Café Croquant — Restaurant in Frankfurt

Returning back from vacation my sister and I wanted to catch up and have a lovely brunch and spa day. We were on a schedule but we had organized our day with a lot of care to ensure we were not rushing to each location/appointment/reservations. We went to cafe crocant knowing the food is suppose to be good while the service may be a bit sub par but we thought, well we have experience in that and it cannot be that bad. Boy were we wrong. We sat down at the table and the waitress asked if someone seated us, we said no. She then started with a tone to tell us this is not how it goes. I politely apologize and say should we go inside to be seated. She roughly said, „well it‘s pointless at this point.“ we were slightly taken back but let it go, I guess this is what others meant. I order our drinks and food approx 15min of waiting. I asked if I could order a side of Camembert and she said no, „you have to choose the side you want you cannot have two. I asked politely again if it isn’t possible to order an extra side. She said it will cost, I said I know and that is fine. After 30-45min from the ordering time, our drinks came. We asked when the food would be ready and she said it is being made. They do not provide any honey with the tea, so I go in and ask for it. She rolls her eyes and gives me a small pack of honey - we have a little pot of tea, so clearly that was not enough, so I ask if I may have another one - by the way each small pack of honey coast 1,50€ but ok, I am still on vacation mode. 30 min later we ask a again, I mean we are hungry at this point. We also ask for the bill since they are extremely slow and we had an appointment at the spa. They said 5 min until our food comes. Another 30 min pass and we ask them again explaining we have an appointment and we have been waiting well over an hour for an egg and avocado toast. We see the waitresses eating their lunch while we are still waiting!!! She then proceeds to says that they have been working since 7am and that our behavior of constantly asking about our food is unacceptable and then says “wir sind hier nicht am Bahnhof” now this went too far. We ask what she meant by that statement but she runs off in the kitchen without explaining. She then frantically ask if we had already paid, and the waitress said no. She then shows us our food and says you will not be served and you will not get this food. She then kicked us out and said we are not welcomed. While packing up our things she runs out to our table to continue to make a scene in front of people.

While we are still unsure what she meant by “we are not at the main train station”, raised here in this city, we have a good inclination what she was referring to. Looking back when we first sat down, we were profiled based off our appearance. It is sad but it also hurts to know this...

I AM SHOCKED.

I have pre-ordered a breakfast box for 10:30 a.m., as I found Croquant on Instagram and remembered good food from my old visit there prior corona times.

I came there today with a friend and we were both dissappointed, as even with pre-orders people need to stay in a queue. We got in at 10:55 and my friend asked the service staff at the counter what the rules for pre-ordering are and why people still need to wait for so long together with those who order at the place. For that the cafe has unfortunately no solution.

Happily our box was ready and we were offerred to choose some bread. Another lady that came out of the kitchen told me that even if we are together, I have to wait outside since they need to serve the next customer and due to corona restrictions, there cannot be more than two customers inside. That was already ridiculous because I am also a customer and would like to choose my food, but did not say a word as I was already tired and unhappy; bread is also not a principal thing for me. When my friend left the cafe she told me that they threatened specifically me with Hausverbot, as apparantely I had already made scandals in the past, was always negative and complained about the service. I had to return there to clarify the issue, as it was clear to me that they were talking about a different person.The staff told me that I was there two weeks ago, was rude with her and complained, while I was rejecting even being there as my last visit to this cafe was in pre-corona times. I was still hoping inside that there should have been some misunderstanding and expected apologies from the staff, however did not get any.

Now thinking about the situation, I can very much understand that lady I was confused with, there are reasons to complain. Obviously I would NEVER return to the place where I was sent outside without a possibility to make a choice, was accused for nothing, and was discussed behind my back. I would never wish anyone to experience that and therefore, would recommend my friends and collegues to NOT...

Unfortunately a very unpleasant experience. While the breakfast itself is quite good (but pricey), the service is extremely slow so you need to bring a lot of time, ideally not an empty stomach, a lot of tolerance for being ignored as a customer and, in particular, you have to hope that the extremely unfriendly and outrageous owner is not there. A couple close to us left angry after approx. 30 minutes of waiting at a table without being approached by a waiter, not without mentioning that that was the last time they came to that place. The young waitresses seemed to do what they could even though they were clearly overwhelmed and conscious about the poor service quality. One client was told by a waitress after being ignored for a long time, that she would not recommend him to sit down but order rather take away as they were heavily understaffed, being honest not able to provide a satisfactory customer service. The customer left.

However, it was absolutely shocking when a guest who only asked if he could please pay the check and accompanied a waitress upon her request to the cashier was at a sudden loudly and hysterically shouted at in a very bad and disrespectful way by the owner (older woman). The customer was asked to leave the place, when he asked incredulously how he was supposed to pay the bill, he was insulted and asked to leave the place immediately. He left. Next, gesticulating heavily from close distance, other customers sitting and eating at the table were yelled at by the owner from nowhere and were also asked to leave immediately. The stunned customers had to leave their food, the cafe and still had the decency to pay the bill from outside through a window.

It is unbelievable that customers are treated this way. We will never visit this cafe again - and after what we heard from other customers today, there are more that won't either. In our opinion, a place with such an owner should not...