Restaurant 181 — Restaurant in Munich

My wife and I got a voucher for this restaurant as a wedding present, designed to go there for our 1 year wedding anniversary - which we did.

Beginning was promising, entrance of the tower we were greeted and congratulated (so they were aware of the occasion). Upon arrival at 181m height, we were seated at a table, next to each other, so both of us could appreciate the beautiful view over Munich.

Then I apparently made the big mistake: I asked if I could upgrade from what the voucher specified (simple 3 course set menu) by paying the difference to the other listed prices (4 course, 5 course, 6 course menus, wine accompaniment per course, ...). The restaurant is expensive but for this special occasion this would have been irrelevant, we simply wanted to have a good time with a spectacular view, good food and good drinks.

This was not well received. The waiter snubbed us by saying that upgrades were not possible - likely because we needed to make sure we'd leave on time before 8pm (2 hours slot) before the next reservation for the table would be. While I could understand this for an additional course, this does not make sense to me why I couldn't get wine accompaniment to the food. (And I would have without a problem paid for the 2x44€ for this). In any case, service quality suffered. We ordered two aperitifs and a bottle of still water, as my wife can't stand fizzy water. We got: a bottle of fizzy water. When we remarked this, the waiter didn't immediately respond to our complaint but first left to CHECK HIS NOTES WHAT WE ORDERED. Wow. After a brief moment he came back and admitted we were right (how nice to imply we might have been lying about a bottle of water...) and replaced our bottle with a bottle of still water.

The food was not stunning but perfectly fine, We liked both the first courses (grilled baby octopus, truffle agnolotti) and our main courses (beef & veal, fish) and the plates were beautifully arranged. The lack of wine was disappointing though. (Interestingly, the table next to us DID get the wine accompaniment but the wine consistently arrived after the course was finished, so we ended up being kind of lucky that we did not have it, after all.)

The dessert was nicely presented as well but very sweet. I would have liked to have a cup of coffee to it but the staff was nowhere to be seen.

The final moment was when we paid - the ticket machine at the park deck below the tower does not accept cards, so we tipped an amount that would have resulted in a few coins change. The waiter just shrugged and said he'll have to keep it all because they DO NOT HAVE COINS out of principle. Oh, nice. After such an evening it is so lovely to have to find a way to pay for the parking ticket.

Honestly, I don't understand what was going wrong here. Everyone in the business knows that it's mainly drinks where the profit comes from. Maybe we were judged as not rich enough because we had a voucher - but then again, I won't apologize for having received it as a wedding gift.

Final verdict: -1 for the lack of wine -1 for the service.

Otherwise, stunning location and reasonably good food - this could be easily a very great experience with a bit more of...

This is by far one of the worst restaurants I have been to and I honestly do not understand how it is even possible to enjoy this place. I usually do not write reviews with this level of negativity but there is nothing positive to say except that the view is amazing. The only thing you basically pay for is the view. The food, the service, and the overall experience are worth nothing.

The service is so horrendous that our host, Janna, forgot to bring us bread, water, and wine in the beginning of our meal. It was only after numerous complaints that we received the water and the wine, but still no bread. I decided to get a wine pairing and they forgot my wine with the first dish. It wasn’t until we said something that they actually noticed and had given me my glass. Afterwards they did not think to change the glass for the new wine. It was at this point that our empty glasses started piling up on the table and nobody took care of them until the end of our meal. For our main course, they had forgotten to give all of us forks as all of our forks were used for the previous starters. After mentioning it to them they gave us forks but not the right forks for the main course. Onto the desert where they had forgotten our utensils for the desert, I mean they did leave our butter knifes for the bread we never got but still you can’t really use a butter knife for desert. We waited and waited for them to notice but they never did even though our host stood right behind us most of the time.

The food itself was lackluster. Nothing screamed fixed course meal about any of the food. It might have honestly been better to go to a fast food restaurant instead. If you think the food here is good or even above average you clearly have never had good food and are blinded by the price. The only decent think was the desert.

Overall I don’t think I would recommend this place even if you just want the view. Every other aspect about this restaurant is just horrific and it’s sad that they charge this price for the food and the service they provide. There are many other places around the same price range in Münich that are significantly better. Please reconsider if you have any pending reservations or plans...

Do not come here unless you are prepared to wait for an exceptionally long time.

We had a booking for 12pm, had to stand outside of the restaurant for a solid 20 mins before we were let in. (Note that no notice of the possible wait time were given they just locked the front door).

Once we were inside we did not receive our food till 1:35pm. Wait staff was also not nice about the wait times , did not notify us of the wait upfront and was rude when we asked why we ordered earlier but did not get the food even though everyone else got it.She said and I quote “the difference of the food coming out is only 1 minute what is the difference?”. I timed and from when the first person received the dish till us was an additional 20 min wait.

I think it is important to notify customers upfront of the wait time and be truthful about the situation.

In addition the service is poor in general as well. While we were waiting we tried to ask for water and had to ask 3 times before we could get it.

The food was also average and we were only offered a limited menu selection (that we only knew after we sat down)

Overall would not recommend this restaurant. This price, service and food quality is not worth it just...