TAMBOSI — Restaurant in Munich

You should never judge your partner's character by the way they treat you, but by the way they treat others (especially service staff). You should never judge a teacher by his/her best but by his/her worst student. And finally, you should never judge a place by the service it provides to its 'best' customers, but rather by the way they treat their 'smaller' customers.

Tambosi fails in this regard miserably and this is why its popularity is in steady decline especially since its change in ownership. Some 20 years ago it was basically impossible to ever get a seat there. It was always packed, often with people who were clinging to one glass of champagne for an hour. The place made up for it with its pricing, fair enough. It was about giving the perceived Munich richer crowd a platform to see and be seen. A cringy concept in 2019, but completely normal from the 70s to the 90s Munich. Back then people who frequented such places were most rewarded by the fact to even be accepted into such places (it was an ego thing), so even if they received bad service they still pretended to others it was amazing and thus fed into the hype. This kind of hype fed popularity for cafes, bars and restaurants dwindled fast with the arrival of internet reviews.

Anyway, I came by on a very rainy day around 4.30pm. Obviously nobody was sitting outside, so I expected inside to be packed. It was not my first choice, but the café opposite had just closed irregularly and I needed coffee badly, so I was willing to shell out 20 to 25 euro for a coffee and a piece of overprized cake maybe. Yes, I was desperate. So I step inside and hardly 20% of the tables are taken. How odd, I thought. I sat down at a small empty side table, very aware I was just having a coffee and a cake, next to the cake window where waiters would be running by all the time. Again, I knew I would only stay for maybe 30min and didn't want to take up more 'prime' space. As the waitress comes and hands me the menu she asks me if I am going to eat. I shrug a bit and tell her, well, a cake maybe. To which she replies I may please shift to the bar as the tables are all exclusively for people ready to eat something and she doesn't want to run out of tables. I glance to the back at the bar, where a few obvious tourists stand crammed drinking their coffee, I glance around at the 80% of empty tables. Half bemused half in disbelief I asked if they are really expecting people to dine at this time. She insisted that yes, she would run out of table possibly (!!!). At this point I smiled at her, said thank you very much, and left. May I say, i wouldn't push the blame on the waitress, she was courteous enough. This is clearly management policy.

How bizarre this experience was, how anachronistic, just how allover bad. There are so many more prestigious (and more expensive) and more historical places to be found. Think Sacher in Vienna, think Taj Hotel in Mumbai, the cafés and restaurants to be found in Rome, Paris, San Francisco, etc... You'll spend quadruple for a coffee, but real quality places know that every patron is of equal importance. Someone who comes for just a coffee and cake today and enjoys himself, may come for a dinner tomorrow. Well, not this customer.

Tambosi is a big name in Munich, but the management of this place doesn't care to uphold its actual legacy but rather is milking the long gone glory of this place as a cash cow. You will be welcome if you are a eager to spend tourist who doesn't know any better or one of the few aging (or rather well aged) old Germans who are mentally still stuck in the 1980s and feels it uplifts their status to sit around there. In short, they'll love you if they perceive you as a big fat goose ready to spill coins. If that's what you're into, knock yourself out.

To me as a Munich born and raised person this Tambosi is the epitome of cringy Munich conceitedness and pretentiousness. It's plain embarrassing to think that this is the impression of service many people will leave my...

Spent a nice Saturday as a tourist in Munich with family, strolled around with Deutsche museum, English park, watched surfers etc. then it was time for afternoon coffee and cake, maybe a drink or two.

Found this place and saw all tables along the wall were reserved and only a few actually were occupied with heavily botoxed or operated ladies and old facelifted guys (warning sign for the next time: continue walking).

We found an empty table around the corner and waited for 10 minutes for someone to come. Finally a young lady came and pretty rudely asked us to find a place at the main Terrasse as they don’t serve here. Funnily the tables next to us had folks with drinks….never mind.

Went to the main court and just by coincidence two (also botoxed, yikes) ladies just finished their breakfast (Aperol Spritz) and we got to the table.

Waited….waived…waited…waived…the personnel simply didn’t seem to notice us even when they served the table next to ours. After some 20’ we decided that we just use the toilet one by one and if nobody comes during that time we’ll leave. When each of us was back we stood up and went to the other side of the rope to discuss where to get our coffee.

Immediatelly there were three 20 something guys sitting at the table and the waitress was just flying from the main door to greet them and take their orders. We were literally very much done with Munich…

Of course a restaurant can choose their customers but such an idiotism is absolutely unbelievable.

This surely seems like a nice place an therefore 4* for the atmosphere. But if the owner(s) have this policy on purpose I hope they will go bankrupt very soon and the next owner has more brains.

Now when I checked the other reviews AND their authors I start to realise this place DISCRIMINATES their clients according to their possibly ethnically looks.

Who would have believed that! Discrimination! In...

The most unfriendly and rude service I ever received. Got there with a friend got seated on the corner ..but the sun was no longer strong so we moved seats to a guy who welcomed us next to his table but had a reservation on the table..the hostess from front desk walked to us and asked us rudely „who gave you permission to move“ nothing like I’m sorry but this place was reserved.. as if it was not enough she proceeds to say “ have you paid ?” We were not even half into our drink . She then finishes by demanding not requesting that we go back to our seats “. At this point we couldn’t stomach the disrespect we woke up and found another empty chair…guy next to us just sympathized while mentioning how shocked he was. To add salt to injury a second waiter comes to still talk down to us that we shouldn’t move around without informing her very well after she saw us move and retorting „have you ever seen this anywhere else …at this point I couldn’t stomach this and called my German partner who came and when the waiters came a second time it was a completely different view from her side „sorry I’m from Romania that’s why maybe I sound rude“ and even had the audacity to say she is the nicest there. I don’t want to imagine how horrible the rest of the staff is if she claims she’s the nicest.. plus the front hostess who dared ask clients if they’ve paid if not to move back …I don’t understand what kind of training they receive but that is the worst experience I have ever had in a restaurant in Munich.. What an image for the once good brand...