Café Henrici — Restaurant in Zurich

My love affair with Henrici ended today. I genuinely like the place & have been 5+ times since I arrived 1st Nov all days of the week. But it seems service quality is pot luck depending on which waitress you get. My first day my waitress was slow to take my order & had a borderline miserable disposition but I decided to ignore it. All my other visits until today I had cheerful, competent & friendly waitress & it was joyful to dine & relax there. I’d actually hoped for the same waitress & was going to strike up a conversation and get to know her better as I was becoming a regular.

Unfortunately today she wasn’t working & the B team was terrible.

Today I was served by three different waitresses & after the mistakes of the first 2 & the disposition of the 2nd one I had greater hopes for the 3rd one but alas it was a cacophony of errors, long waits, unfriendliness & overcharging me for their mistakes.

Upon arrival & being seated I said I know what I want & the 1st waitress sarcastically said ok, surprise me then. It was uncalled for but I chose to ignore their demeanour & not let it get me down. I ordered eggs, avocado & a mint lemonade . The eggs came quick enough but no avocado. After a short wait thinking they’d come I asked a passing waitress who in the end was who I’m referring to as the 3rd waitress. She checked the order on her phone & said it wasn’t recorded but she placed it on the order & it came shortly after by the 1st waitress who apologised saying she’d misunderstood.

After finishing my meal I then ordered a Portuguese nata & a hot chocolate. I was asked if I’d like cream on the hot chocolate & I said yes. Some time later the Portuguese nata came with cream on the plate which wasn’t part of the advertised dish or something I’d asked for but no hot chocolate. I waited with the nata untouched for 10 minutes (as I wanted it all together) before I caught the attention of the 3rd waitress & asked for my hot chocolate. She thought I was ordering an additional item but I said no, I already ordered it with the nata. She checked her phone & said it wasn’t on my order so added it. Once it came I had my nata & the hot chocolate. At this point they’d killed my happy mood & I just wanted to go home but held no position on not returning again, I simply told myself next time I wanted to come I’d specifically check who was serving which area & seat myself in an area with a friendly competent waitress.

I asked for the bill & no receipt was presented for me to review, just a total amount to pay. Only after I tapped my bank card did I see in small print on the phone the 3rd waitress was holding the list of items I was being charged for. I pointed to one & asked what it was. She looked at me & said cream.

I can overlook occasional bad service as I can in future choose to not be served by poor quality waiting staff but I draw the line at being cheated & paying for bad staffs mistakes. Reading through others reviews there’s a recurring theme of bad & rude waitresses for over a year with the owner acknowledging the reviews but clearly doing nothing in a significant span of time. In one review the owner laughingly reinterpreted the reviewers comparing the quality of the salad to coop's to ignore the statement and say if your looking for coop salad go somewhere else. The owner apparently doesn’t care about improving things, just cares about looking like they care and putting a positive spin on things.

Today they lost a regular & reliable customer.

Let’s see what spin the owner replies...

If you live in Zurich and you miss Paris and you can’t wait for your next weekend there, you could temporarily remedy to the nostalgia by experiencing the awful waitressing service at Henrici in Niederdorf, which can be compared to the worst Parisian service with reasonable fairness. At least the waitressing in Paris can be proud of centuries of pure French genes. In Henrici no matter which nationality is the waitress/waiter, bolivian, Spanish, Swiss, you can be assured to receive uttermost unfriendly, unprofessional, unable service from people who think they’re not actually working and being paid for that, but they’re playing a sort of “The dinner game” (Le dîner de cons): customers are all idiots and they, the waiters/waitresses, compete in who treats them worse and makes more fun of them with their moody, incapable behavior. In the best case when they try to be funny, they are just offensive. The average food does not compensate at all for this embarrassing (for the owners especially) service and you can drink even better coffee at places such La Stanza (nearby Paradeplatz) or Grande (on the Limmatstrasse). Said all this, if you are lucky enough you’ll be attended by the only two proper, professional, able, friendly and charming guys there: Felix and Jano (mostly there...

I had high hopes for Café Henrici after seeing so many recommendations and photos of its charming interior. Tucked into the heart of Zurich’s Old Town, the café has a warm, inviting feel – cozy lighting, wooden tables, and an eclectic mix of customers from students to tourists. It looks like the kind of place you’d want to spend the whole afternoon in, sipping cappuccino and reading a book.

But unfortunately, the reality didn’t quite match the expectation.

First, the service was… let’s say, inconsistent. I waited over 10 minutes just to get the attention of a server, even though the place wasn’t particularly busy. Once I ordered, the coffee came quickly, but the food (a simple slice of cake) took nearly 25 minutes—and when it arrived, it was dry and underwhelming. No apology, no explanation.

The coffee itself was fine, nothing special. For a café that prides itself on its coffee culture, I expected something more flavorful or at least hotter. The best part of the visit was honestly the atmosphere—the music was tasteful, and the space had a lively but relaxed vibe. It’s a great place to sit and chat… if you’re not in a rush and don’t...