LaLucha — Restaurant in Darmstadt-Mitte

NOT RECOMMENDABLE When we arrived at la Lucha we had to wait for roughly ten minutes before being seated. Even though many tables were empty, we had to wait for one of the staff to designate us a table. Different waitresses walked directly passed without even welcoming us. Seated outside on one of the tables, we were first attended by a waitress who didn’t speak German. We found it inappropriate that employees are hired, who are unable to communicate in the local language and requested a German speaking waitress. When we finally proceeded to order, we were told that some of the beverages and dishes were sold out. Really disappointing. Furthermore, the waitress didn’t know the menu, which comprises relatively few items, by heart; further requests and questions concerning the dishes couldn’t be answered satisfactorily. The prices seem to be reasonable at first glance, ranging from 6 to 9 Euros. The staff however was very eager to express upon us, that we’d have to order at least two dishes per person. This puts the seemingly cheap prices into perspective. We opted to sit outside on the spacy terrace. Not long in we regretted this choice, because there are no sources of lights at all. In the absence of lamps or even basic candles we had to illuminate our table with our mobile phones’ flashlights, something none us ever had to do before. The food we ordered wasn’t tasty at all. The pork included some extremely greasy pieces, the tacos were incredibly dry and stale. Some of the meals, our travel companions ordered looked and, according to them, tasted fine though. In the end, we didn’t eat anything. After we had complained about the food and the service, we were asked to give la Lucha a second chance and come back soon. Since there are countless restaurants, many in less touristic places in Berlin, where the staff knows how to make guests feel welcome and where meals are prepared with love and devotion, we don’t see the need to ever...

I have been here twice now, once on a Friday evening and the second time just now for the Sunday brunch. The service personnel here is really friendly but somehow extremely inefficient. We were a group of 6 people on Friday. It took more than 1h for us to get the starters, even though we saw the food standing on the counter for at least half an hour! And it wasn't even THAT full, the two ladies had plenty of time to do other things than bringing us the food from the counter. We even started wondering if there is some kind of philosophy behind this. Fortunately I ordered a salad which was not negatively influenced by its time spent on the counter. And it was SO good. I was starting to get bad mood because it took so long, but I forgave them the moment I ate my food :D The brunch is nothing special. Not a lot of people were eating it so they got very sloppy with refills. The brunch time is from 10-15, we arrived at 12 o'clock, and there were no more croissants and only the last bit of bacon, lying in puddles of cold grease. Also the salmon and other things were almost gone and were not refilled even after asking for them two times. Fortunately, then had this large pan of mushrooms cooked with tomatoes. It was DIVINE :D And once again I forgave them and stuffed my face with mushrooms and waffles.

Tl; dr: I REALLY liked the food here, or at least parts of it. The service is friendly but slow. This won't become my favorite place but I think I will come back...

Good Sunday's brunch buffet. Anyone else finds something here to enjoy. Cereals, croissants, juices (from the bottle), veggies, cheese, fried eggs and even a waffle machine. Unfortunately not enough fruits, well non actually. But everything looks fresh and it's being cleared up all the time. The only thing I don't like about it it's the fact that you sit very near to the buffet so you feel a little disturbed while eating since people are there all the time getting their food. Little loud but it's not so bad. Just if you want to have a relaxing brunch this is not the place because there are many parents here with children running all over the place :-( The people in the bar are very friendly and in sunny days you can sit outside in the terrace. Good...