SPALE BAR — Restaurant in Basel

Nice, time-honoured wine/apéro bar with an outdoor area in the middle of the old town, which invites you to linger.

The selection of wines and food is great and the quality of what we had was excellent.

However the service is completely absent: There were two, sometimes three people working and about 10 tables to take care of (outside only because it was a hot summer day). The waitress was either inside chatting with her colleague and the waiter was either chatting or just standing next to the bar overlooking the outside area (where plenty of people had empty glasses or wanted to pay their bill).

Not a single time that someone asked us things like: what would you like to order is everything fine? how do you like it? would you like some more?

We always had to wave aggressively to order and even that wasn‘t successful all the time because they just like to act busy without facing the customer doing so.

Worst service I’ve seen in a long time. They could have sold at least 3x the amount of drinks...

This is a great little bar, tucked in the older section (up the hill) of Basel. They take reservations, and I'd recommend making one, especially if you're planning to eat there on a Friday or Saturday night. We showed up on a Friday night, without a reservation, and they pulled together three four seats at the bar. We were able to order food at the bar, so it worked out fine for us, but the place was packed, and they turned others away, after we got there. Flatbreads and pizzas are their thing, and they were delicious. They also have shareable appetizers. The staff were friendly, and helpful. Lots of English speakers, and menus in multiple languages, so no issues there. Good beer selection...

The only direction straight from the airport been to Spale Bar - the place recommended to us as the best place with a beautiful garden to sit and have a drink. An absolutely delicious plate with variety of appetizers with few types of cheese while drinking very fine wine is one of my best experience while visiting Schweiz. Also very good coctails, try it! Anna preparing the best aperol I ever drink!...