Pandarosa Steakhouse — Restaurant in Basel

My friend and I were walking at around 13:00 when it started to rain so we decided to have lunch here.

The first alarm bells in my mind was seeing the cuts of meat on a display near the entrance.

The fresh meat is packaged in plastic so it is sealed but in July as temperatures rise into the thirties of degrees celsius and the air is humid it is advisable to have them in a cool display rather than at room temperature.

I had a runny bowel around an hour and half after eating there but I also drank two coffees and had a sandwich for breakfast so I will not accuse them as it is impossible to know if they are to blame.

My entrecot was juicy and was grilled medium well (I asked it to be grilled medium).

My colleague's steak was a lokum (probably the most expensive item on the menu). He asked that it is grilled medium but it was grilled beyond well done and was completely dry which is why he left a third of it though the quantity was small to start with.

The sides :

Baked potato had too much yoghurt cream sauce on it ; it was bland but it was fresh.

The fries were tasty.

The rice was surely cooked a day earlier and heated in the microwave but it was tasty never the less.

The vegetables are boiled and fried in butter. They were fine but I would prefer steamed vegetables that are lightly fried and come with an interesting seasoning especially seeing that the steaks came without any accompanying sauce (if any were available we did not notice them on the menu and we were not asked if we want any).

We drank mineral water and we did not have any dessert and the bill came to more than 80 CHF per person (before the tip which we always give especially seeing the waiters are friendly).

The price we consider reasonable for Basel had the meat been stored and grilled properly which unfortunately was...

Extremely disappointing experience. I arrived at 1pm with a friend, without a reservation. A staff member named Syed made eye contact with me several times but did not acknowledge us or offer to seat us. Two men came in after us, and Syed went straight to them. They kindly pointed out that we had arrived first, which finally prompted him to approach us — only to tell us we’d need to wait 10 minutes, despite a visible empty table.

Once seated, no one came to take our order for over 30 minutes — only after another customer went up to the bar and asked them to take it. We both ordered the steak meal, which is supposed to come with fries, vegetables, salad, and dessert, along with drinks.

The food did arrive quickly, but my friend's order was wrong. We were never served the included salad or dessert, and weren’t even offered them. When we asked, Syed told us the kitchen had closed and that we should have made a reservation if we wanted those things. Meanwhile, another customer was still eating, and we were not the only walk-ins.

What was most shocking was Syed’s attitude — he claimed he was doing us a favour by letting us eat without a reservation, and said otherwise we’d have to go to McDonald’s. This was extremely rude and unprofessional. We stayed calm and explained that if the kitchen was closing, that should have been communicated before seating us or taking our order.

We paid in full and left feeling insulted and unwelcome. Despite the food arriving quickly, the service was unacceptable, part of our meal was missing, and one dish was incorrect. Based on this experience, we won’t be returning — and we do not...

Very interesting visit started my meal with the ceaser salad I ordered it with no chicken. When it came out, I was surprised as I've never seen a ceaser salad with this type of dressing. It was quite sweet and overall very bad, not fitting of a typical ceaser salad. I took a few bites and moved it to the side, and when the waitress came back out, she asked me if everything was alright. I told her yes nothing was wrong with the salad. I just don't like the taste and that she can take it back. Then, 5 minutes later, the manager came out very upset and confrontational that I didn't like it. I reiterated that there wasn't anything wrong with it technically. I just don't like the taste and that I would still pay for it. Still, he is confrontational about it and goes inside the restaurant. My waitress was very kind and apologized multiple times for the encounter, and she did remove the salad from the bill at the end. The steak was okay, and once I added the compound butter, it was pretty good. I ordered it medium rare, and the steak came out quite rare. I still ate it since I didn't want to complain, and I don't mind rare meat. The sides were average as well. If not for the incident with the manager, I would give a 3 start for food quality alone. I prefer the Beef7 steakhouse down the street that I ate yesterday at around the same...