Tavern Spreisel — Restaurant in Heidelberg

No stars if I could. I have never left a bad review of a business online before. But… Wow! I was excited to try this restaurant, it had always looked so lovely from the outside. I happen to live in the neighborhood and was happy to finally reserve a table… unfortunately that’s where it took a turn.

We were 12 minutes late. I felt bad about running late, but our 4 year old had hit their head on a table as we were leaving our house, not that I need to justify anything. We got to the restaurant and the host very pointedly checked her watch and reiterated the time of the reservation. It was awkward, but I shrugged it off.

I have really severe food allergies and I’ve learned by experience that it is not fair to me or the waitstaff and cook to risk a trip to the hospital (I’ve had many). For this reason I do not order food when we go out, but I still love to enjoy a beer while my family has a special meal. Servers sometimes find this mildly strange but it’s never been a problem. We still rack up a decent bill and leave a generous tip. I worked in and eventually ran restaurants for years until I got sick. I get it!

Tonight, when I had ordered a beer and was challenged about not ordering food, I tried to kindly explain this all to the host, but she became livid, her disgust with me was plain to see on her face.

The woman proceeded to tell me that it was a good thing that my husband and daughter were hungry and that I should consider myself lucky that she would allow us to stay… nope! WE WALKED OUT.

Worst experience I’ve ever had in any hospitality business. No one should ever make anyone feel this way, my daughter cried, I almost cried. Not ok, I’ve never had had anyone act like this, and have always been able to at least enjoy a beer with my family.

We have grown to become pretty good friends with many of the owners and servers at the abundance of genuinely welcoming restaurants within 50 meters this place. If you are visiting Heidelberg, please support any other place, there are probably 15 other, better choices on this block alone. This is a friendly...

Unbelievably hostile hostess. Check through these reviews, there are plenty of stories. Here’s mine…

My wife also wrote a review of the extremely poor treatment we received. As it had the greatest impact on her, I’ll not pile on with those details. I’ll let her review and the many other similar reviews paint that picture.

I’ll add this detail though. The restaurant was not very busy at the time we visited. In fact we were discouraged from making a reservation because the Hostess said “Just come in when you want to, it’s not very busy” but we already knew what time we would arrive and so we gave our name and arrival time anyway.

Fast forward to when we walked out due to the hostility we subsequently experienced. My wife was shaking with the indignity of it all and my daughter was crying. We then walked across the street, to Schnookeloch which was absolutely packed with laughing happy people. The Host saw us come in and smiled with genuine warmth. He apologized for having limited seating and immediately went out of his way to try to accommodate us.

Apparently Zum Spreisel gets high marks for its food… I guess I’ll never know. But I do know this neighborhood well, I’ve lived around the corner for years. I can emphatically say that you will receive a warmer welcome at any of the other restaurants in the area. Don’t waste your time with bitter, mean people that only see you as the payee of the potential money total that they can print at the bottom of your...

My newlywed and I were on our honeymoon and we visited two of the really great brauerei in Heidelberg beforehand. We had been walking for a while and saw a place that got pretty good reviews. We decided we would stop in to use the restroom and have a few more drinks and a coffee since it seemed like a nice place. We went to the restaurant and as soon as I left the restroom while waiting for my new bride to leave the restroom, I got confronted for being a tourist and was explained that this was not a “common restroom”. I told them that we were looking for a place to have a few nice drinks and sat down. We ordered two kellerbiers and received them. The beers were great! (Which is why this should get 1 star instead of 0 stars). We don’t speak German and after hearing 5 or 6 times the owners or employees in the restaurants speaking loudly about “tourists” and laughing, we knew we would not be served anything more. We did want another beer and coffee to end the night, but decided to go elsewhere. It seems this place doesn’t cater to “tourists”. It seemed like a great place, but we would never go back for feeling...