El Burro

Avoid. Zero stars if Google would offer it.

Came for a late lunch around 2pm on a Sunday. Waited two minutes before a tall bearded waiter came to the door. We asked for a table for three, he eventually seated us at a large corner table.

One minute later, a waitress comes to the table and condescendingly asks us: “Who let you sit here?” We responded somewhat shocked: “Your colleague, the tall man” who had since disappeared. As if we had snuck in when no one was looking like mischievous children, she pointed at a customer at a nearby table holding a baby, and sneered: “That man with the baby?” Becoming increasingly frustrated with her excruciating and hostile treatment, we said: “No, your colleague with the beard,” pointing at the waiter who had reappeared across the dining room. Rather than politely excusing herself to check with her colleague as a reasonably competent person would (or offering to seat us elsewhere), she shrugs: “Well you can’t sit here.” No thanks, we’ll spend our money somewhere more deserving.

If a restaurant can’t bother to hire staff that are willing to be minimally polite to customers (and certainly not openly hostile) no need to give them any business. Do yourself a favor and avoid this place as long as the wait staff treat paying customers this way.

UPDATE: The Restaurant’s response is quite dismissive and suggests the review is lacking facts: Here they are: (1) a waiter seated us at a table, we did not choose the table; (2) the table did not have any sign indicating it was reserved; (3) the waitress who then came and told us to leave was rude and hostile and never apologized for what the Restaurant now concedes was a internal communication failure on their part; (4) she refused to speak to her colleague who actually seated us to come up with a solution; (5) she told us we could not sit there but never offered to seat us elsewhere (contrary to what is suggested in the restaurant’s response).

Obviously, we have a different understanding of hospitality than this Restaurant, and can agree to disagree. There are many excellent restaurants and Innkeepers in Mainz who welcome customers warmly and kindly in all circumstances. I recommend them.