staff walking and smoking in between tables who were eating their meals - this was very unprofessional and rude; and I’m not sure why they would act so disrespectful to customers as there were several customers who didnt appreciate the smoke from staff being around them. There is absolute zero customer service or courtesy towards guests, and yet they still almost demand that you give them a tip at the end. And if you try and refuse they then start speaking to each other in German about you in an offensive manner and then try to rush you out of the restaurant.

After all this it is really hard to critique the food, because the service and attitude of almost all the staff was/is so rude - you aren’t really able to enjoy the food or experience. And given that the manager/owners seem to lead the staff in being soo rude and offensive it really is surprising that this restaurant hasn’t put more people off - or perhaps there just aren’t enough honest reviews by people who are locals because they are fearful of the response they’d get from staff who aren’t afraid of being rude in public.

My honest recommendation is to avoid this restaurant at all cost! Germany is full of options and it’s a pity this one let’s the side down on soo...

The place is located on the Mercedes-Platz, right next to East Side Gallery, which is a great location. It looks very nice and clean, as well as the toilets (except the sink, which is too small, so you can't avoid spill water on the floor), so the beginning was very promising, but unfortunately, it ended there. The sushi was decent, but could have been much better if they weren't so cheap: We could hardly taste (and see) the cream cheese inside the sushi, because they wanted to save a few cents. The spicy mayonnaise sauce (which I paid 1€ extra for) was diluted with water, so it completely destroyed its taste! The Tamago omelet inside the sushi was noticeable, but tasteless. The Aperol Spritz cocktail was also diluted with water, although in the menu it was written that it's made of only Aperol and Prosecco! When I confronted the bar lady, she said that this is how she's been told to make it, and next time I should ask her in advance not to add water (how can the customer know about it if in the menu water isn't one of the ingredients???). For 7€, I believe they can afford adding a little more alcohol. To summarize my visit, although this restaurant has a great potential, the cheapness mentality there made me very disappointed, so I'm not going to...