Albert's Schenke — Restaurant in Liverpool

Mixed feelings, food and drinks were amazing, tasted delicious and well presented but atmosphere wasn't really fitting for dinning like a special occasion date that we were on.

The good bit: The food was delicious, we started off with pretzels, which were bigger than expected, hot and delicious, the accompanying mustard sauce was great as well.

For mains we had the 'bohemian sausage plate' and the schweinshaxe. The sausages were really delicious and so was the sauce. The schweinshaxe, which is a roasted pork knuckle, was incredible. Be warned it is rather large but it's worth it, the meat is so tender and the crackling is perfect. Also we had to munich beers, which were really good.

The bad bit: This is a restaurant and bar which we knew before going in, but we kinda expected it to feel separate, that wasn't really the case. About halfway through our meal, a group of about 16 lads sat on the table next to us, which was only for 8 people, notably knocking our drinks and food a few times while also being loud and intoxicated.

In front of us a group of 8 tried to sit down with drinks, the management did ask them to move but that didn't stop the group hovering around our table and moving furniture for 5 minutes through our meal and accidentally elbowing my partner in the head on 2 occasions.

I appreciate they told the 2nd group to move because people were eating around them, but why wasn't that applied to the 16 guys literally on top of us, and it was noticed as the bouncer came and had a word with the waitress about them.

We decided to leave before dessert as it wasn't worth being crowded by drinkers.

tl;dr: If you want to visit for good food, visit earlier or on a different day than we did, 8:30pm on a Saturday was clearly not a good idea. But the food and drinks are definitely worth visiting for. Or if you're visiting for drinks, clearly very welcoming with a large selection of...

Could not fault the food that we had, likewise the drinks. The atmosphere for a Friday was what you’d expect, but this just added to the experience! Unfortunately, they didn’t have any of their mocktail menu in operation on a Friday night which was a shame as we’re not massive drinkers and try not to drink due to medical reasons.

We decided that whilst the food and drinks were great, the service we received was pretty ordinary. We’re always extremely polite and even tried to crack a laugh and a joke with our waitress throughout the night, but we didn’t receive much warmth at any point. We could also see her interacting with other tables except ours, which was a real shame because we too come from the hospitality sector, so we can empathise what working on a busy Friday night is like!

Unfortunately our trip was really let down with the final step. Taking all of the above in to account, we decided that we didn’t want to pay the additional 10% (£7 in this case). Our waitress then became quite defensive and almost confrontational when we told her this. We didn’t want to call her out on her service to her face so we initially stated that the lack of mocktails was a bit of an issue. She stated that the fact they didn’t have any of the mocktail menu, was not a reflection on her, and more of a supplier issue.

After some back and forth, we then pretty much just gave up and decided to just pay the £7 to not be guilt tripped, effectively and just avoid any more awkward confrontation.

The “optional service charge” firstly, is optional. If I wish to pay it, I’ll pay it and if I don’t, I need you to respect that I don’t wish to or I need you to perhaps reflect and think “did I do enough to earn it?”.

Despite all of this, we honestly would return again, just without the guilt-tripping optional...

Recommended by recommendations to try this place out, and what an atmosphere, open table fire, great buzz, very busy, booked a table online and got it all to myself which was Brill, even got a special seat ☺️. Sunday Roast was my agenda. I must point out, that normally I only review places that achieve for me 5 stars, however I have taken a dip on this one. Every aspect of Alberts, I so wanted to give it a 5 star and not forget it, but unfortunately one thing just didn’t come up to the same par as everything else. Starter of King Prawn Cocktail with smashed avocado could not fault it to the point I tried 2 different wines, a Grillo and a Pinot, to ensure I was fully appreciative. The Sunday roast of Cheshire Chicken, so good I cleaned the plate, just left the bone, which was commented on 😁. However the desert of Sticky Toffee Pudding, didn’t match the standard of all the rest. Yes, it may be me, as I like this type of pudding to be light and airy covered in sauce and ice cream. Unfortunately the light and airy I didn’t get, it was stodgy, blocky, the caramelised toffee sauce was spot on as was the ice-cream, but pudding was not there for me. I so wanted to give Albert’s Bavarian delight a 5 star, just struggled in the end. By the way the Weisserbier Erdinger so complimented my Roast and everything else I enjoyed to great levels. Please guys don’t be turned off by the 4 stars, it’s definitely a spot I would happily go back to, the next time maybe I’ll try the sorbet. Overall I think they are doing a great job, it’s my particular taste, I’m sure everyone else may really like that style of pudding, just not for me. Otherwise, keep powering on as it was a wonderful food, wine, beer...