Café FREDA (Altona) — Restaurant in Hamburg

The food was nice, but the service was appalling.

We went Sunday morning for brunch and the place was heaving. We had reserved a table and were first shown to one table, but then asked to change to a slightly smaller table instead, which was missing a chair. The staff supplied a chair, but I guess the original chair had been taken by a person on the table behind ours, making the available space not large enough to allow two people to sit comfortably. In the end we pushed our table back and managed to fit.

As mentioned, the place was full, and there was also an outside area, which was pretty busy. Three waiting staff alltogether and about 10 tables (2-4 people each) inside. Don't know how many outside. They propped the outside door open after a while and even though it was a reasonably nice temperature outside, it's early March and the draft could be felt quite keenly. The waiter was unhappy when I asked to close the door (2 of my party were shivering by then), saying he had to go through to serve outside, to which I countered that I wanted to be able to eat without freezing, and he eventually closed it (we arrived at 11am, they had been serving food outside with the door ajar for a while).

Anyway, about 25min after we arrived we still had no orders taken, not even for drinks. I called the waiter over asking if we could just order drinks, but he never came to the table. So I called another waitress, and she came to take drink, and luckily, also food orders.

Now the place is not cheap even if the food is quite good. Choices include their "generic" breakfast option "Freda", for one or two people, a "sweet" breakfast with croissant, some breakfast bowls, open sandwiches and even a breakfast burger, plus cakes or other light meals, like pasta. Lots of veggie and vegan options, too. The Freda breakfast includes salmon, ham, cheese guacamole etc, but not an egg to be seen. Shame, but the only add on option was 2 scrambled eggs and I wasn't in the mood to spend more money.

So I chose the Freda breakfast, which also includes a roll, 2 croissants and a slice of bread. We were served our drinks a short while later, the coffee and matcha barely warm (which I discovered downing half the glas in one gulp), buy hey, it was something to drink at least, and we received our meals about 30min after we had ordered, about 1h after arrival. I understand that the place was busy and I did not and have not complained about the waiting time for food.

I was presented my meal with a hearty "Bon appetit", despite the fact that no bread whatsoever was to be seen on the table. I immediately tried to attract the attention of the wait staff several times and I was stuck in the little space remaining after rejigging the available space for seating, so I couldn't get up easily. All this time, the 3 wait staff were laughing and joking at the counter a mere 3-4 m away, not paying attention at all.

I finally yelled loudly "Excuse me" at the top of my voice, which silenced the entire cafe. To ask if I could possibly have some bread with my breakfast. I was brought a bread basket subsequently, with the rebuke by the waiter that I should have told them immediately that the bread was missing! WTF? I tried to, but you all ignored me! I pointed out that fact and was told I could have come to the counter... see above re seating. I was then further told by the waiter that it was MY responsibility to make sure I get what I ordered! Seriously? I did! He actually argued with me because THEY forgot to bring me part of my meal!

I also was served ALL my breakfast items on a single large plate with no room to butter a piece of bread or to cut a roll. I finally had to get up, apologised and squeezed through the other guests to ask for a plate, so I wouldn't have to yell again.

We were a party of 4, leaving close to €80 just for breakfast/brunch in the place (which was good food, as mentioned), but it honestly felt like really hard work to get served in the first place. Not an experience I will repeat...

Wir wollten heute morgen im Café Freda frühstücken und waren direkt um 10 Uhr dort. Da wir unseren ICE am Hauptbahnhof bekommen mussten, mussten wir um spätestens viertel vor 12 im Café aufbrechen, d.h. wir hatten 1 3/4 Stunden zur Verfügung. Nachdem wir unsere Getränke- und Frühstücksbestellung aufgegeben hatten, freuten wir uns schon auf unserer leckeres Frühstück (die Fotos der Rezensionen sahen schließlich toll aus). Wir bemerkten aber recht schnell, dass die Zubereitung und Auslieferung der Getränke (auch an den anderen belegten Tischen; ca. die Hälfte der Tische war belegt) sehr lange dauerten. Geduldig warteten wir weiter und hatten fast schon Mitleid mit dem Angestellten, der alleine für alle Gäste zuständig war. Mit steigendem Unmut beobachteten wir, dass die "Laufkundschaft" bevorzugt bedient wurde. Zudem fiel uns auf, dass Tische, die nach uns bestellt hatten, vor uns die Getränke bekamen. Die Zeit, bis wir aufgrund unserer Zugverbindung los mussten, wurde immer knapper. Nachdem andere Gäste bereits ihre Bestellung storniert hatten und gegangen waren, schlossen wir uns an und stornierten ebenfalls unsere Bestellung. Letztendlich verließen wir um 11:15 Uhr (also nach 1 1/4 Stunden Warten) ohne ein Getränk und mit leerem Magen das Café.

Folgende Verbesserungsvorschläge:

Offen kommunizieren, dass man alleine "den Laden schmeißen" muss und dass es deutlich (!) länger dauern kann, bis die Bestellungen fertig sind. Es wirkte so, als sei die Kaffeemaschine erst um 10 Uhr eingeschaltet worden und hätte erst vorheizen müssen. Dadurch hat sich die Zubereitung der Getränke nochmal verzögert. Wenn um 10 Uhr geöffnet wird, sollte die Kaffeemaschine auch ab 10 Uhr zur Verfügung stehen! "Laufkundschaft" darauf hinweisen, dass es aufgrund des Personalmangels heute nicht möglich ist, etwas zu bestellen und Gäste, die im Café sitzen und schon bestellt haben, Vorrang haben. Einen Überblick darüber behalten, welche Gäste wann bestellen und dann in dieser Reihenfolge die Getränke servieren (andernfalls macht das nämlich ziemlich schlechte Laune, wenn man sowieso schon...

Really nice and comfy place, in a residential and quite calm side of Bahrenfeld. I definitely loved that it’s not chaotic as the rest of the (breakfast) cafes in the city center. They also have a beautiful patio in the back where you can enjoy the green park. Staff was also very kind and friendly. My only negative comment would be that I think the portions were not very fulfilling. For example, the cheese and other stuff in “Freda” plate was really short, in my opinion.

Edit: Today we visited this place for second time for breakfast. This time we tried different things (other than Breakfast for 2) and everything was just perfect this time, also in respect of the...