Taverne — Restaurant in Interlaken

This was awful on so many levels.

Firstly, it is a cynical tourist rip off. Fancy tap water rather than forking out CHF 9 on their ‘filtered table water?’ The answer is no.

Want a gluten free burger bun? The answer is no.

Want to have cured meats with your fondue? The answer is no, unless you have it as a starter rather than a main course, in which case the answer is yes.

Want to share a pudding rather than have one to yourself? The answer is yes, but we’ll surcharge you CHF 7.50 to do so.

We ordered our meals and waited to be amazed. The fondue was ok (buy the waiter a new lighter to save all that fuss about lighting the candle under the cheese). My wife’s gluten free roll arrived still frozen; we asked for a replacement which took a ridiculous time to arrive. The chicken was tepid but the risotto was outrightly cold and excessively salty. The chicken was eaten under protest but the risotto was sent back.

The manager arrived and was complained to. ‘The gluten free roll is a special item and we’re really busy tonight.’ So this justifies an unacceptable quality of food? The manager continued to argue the toss before finally scuttling off into the deepest recesses of the building, never to be seen again.

The risotto was replaced with a new one. ‘We’ve remade the dish,’ was the claim as it was plonked down onto the table. There was no way that a chef as inept as that could make a risotto in that time; it was the same salty ordure as before on a new plate.

By this time, our wedding anniversary meal was ruined; we asked for the bill but the manager had the gall to charge us for the risotto. A subsequent complaint got it removed.

OK, we didn’t pay for the awfulness but we would rather have done so and had a good time. My message to this place is as follows;

The owners: no tap water? Come on. As for the sharing surcharge, all you are doing is harming your own sales; my wife and I were tempted to share a fondue starter but didn’t because of the ridiculous surcharge.

Chef: you are out of your depth. If you can’t coordinate the production of food so that it goes out warm then why are you there?

The manager: you’re the one who really failed here. You need to drop the passive-aggressive attitude and allow people to speak without talking over them, this being little more than basic good manners, which you don’t have. You also have the mindset that a busy restaurant or a special request is acceptable for poor food; it is not. You are in the wrong job.

Our special anniversary meal turned out to be awful. This place is...

Beautiful restaurant but I didn't have the best dining experience. Disclaimer - my experience appears to be an abberation as prior to deciding to eat here the other Google reviews I read raved about the service. From their price point, portion sizes and plating they appear to be aiming to be a Micheln guide or 1 star restaurant. This review made with that in mind.

We had to wait in the front at least 5 minutes before being acknowledged and another 5 minutes before being seated. We came 5-10 minutes after opening for dinner service so they may have been just a little behind getting ready for service. I didn't notice anyone else that came in waiting for more than a minute or two.

I came here mainly to try the chocolate fondue and it was an early dinner so we were not very hungry. I will mention that they are very strict with their $7 sharing meals charge; I asked if I would still be charged the fee if I ordered one soup, one starter plus one main and a dessert and was told that they would need to charge me.

So instead me and my wife decided to order two mains. We selected the trout and the pork fillet. The meals came out almost immediately after ordering, within 5 minutes and the server told us the physical plates were very hot. The sides,sauces and plating were amazing! However both the fish and pork were very dry (doubt they were prepared to order).

The chocolate fondue was delicious, can highly recommend this as a dessert.

The issue I had with the service is that the servers were inattentive. 30 seconds (literally) after one server dropped our meals another came by and did the only table touch (Um.. It looks good I guess?). After completing our meal we waited 15 minutes for the table to be cleared, with 3 of the 4 servers passing our table of completely empty plates multiple times. By the time our dessert arrived we had finished out main courses 30 minutes prior.

So yes I hate to say I was disappointed in the meal given the circumstances. There were 4 servers plus the manager/host who was helping to run the food and the restaurant was maybe half full. If they were busier or had less staff it wouldn't have really bothered me but we just didn't feel like we were well taken care of. The staff was all very nice when they did...

The quality of the food as well as the ambience was excellent. However, I am deeply disappointed with the customer service by waitress Debora. I came in without a reservation and when I came in, she said you can sit as long as you leave by 8pm. Which did not make me feel very welcome at all as a customer (absolutely a bad example of customer service), but I thought it’s okay I will leave by then anyways. At that time the restaurant was completely empty, although by the end people started to come in. I had brought half a bottle of water that I intended to finish (since I was traveling from the US and was walking and thirsty), and she told me that I was not allowed to bring a water bottle from outside. I apologized for not knowing the policy (and perhaps not the cultural norms), so I quickly finished the water. She noticed the cup with last few drops of water and reiterated that I was not allowed to finish my water and got angry at me and gave me attitude. She then proceeded to serve a chocolate fondue without heating it up or even a plate, I had to ask her specifically to do that. And she ignored me throughout and gave me dirty looks when passing by me and took a while to give the check. She completely needs to be retrained and taught what proper customer service should be like, especially in such a nice hotel in a town which welcomes plenty of tourists around the globe. Very disappointed in the service, although the manager was kind enough to ask if...