Sphere Tim Raue — Restaurant in Berlin

I booked a table at this restaurant to celebrate my boyfriend’s birthday but it is a place that I would not return to. We arrived and everything looked fantastic - the view is something I could not fault. When arriving at our table, we waited 20 minutes to be greeted by a waiter who brought our menus. Once we had decided what to drink, the waitress returned eventually, took our orders and we assumed the drinks would be on their way. We were very wrong. Our water arrived promptly along with the glasses for the wine but the wine bottle did not arrive until after we had ordered our meals and the starter had arrived to our table. We both ordered the salad for a starter which arrived quickly and was a large portion - we soon found that this was because the ingredients were much cheaper to supply in comparison to those used for the main meals. The mains arrived after around 20 minutes - perfect timing. However, the portion size was very small - this made it very clear that the sizes were small on the meals that would cost more to make. The dishes and cutlery from our main meal remained on our table for a further 40 minutes after finishing - despite members of staff passing our table multiple times. Only one of the waitresses apologised for our wait but we soon found that this wait was a tactic of the staff. We had planned to have 3 courses at the restaurant but we were only offered two. This is due to waiting so long for the plates to be removed that the restaurant was starting to close and so wouldn’t serve anymore customers. I found this ultimately terrible and did in some way, ruin our special night. Throughout the whole experience, we were only offered drinks once and the menu was terrible if you could not eat mushrooms as they were a feature in almost all dishes.

I would return to the TV tower again but would never go to the restaurant sphere. For the service of the restaurant, it was not worth the £50 we paid just for the table and the food was certainly not worth our bill which came to around £120.

If you’re planning on going here, I personally would only book for the observation deck and go elsewhere for a meal, we found multiple much nicer places that worked out cheaper and had an...

Let me start by saying that the price is what ruins the whole experience here. That's why I'm starting with a small breakdown of the costs, before I start the review; Entrance fee: €26-28 p.p. (depending on sales or not) Food: +/- €35 (main course + 1 drink)

Sphere restaurant: The waiters are dressed nicely and they are polite, the menu looks good, and the meals sound very appetizing. But the prices are quite on the high side. This slightly creates an atmosphere, which slowly could make you believe, that you're in a high-class restaurant which is aiming for a Michelin Star.

Then you get the food.... I ordered something that eventually came down to 4 tiny balls (of which 2 were meat, 1 was mashed potato and 1 chopped red beet) swimming in a sauce. All of it, except the red beet, lacked flavour. This was not something that was even close to costing €25 in terms of quality and quantity. (I'll refrain from talking about ball sizes) My girlfriend took the only vegetarian (main) option on the menu, which came down to potatoes and cauliflower with a (supposedly) cheesy sauce. The cauliflower was not cooked through enough and also this dish could use some salt and/or seasoning. (same price btw). And she could have done without the hair in her food!

So we of course grabbed the saltshaker, which not only was empty, parts of it also broke off (with normal use) into our food. Quickly you start feeling like you made a big mistake coming to this restaurant. The quality is lacking, and on a closer look, the restaurant is showing it's age.

Yes, the restaurant spins, which is cool. But seeing as you already paid +/- 28 euro to get up there, and can have a normal viewing after dinner, this should not influence the price or opinion. Also, tables directly at the window are not guaranteed! Even if the restaurant is only filled for 25% during your timeslot, you might not be placed directly at the window.

The restaurant is not worth the money!

The observatory deck. Not much to complain there. I'll leave it up to you if you think that it's worth the money or not. Just a small comparison: Berlin Fersehturm (205m height)- €28 Tokyo Sky tree (450m height) - €19 One World Observatory New York (381m...

Our story began in March. We visited the observation deck and had an amazing time. We’ve decided to come back and visit Sphere Restaurant if we are in Berlin. We booked our table in June in advance to have a really nice romantic dinner in August. I couldn’t wait for it, was so excited to be back. The excitement faded and turned into one of our worst experiences quickly.

When we arrived, we got a ticket for table number 9. We were thrilled to have a wonderful 2 hours there. The waiter came and changed our seats from the window next to the isle. You can imagine: it feels like it’s your first time flying on a plane, and instead of sitting next to a window, they force you to change to the worst seat. The restaurant was around 60% occupied, there were PLENTY of seats available next to the window. I went down and explained to the lady who arranged the seats, that please be kind and change our seats to a window seat. There was no possibility of change without a proper explanation: it depends on YOUR LUCK (the system gives you randomized tables), that time we weren’t lucky. Sorry, but WHAT? I repeat it, it was an almost half empty restaurant. We booked in advance, and there is no possibility of changing our seats?!

I tried again to ask if the other guests were finishing their stay (it seemed to be) so we could sit there. The answer was again no, the next guest who would get it. That means that if we just randomly visit the tower and decide to eat, we would have a BETTER PLACE than our prior reservation. Ridiculous!

The waiter was also unfriendly—we decided to leave this place without leaving 200 euros for nothing.

In summary: It doesn’t matter if you book in advance, you may have a worse seat than just a random guest. No empathy, no flexibility, unfriendliness. We could say rude staff. One of the worst customer experiences ever.

It would be better to charge for the window seats which could be booked in advance. It's still better than having this shameful approach to your guests.

Thanks for destroying our well-awaited romantic dinner (one of our highlights of visiting Berlin again). Because of your “kindness”, we were lucky to find a great restaurant with amazing service...