Carls Brewery — Restaurant in Stuttgart

TL;DR: Went here for a lunch, probably gotten wrong dish served, waiter was very rude and unprofessional, culminating in a very rude gesture from him at the end. Avoid at least this waiter, if not the entire place. So I went to lunch here with my wife, to experience some local cuisine. We were seated and waited to be served. We had ordered only drinks first, as we haven't had enough time to look at the menu. I asked for a couple of minutes. Mind you, our German is still "gebrochen" but we can understand decently and we can speak it slowly. First we waited for some time and then the waiter finally came with drinks. We were ready to order, but he basically threw drinks on the table and said "be right back". OK, rush hour, let's wait for him. However, I could clear see and hear him taking his time at the other tables with other guests, no rush whatsoever. He comes back and we order our food, a Caesars salad and a specialty "Maultaschen". See, I have already tried this dish before in another place, and wanted to tried here too. I went with the three different types, "classic", "cheese" and "vegi" combo. I am huge meat enjoyer, but I also like to try out different variants, therefore I decided to go for a combo. Time passes on, a good 15 minutes or so, we can see other people receiving their food, but not us. At this point, the waiter comes and asks us whether we have ordered already. I had replied yes, but we haven't gotten it yet. So we wait a bit more. Finally the food arrives, and we dig in. I hit the vegi dumpling first, and almost finish it. I open the next one, it looks like it's vegi too. I check the third one, and you guessed it, super green and vegi lookalike. I'm like okay, I stop and try to ask for clarification. After good 3 or so minutes trying to get waiter's attention, I ask him should my meal have meat, to which he responds yes, it's inside and storms off. Rude, but okay. I try to google it in the meantime, because I think somebody screwed up, be it the kitchen or the waiter. I try to get a hold of the waiter again, after some minutes of trying, I ask him for explanation in the most polite way possible. What should be the difference and so on. He said the classic one is filled with meat, the cheesy one with cheese and the third one with spinat vegi pasta. He storms off again as soon as I say Okaaay, danke. I'm a pretty patient guy, but I start to get a bit pissed at this moment. I eat my potato salad instead of my main dish, life is hard sometimes, oh well. I leave the other 2 dumpling dissected and untouched. I had tried them both, and I couldn't taste either cheese or meat in them. Maybe my expectations were wrong, but bear along. We want to pay finally, again 2-3 minutes to get his attention. He comes, I say I would like to pay with my card, he says its not possible, your table is gone, or whatever he tried to explain there. I'm boiling a bit right now, as this was my preferred way to pay, but for whatever reason it is not possible. OK, I always have cash, so let's pay it. He starts summing it up and says it in German and I didn't understand him well, so I ask him to repeat, to which he starts drawing the digits on the table. Boiling on the inside, but I still have it under control. As I think he didn't deserve tip, I gave him exact amount in cents. He once again, for the final time, storms off. He goes to another tables waving his hand up in the sky in my direction. I know the gesture, as I come from similar region/country to his. Basically f* off you cheap bastard. I lose it at this point, collect my stuff and leave to the direction of the manager or whatever the other guy was. I explain how, without cursing or such thing, the waiter was very rude, unprofessional, and that we weren't even able to pay as we intended to. After this I storm of and I never intend to go back there again. If you get a guy with black hair and beard, just ask for a relocation, you might have a better time...

My Stuttgart dwelling host said that since I was in Swabian land l must try Swabian food! So I asked my local friend to recommend a good Swabian eatery. At first she said all good Schwabian cooking can only be found outside the city, in the villages. Then she settled for Carls Brauhaus am Schlossplatz - yes right in the central plaza! Since we are both vegetarian, there were only two things we could order from their tome of a menu: Käsespätzle und Maultaschen. Which, according to my friend, reminded her of her childhood visits to her very Swabian grandparents. I thoroughly enjoyed that meal though, as they really knew how to make good alcohol free drinks, and the server was super pleasant and accommodating. Another friend joined us for dessert, so I got exposed to a classic German dessert: Heiße Liebe (hot love) - hot raspberry sauce over cold vanilla ice-cream. It was quite impressive! There are outdoor and indoor seating, but since it was a brutally hot day in Stuttgart, we opted for indoor seating, which was massive. Despite the large space and hordes of people, their service was always prompt and attentive. I had expected a large bill - to pay for its prime location and tourist attraction. However, their pricing was...

We came here on a busy Friday evening, expecting not to be able to secure a table. However there were lots of people in a similar situation waiting at the bar for unreserved tables. Staff were checking whether couples would be willing to share tables together and agreeing to this meant we were seated within five minutes, which was great.

The wooden interior of the restaurant was really pleasant and the open kitchen great to watch, especially given how busy it was. Our table for four was large and spacious and everything was really clean. Menus were brought really quickly but there was no English version available and the staff struggled somewhat to help with our order, so ensure your German is up to scratch!

Drinks were brought quickly and getting the attention of the staff for refills was easy enough. The food also arrived in good time and were great portion sizes. Both the wiener schnitzel and pork was cooked perfectly and presented well. Even the portion of salad was tasty and fresh.

Overall it was an enjoyable meal in a very good location, it was merely a shame that at times we felt a little out of place given the lack of English, but don’t let that put you off because it’s a...