ess/bar — Restaurant in Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Konstanz

I like the dining concept - which is to choose several medium sized plates according to your appetite - rather than the traditional appetizer followed by main dish, and as I live not too far from the Swiss German border I've been coming here for years with my wife.

In the past I would have given 4 🌟 however the quality seems to have gone down a bit, and the quantity as well. Perhaps a need to economize after Corona caused damage to profitability? I don't know but hope it gets back to normal. They are not really capacity constrained in good weather due to ample outdoor seating so the economics should work at least when the weather is nice. Anyway the food is good and I recommend it.

What I can't recommend is the attitude. The staff has never been particularly friendly here, rather typically efficient. This is generally ok for me and pretty usual for a high traffic tourist area. However on this visit we had a particular problem which the management refused to help with. My wife is allergic to a particular ingredient, which is commonly mentioned on menus. Of the 9 choices on the menu 4 of them mentioned this ingredient, so my wife naturally chose from the others. When her food arrived one of her choices had this ingredient in spite of it not being mentioned, and she had an allergic reaction. We told the waitress who said she had to discuss with her manager. She came back and said she would be happy to bring a different dish but we still had to pay for the first one and recommended I eat it or take it home as I am not allergic. Well it is only EUR 10, but I thought this a poor decision and asked to speak to her manager. She came back and said the manager is too busy to talk to me but I was free to email her. Crass to say the least. I told her I would post my thoughts publicly and her manager could read them there. She said she would prefer an email, the end.

My wife and I spent EUR 120 including drinks, and the manager would not extend a courtesy on a EUR 10 item and could not be bothered to spend 2 minutes with me to resolve the situation.

Like I said the food is good. Decide for yourself if it good enough to compensate the bad attitude when there are so many other good choices in the old town of Konstanz and next to the nearby lake, where there are numerous more...

The absolute BEST food kitchen in Konstanz! We came here yesterday because Tuesdays is seafood day, and we were definitely exhilarated by the quality of the food which was served here, it just kept on coming better and better. In fact, it was so good that we paid each of the kitchen staff a beer afterwards, we just couldn’t get over how good this meal was. This restaurant is nowhere near the similarly rated restaurants in the same vicinity, it plays in a league on its own in Konstanz. Best...

Essensteller gut und frisch zubereitet - ABER - was auf den ersten Blick preislich ok erscheint, erweist sich bei genaueren Betrachtung als überteuert in einem mittelmässigen Ambiente. Ein Lokal, in dem wir uns als Gäste weniger als solche wahrgenommen fühlten, sondern eher der Eindruck entstand, dass Gewinnmaximierung und Umsatz an erster Stelle stehen: eine Karaffe Leitungswasser wird verrechnet, obwohl wir zusätzlich eine Flasche Wein bestellten; es gibt "Slots" - diese Zeitfenster müssen eingehalten werden, dann wechselt die Gästeschaft (Fenster werden - im Winter! - aufgerissen; Tische hinter den gehen Gästen hektisch neu eingedeckt und verschoben; als klare zusätzliche Signale schnellst möglich zu gehen); junge immer wieder wechselnde Bedienungen, die freundlich, aber wenig geschult erscheinen - günstige StudentInnen?; billige Papiersets- und -Servietten auf den kleinen und relativ eng gestellten Tischen; völlig überteuert zu speziellen Anlässen: Valentinstag: 2 Personen sollen sich 1 Teller, der nur minimal umfangreicher bemessen ist im Vergleich zu den normalen Portionen, teilen - dafür wird der doppelte Preis berechnet. Insgesamt fällt mir zur Essbar ein: McDonalds auf gehobenem Niveau für ein leicht gealtertes hippes solventes Publikum. Kein Lokal, um sich wirklich...