Das Maria — Restaurant in Munich

I love the idea of this place and certainly a lot of love seems to have gone into it but my experience there was heartbreakingly disappointing. A first real post- lockdown outing, we booked five days in advance and had been looking forward to some fine food and relaxation after a tough week.

We arrived and were seated almost immediately. Unfortunately, our table was tiny and screened off from the rest of the restaurant with barely room to move, squeezed between the noisy kitchens and the toilets. We asked if it was possible to move and it was, great!

We were moved to a much nicer spot at the front of the restaurant next to the bar. We ordered our food and drinks. The drinks came straight away and we got down to some conversation while waiting for our plate of bread and hummus which we intended to share as a little taster before a more substantial main meal.

An hour later, conversation began to wane and hunger had started to kick in ( by this time it was 9 pm). We had already asked after our starter, to be told it would be a while. The barman, aware of our dissatisfaction, offered us drinks on the house and after an hour and a quarter of placing our order, our hummus and bread arrived. It was delicious.

Long story short: at 21:45, we asked to pay and left, our bellies empty. The main course never appeared.

I know this place is beloved and indeed, I went there on a recommendation from a friend, but this evening was such a disappointment. There are clearly fundamental staffing and organisational issues going on. I will not...

We came here for breakfast. I ordered the only vegan breakfast option (as far as I could tell), the Maria in Souk. I enjoyed it but it was a bit too oily for my taste. I had hoped for Za’atr manakeesh, Foul, Falafel and fresh fruit and vegetables but that sadly wasn’t an option. I also ordered a large cappuccino that ended up being very small, though, (size of a normal 200ml glass) and for that highly overpriced at 5€. The service was terrible which was likely caused by the place being incredibly busy. The waiters didn’t check up on us once after we’d gotten our food. We asked for the menu after finishing the food to order more drinks. They said they’d be back shortly, but after 15 minutes still no menu for us. After asking again, we did finally receive one after a few minutes of waiting and they finally took our empty plates. Then, it took quite a long time again before they ended up...

Extremely overpriced for what it is!

While the service was very good and the atmosphere quite pleasant (albeit noisy), the food was truly disappointing for the price. The lemonade had very little taste—though not exactly bad, just bland. The falafel raised our hopes, but what followed was decidedly sub-par: the eggplant itself was good, but it was drowned in an unevenly seasoned tomato sauce, which made the whole dish taste like little more than tomato sauce. The halloumi was just meh, and the worst was the kofta (Lammköfte): poorly or outright wrongly seasoned—it tasted like a cheap meatball—and again served with more tomato sauce. I mean... it’s okay, but paying over €25 for meatballs in tomato sauce? The quality simply doesn’t justify the price. All in all, extremely disappointing.

P.S.: two stars for the food represents how overpriced it is...