My partner and I were visiting Cologne, Germany for the first time and were excited to try the famous “German apple strudel.” Sadly, our experience at this restaurant was nothing short of a nightmare, and we left feeling frustrated and disrespected.

We ordered the apple strudel, along with a coffee and a mint tea. From the moment our order arrived, things went downhill. I politely asked the waiter if we could get some extra sauce with the strudel, as the portion of sauce was extremely small. Her response was shocking—she bluntly said “no” in a rude tone. When I asked for an explanation, she walked away muttering, “I have to add it as an extra and ask the kitchen.”

We waited for about 10 minutes without knowing if she had even asked the kitchen, so I decided to go inside and ask the bartender myself. To my surprise, another staff member chimed in and rudely said, “He already asked for it before,” repeating it several times as if I was being unreasonable. All this while, our food had gotten cold and we still had no extra sauce.

Then, things took an even worse turn. When my partner started drinking her mint tea, she noticed white bugs floating in it! Completely disgusted, we asked the waiter for a replacement. Her response? “I don’t see anything, we wash these.” She dismissed the issue entirely, despite the bugs clearly being in the tea. We have attached a picture of the tea, trying to capture the bugs—while it was hard to get them all on camera, we did manage to capture one. Trust me, there were multiple, and it’s not just dirt, although it may seem that way. At this point, I also asked again about the extra sauce we had requested over 20 minutes ago, and she rudely replied, “What am I supposed to do about it?”

That was the final straw. I asked to speak to the manager, but after waiting another 15 minutes, the manager never came. What’s even more frustrating is that no one ever bothered to apologize for the inconvenience. Instead, the same waiter returned, saying her manager was “too busy” but had heard her side of the story. After some back-and-forth, the waiter reluctantly agreed to remove everything from our bill except the coffee, but by then the entire experience was ruined.

The service here is absolutely terrible—the staff are rude, unprofessional, and completely dismissive of their customers. They not only ruined our meal but also soured what was supposed to be a pleasant day in Cologne.

We will never return to this place, and I strongly recommend avoiding it if you want to be treated with respect.