SOFI — Restaurant in Berlin

Lovely Bakery with Great Food, but Service Needs Attention.

I visit this bakery every other week and absolutely love the cozy, unique atmosphere and delicious food. However, I feel compelled to mention that while the overall experience is fantastic, there’s room for improvement when it comes to the quality of service.

Most of the staff are polite and attentive, but I’ve encountered two situations that left a negative impression:

An issue with a senior customer: I witnessed an elderly lady who didn’t speak much English and seemed stressed about the language barrier, as the staff member on the desk didn't speak German. When she was asked in English, "What bun specifically would you like?" she looked confused and clearly didn’t understand the question. Instead of helping her, the cashier became visibly irritated, raising their voice and showing impatience through body language. In the end, they gave her a random bun without any real effort to assist her. While I understand this is an international-oriented place, a little more patience and respect—especially toward elderly customers—would go a long way.

Mistakes with my own order: On two separate occasions, I ordered a "cheese bun" but was served a "ham and cheese" bun instead. When I pointed out the mistake, the staff member became visibly frustrated, snatched the bun away, and sloppily remade it without a word, almost tossing it onto my plate. The first time, I thought I might have mispronounced my order, but the second time, I was very clear. Yet, I received the same unfriendly reaction.

These may seem like small incidents, but they do affect the overall experience. This bakery is a place for starting your day on a positive note, and little lapses in service like these can dampen that vibe.

If any of staff members recognize themselves in these stories: please, don't take it personal. I can totally understand all the underlaying reasons that could cause the reaction in both cases (we are all human and share the same stress), but felt a need to share this...

THE ONLY REVIEW YOU NEED TO READ:

Croissant-lovers: La Maison has the second best plain croissant in Berlin. The best one is at Kaiser patisserie at Ku’damm. It’s worth an order. We’ve tried sofi, sironi, albatross, Zeit für Brot and many others. If you want a healthy croissant - check out Weichardts- it’s organic whole wheat with best quality. If you want almond croissant - brodstation. If you want filled croissant double Burnt - Kaiser patisserie

If you like chocolate croissant - sofi. It’s the best. It’s crunchy and slight brunt taste is good! Note sofi croissant is made with sour dough so it has some sourness and cheesiness as flavor which isn’t for everyone who is preferring a more buttery taste

Bread-lovers: If you love sourdough. The best you’ll get in Berlin is at sofi for sure. Crust, fluffy and slight sourdough taste is absolute winner. If you like ciabatta got to sironi. If you live in the west. Best bread is kait. Other than that - Domberger is also solid, firm inside of you like that.

In general: Absolute high class tasting bakery near hakescher Markt somewhere hidden inside.

The chocolate croissant doesn’t just look incredible on pictures it actually taste exactly how you’d think it’ll tasty. Super crunchy, soft and yummy. One of the best chocolate croissants I’ve had in berlin that finally doesn’t offer random chocolate croissant you get in every corner.

The twice baked croissant was nothing for me. Very hard skin, way to sweet and filled with marzipan that was overall too much and too busy.

The baguette is a classy French baguette. Nice crust outside, fluffy inside with great taste. If you eat a baguette just with nothing you know it’s a great baguette!

Id recommend the baguette and chocolate croissant. We haven’t tried the normal croissant and sure will do next time.

The only reason why it’s a 4.5 instead of a full 5 star besides the fact that the service was also incredibly nice and sweet is their price point. For 2 croissants and one baguette we almost paid 10€. That is a lot for...

For breakfast, we ordered a ham sandwich, a classic croissant and a blueberry Danish. Both the puff pastries tasted airy and were perfectly laminated. I especially liked the blueberry Danish, with its balanced flavour among the cream, the jam as well as the butter taste in the pastry itself. The croissant was also perfectly executed, but to me it seemed a tad bland and my friend was not particularly impressed either.

Compared with the puff pastries, the ham sandwich came as a pleasant surprise. The sandwich looked very simple: a big slice of ham squeezed between two thick slices of sourdough bread and a butter spread. The bread contained enough moisture to the point of being a bit spongy, while the well-balanced sourdough flavour lent a round, full taste to the ham and butter. Once you take the first bite, you will not be able to stop until you finish it.

Nearly all the staff we met at Sofi had a grumpy face and somewhat dismissive manners. In Chinese, we describe grumpy faces without a single trace of smile as "stinky" (臭脸). At Sofi, I saw some of the "stinkiest" faces I have ever seen on a service staff in the whole Europe. When you order a sandwich, it takes a bit of time for them to prepare, and the waiters would eventually bring it to you. When it was our turn, the waitress held the sandwich in her hand and, with a stiff neck and eyes wide open, yelled to the crowd: "J!!" Very few times in my life have I heard call-outs of people's names that contained so much unprovoked anger and pent-up dissatisfaction and I am from China.

Thanks to all these experiences, our advice for Sofi is to buy the pastries...