Centralé — Restaurant in Szczecin

We chose this restaurant because of all the good reviews and recommendations, but sadly, our experience didn’t match what we expected.

We booked a table in advance, and they even called us before and sent us the pictures of our table, but they didn’t tell us that the table would be shared with another group, which felt a bit awkward and not what we had in mind.

At first, everything seemed good — the cocktails were nice, the starters were tasty, and our waiter was great all evening. You could tell the staff and kitchen were really busy and under pressure, but our waiter stayed friendly, helpful and kept us updated the whole time.

Unfortunately, things went downhill from there. We waited almost two hours for our food, which would have been fine if the food was good — but it wasn’t. The octopus was slimy, the salmon with quinoa and broccoli had no seasoning at all, and the quinoa just tasted like milk. The burger, ribs and pork skewers were just okay — nothing special for how long we waited.

We also ordered another round of drinks that never came, even after waiting another half an hour. On top of that, the music where we were sitting was so loud that we could hardly talk to each other.

We still wanted to tip our waiter because he really did his best and kept us informed and entertained, but he refused to take the tip because we had to wait so long for the food — that really shows how professional he was.

In the end, even though the service was great, we were really...

Atmosphere we were sat upstairs. The lights were too bright like you were in a hospital! Dining light should be less intense and more yellow, it sets a more intimate atmosphere. The lighting behind the bar was much better than the dining area.

Service the waiter did not come around often and would sometimes be missing from the entire floor. We saw other parties looking around as well. You never want your clientele searching for the wait staff. there was a employee working, perhaps the hostess? She was wearing a grey sweat pant jumpsuit, you had no idea she was even working there: this is not restaurant employee attire. She had her purse, phone, tablet sitting at the bar. The bartender was also wearing sweatpants and we kept seeing him looking on his phone and adjusting his sweatpants drawstrings but never washing his hands!

Food - our food took over an hour. Multiple tables were waiting but the restaurant wasn’t even half full. That indicates there is an organizational issue in the kitchen. When my food did come out it was already cold and/or barely warm. I had ordered the hot beef salad. The vegetables on my salad were overcooked: soft carrots and broccoli that had the consistency of baby food. My friend ordered a chicken burger and her chicken was so overcooked she had a hard time chewing it.

Because the food took so long and the taste was underwhelming we were not satisfied at all. We ended up going to the nearby Zabka...

Ive visited twice. Once for breakfast, once for dinner. Breakfast simple but tasty, and fresh. Coffee was exceptional. Dinner was fantastic. Thank you for several vegetarian options!! Meatless burger was great.

Chic/hip atmosphere. Decor comfortable with good quality build. Some fantastic glassware that sets it apart from others. Also nice to have good tunes playing (even a great jazz band during my visit!), and a party vibe later in the evening (well, when I was there on a weekend evening).

A bar that stocks a great Baltic Porter as standard (hooray!), plus other nice microbrewery and quality beers. Good cocktails on menu but bar staff will make cocktails not on the menu, which is appreciated.

I give this place 5 for concept. I see, and appreciate, what the owner is trying to do, and I believe it will be a great asset to Szczecin if the city gets behind it. Yes, the teams need to gel and fine tune their processes but this will happen, particularly considering the owner is obviously taking care to address...