Fully inapt to handle international guests
In autumn we had international guests with us for dinner in the restaurant. They were here on business purposes for the IFA (home electronics fair). We pre-ordered the table online without hassle and on short notice. Worked just great, we marvelled at the great view, and took in the busy but nice atmosphere. German food with a Berlin accent was excellent, and as usual with Chinese guests you would order several dishes and share. We did, and this was no problem with the staff. We definitely enjoyed the meal.
The service was a mixed experience: the typical Berlin behaviour, not talking much, can be seen as unfriendly. With internationally minded people this is no issue. But: we were drawing technical sketches and diagrams on the napkins, and they actually placed drinks right next to our pens and on the napkins. Nervous people would have spilled the drink, or ruined the diagram. No word of "excuse me, may I put the drinks here" or anything. Odd. Our conversation increasingly turned towards service quality (or the lack thereof).
It turned bad by the time we wanted to leave. Our 4 year old only ate his french fries, but did not touch the Hamburger. Naturally we asked to take it home, as takeaway. This was acknowledged by a staff member who took it to the kitchen, only to not ever return to our table. Instead we had to ask for the food, and were met with something like "combat mode". Atmosphere was heating up, as there was no sign of "Sorry, we cannot allow this". All we heard was "This is impossible, no you cannot take it home".
The manager on duty turned out to be 'communicatively challenged'. She showed no sign of openness to our request and was inapt to answer our questions. She tensed up seriously, which then put us into a (finely controlled) rage. All she did was insisting on "it is like that" and "you cannot take your food with you". No explanation, just a tiny trace of an excuse, and no advances were made. Result: she would insist on calling security, the kid would insist to not wanting the burger anymore, other guests would insist we calm down. Funny. Yes, we made quite a noise, increasingly wondering why staff can't distinguish "reason" from "answering a simple request". We left it at that, leaving calmly and before security even arrived. I sincerely apologized to my friends for Berlin, but hey, we saw it as an exercise in cultural difference. But as a place to enjoy everything the Fernsehturm restaurant is completely out of question.
As a suggestion for someone else: prokove a real situation like this: order one dish too much, enjoy your meal, pas for it, then ask them to take wrap it up for you to take home. They will insist it is not possible, you will insist to take it home. You get up, take the food with you. If they do as they say, they will try to take the food from you - which qualifies as theft, or even robbery (if by use of force). Hopefully some day this will make them understand and change.
Food: 4 out of 5
Service: 1 out of 5 read more