westberlin — Restaurant in Berlin

[28.05.25, 19:47:09] Habiba: The Worst Experience Ever – Avoid This Place if You Respect Yourself

Today, I had the worst experience I’ve ever had in a café. I came here specifically because I heard it was a quiet place with a nice view where people can study or work peacefully. A friend and I decided to check it out.

I arrived first, went upstairs where people were already working, and opened my laptop while waiting for my friend to join me. Not even a few minutes passed before someone with a bitter, rude tone approached me and said, "Hey, before you sit, order something." I was taken aback. I politely told him I was waiting for my friend and we would order together. He snapped back, "I don’t care, order now."

I’ve been to countless cafés before and never encountered such rude behavior. Usually, staff are understanding, especially when you’re clearly planning to order. Regardless, I went downstairs, ordered a coffee and a snack, and went back up to work.

About 15 minutes later, my friend arrived. She sat next to me, opened her laptop, and started preparing for an online meeting she had forgotten about. We were quietly focused until someone else apparently the chef or maybe the owner came storming in and started yelling at us. He accused us of sitting without ordering (even though I had), and was aggressively demanding that my friend goes downstairs and orders immediately.

She explained she was in a meeting and would order right after, but he didn’t care. He kept insisting, yelling, and repeating "we don’t want people like you in our café." It was completely humiliating and disruptive. My friend had to close her camera in the middle of her call out of embarrassment.

I tried to explain that I would order for her, but he continued being aggressive, disrespectful, and completely unprofessional. I told him this was the first and last time we’d ever come here, and again, he repeated "Better. We don’t want people like you." It was almost like it was personal.

Honestly, if you're reading this – whoever you are – your behavior was a complete reflection of poor character and weak leadership. Shouting at customers in front of others, disrupting a professional meeting, and acting like a power-tripping bully? If you’re the owner (which I doubt), you seriously need to rethink how you represent your business.

Oh, and by the way: the coffee was as bad as your...

I'm new in Berlin and I always need a place to study on Sundays. My experience in the Cafe has always been great and I thought it would become my regular study place until today. The WLAN wasnt working and I know that this is sth that can happen and it's not the end of the world, but the reaction of the woman in charge of the place was not okay at all! Instead of trying to reassure clients that she would try do sth and really try and do sth, she seemed really pissed of at people's complaining looks, people who despite the shining sun and the 26 degree temperatures outside, were sitting inside with a laptop at 10 in the morning, obviously planning to work! I now Im just one and you probably don't care, but I think you should really work on this... and realise that Westcafe Berlin is one of the first places that appears in the list of cafes to study in Berlin and that people plan their whole day around your working...

The Café looks super nice. BUT. It's Sunday, not really full and they take ages to make my coffee. So I go to the bar and ask nicely how about my coffee. The waitress says I have to wait and should go back to my seat. I say I can just wait a minute and take it over myself, as the girl at the coffee machine is already making it. The waitress doesn't understand me at first, since she doesn't speak German, so I repeat in English. But she literally shouts at me that I should sit down, she will bring it. When she does and I ask her for sugar, she's very unfriendly and smashes the sugar jar on my table. The coffee was much too sour - even though the beans are quite good ones from a roaster in Berlin. I'm sorry, but I left quite a lot of money here for a soup, lemonaid, coffee and cake and get treated like this - I...