Restaurant Empore — Restaurant in Stuttgart

One word to describe it: SAFTLADEN

Let me start this rant by saying that I normally don't write reviews on the internet, I had plenty of experiences from both sides of the spectrum, some wonderful and other less positive, but this one takes the cake for me, so I have to share it with the world. Why do I call this a rant is because I will not describe anything related to food, like other reviewers did, my experience is totally related to the awful and disgusting customer service of this so called ''restaurant''. It all happened on a lovely Saturday. As my husband and I were in the beautiful Markthalle in Stuttgart, we spontaneously decided to grab a bite in this establishment. Big mistake. As we walked in, we were unfriendly greeted by a waiter, who seemed quite disappointed that he had new guests. We have been given a table and the menu. After about 5 minutes, another stressed out waiter came and took the order, a beer for hubby, a cola for me and something to eat for us both, not so important because this part didn't get to happen, anyway. And then we waited for the drinks to come (it was a hot summer day). And waited. And.... guess what? Waited, of course. For half an hour. Meanwhile, I have to say that there were about 5 or 6 tables to attend around and some 7 or 8 waiters. They were busy to carefully serve all others while we were basically invisible, no beer, no cola, not even a glance in our direction. After half an hour, as some waiter saw that we were unhappy (to say the least!), he comes to us and brings the menu (again!) and smashes it on our table, without saying a word (!). In this moment we decided to leave saying that such an incompetent service is completly unacceptable to us. At this very moment, the waiter that took our order jumps, out of nowhere, with the beer, I guess it was too much of an effort to open a bottle of cola, as well. We left, without looking back and, by reading reviews here, I am glad we did, I mean, smaller dishes for non regular customers, what is this, the Middle Age? They are only lucky that they have a good and somewhat different location, the Markthalle is really nice, but there are other way better restaurants in a 5 minute walking distance from here. Now I really understand what the Germans mean when they say ''SAFTLADEN'', it is something like this Empore...

Location-wise it was smack in the heart of the Charlottenplatz hood, in the Markthalle (though we enjoyed the terrace outside in better weather). No idea where the toilets would be if we should need them. A little rare that the serving staff in an Italian restaurant in Stuttgart do not speak Italian though. But our Pakistani waiter was friendly and funny and did his job well. The prices were a little on the high side for such simple classic fare, and the food was not too bad, just that having lived many years in Modena I do have higher expectations. Portions were big though. They served bread with olive oil, though I would have appreciated some balsamic...

Today was my first time eating at this restaurant though I’ve been going to the Markthalle for years. It was for the traditional brother/sister day out that I do with my sister in my trips to Germany. I had the linguine with beef and and she had the penne pasta. The meal was amazing and I was definitely a member of the clean plate club. The element that added to the meal was the service. We were there at the height of the lunch and rush and had a long 2 hour lunch. Our waiter was amazing. He kept things moving in his section as had the perfect balance of attentiveness without being a nuisance. It was the perfect meal for a fun day...