Ex-Vertretung — Restaurant in Cologne

Me and my partner went there wanting to enjoy a few drinks by the river, only ended up in disappointment.

First off, customers were somewhat forced to tip the cleaning lady stationed outside the lavatory. I was willing to honour service workers for their hard work generally but found it unbelievable that customers of a restaurant and bar HAVE to tip the cleaning lady every time they use the facility. I looked up the relevant laws and regulations afterwards ( https://www.stadt-koeln.de/artikel/08288/index.html ) and think (as far as I understand) that restaurants are not allowed to do so. Although the waiters said the tip was voluntary, I was greeted by the cleaning lady with an angry ‘Hallo’ when I tried to enter the toilet to indicate that I had to pay the tip before I’d be allowed to use the bathroom. Her attitude changed 180 after I tipped her and was so caring as to tell me to mind my steps…I’d ve been totally fine if I was encouraged to tip the cleaning lady for her hard work, and would’ve happily given the 50 cents. But this systematically forceful arrangement was what put me off. We didn’t end up having as many drinks as we’d ve loved to, as it was indeed somewhat irritating that your basic needs (esp in a restaurant) were barred by an indirectly imposed tipping wall.

Another minor thing was the rainproof setting of the outdoor area of the restaurants. Those umbrellas were set up in such a way that rain water dripped between the gaps of individual umbrellas, and the customers in the outdoor area had to either put on their hooded jacket, or dodge the water sprinkles as they navigated their way to leave or go indoors. It’s not the most satisfactory experience and a bit loveless and thoughtless from the side of the restaurant.

All-in-all, it’s a bit of a let down, given how I was told this used to be the drinking place of the key politicians back...

I don’t usually write negative reviews because I worked in a restaurant and know it’s a tough business. However, if I could give this restaurant zero stars, I would. My wife is pregnant and was very hungry, so we decided to eat here. We ordered our food quickly. After waiting for over 45 minutes, we asked about our food order multiple times. They told us it would be out soon. Another 45 minutes passed and we still didn’t have our food, so we decided to leave. Upon trying to pay for our drinks with the host, it turns out our waiter never even put our food order into the system. Of course, they forced us to pay our drink bill and charged us the full amount. The only excuse from the waiter and staff was that it was “really busy today.” Do not eat here if you are hungry as they don’t have enough staff working to service the large number of tables they have put at...

The food was cooked to perfection. We really enjoyed our meal, however, sadly the service did not live up to the same expectations. We were waiting 15-20 minutes before someone came over to take our order. We then waited a further 30 minutes for our meal to arrive. This is to be expected in a busy restaurant but we were the only people inside. Upon payment we were quoted €122 for 4 meals and drinks. We were then (rather forcefully) asked why we were not leaving a tip. The server seemed rude and only interested in us leaving him a tip. Looking further at the menu we realised we had been overcharged by almost €20. We disputed this with the server and he showed us the receipt where we had been charged €18.90 for 3 coca colas. On the menu it stated a Coke costs €3.20. We left rather disappointed, which was a shame as the food...