Zeit für Brot (The German Bakery) — Restaurant in London

The place itself is lovely. It has a warm atmosphere and the pastries look amazing, especially the cinnamon rolls. We only had coffee this time and it was very smooth and pleasant to drink, perfect for those who prefer a mild coffee.

However, the service was quite disappointing. My friend has a milk intolerance and ordered her coffee with oat milk. When I collected both coffees, there were no markings on the cups to show which was which. I asked one of the staff members, an Asian guy, but he responded very rudely and spoke in a harsh tone, insisting that he had already told me which one was which. Even though I explained that I hadn’t realised and that my friend had a milk allergy, he was unreasonably defensive.

A polite lady from the staff then came over and asked what was going on. After I explained the situation again, she turned to him and said, “Please remake the coffees for the customers.” Only then did he agree to make them again, but he did it in a very careless and disrespectful way. Normally their coffees are beautifully presented with a small heart pattern on top, but this time he just poured the coffee roughly into the cup, placed a plastic lid on it and handed it over without any care. It felt like we were being punished for raising a valid concern, which was very unpleasant and unprofessional.

Later, when we asked for some tap water, I placed the jug on our table. He came over, said “you probably used it” and took it away without a word. That behaviour was again unnecessarily rude.

Being treated this way over a sensitive matter such as milk intolerance, and the lack of clear communication about it, is very concerning.

Overall, the café itself is beautiful and the coffee tastes lovely, but the behaviour of that particular staff member was extremely rude and spoiled...

We visited ZfB in Germany a while ago and loved their pastries, so we were really excited to try the London one in Angel. Unfortunately, our experience wasn’t great. The pastries were decent, but the staff came across as unprofessional and rude, which really spoiled the visit.

We ordered an apple cinnamon schnecke and franzbrotchen, along with a chai latte with oat milk and a regular matcha latte. When the drinks arrived, we were given two chai lattes instead; one with oat milk and one with regular milk. I politely mentioned that I had ordered a matcha latte, and while the barista said they’d make it, they made it very obvious it was a huge nuisance to them. I offered to check the receipt to avoid any misunderstanding but realised I hadn’t been given one. They then told me to check the price I’d paid, and when I did, they didn’t respond.

On top of that my friend has lactose intolerance and they couldn’t tell us which of the two Chai Lattes was with oat milk, so we had to taste them both to figure it out but they seemed quite taken aback by us taking all three drinks…

If they had simply told us we made a mistake, we would have happily apologised and paid the difference, but instead, they were dismissive.

The pastries and drinks were nice, but the service left such a poor impression that we don’t see ourselves...

After trying ZFB in Berlin only a few months ago, I was so happy to see that there was a branch here in London and only up the road from where I work (dangerous!). But I gotta say, the buns are nowhere near the same standard as they are in Germany. They are way more dry and with less flavour than those in Germany. I tried both the Walnut and the Raspberry White Chocolate buns and both had the same issue.

Also gotta say the service here (I’ve been here twice now) is not that great. It’s almost like you have to ask the servers to serve you rather than them proactively asking if anyone would like to be served. One guy was literally staring into space at the till, whilst a woman next to me was waiting to be served. She eventually asked if she could have something and he came to life, but this shouldn’t...