Yesterday it was my girlfriend's 30th birthday. We wanted to do something special in Munich and celebrate it as she deserves. So we decided to go to the terrace of the Bayerischer Hof. The terrace is beautiful and the views are awe-inspiring. But the service is disastrous. The prices are clearly higher than in other bars or restaurants and for this reason we were expecting a sublime service. Well nothing is further from the truth.
When we got there, we had no reservation, so we asked if they had any free table for 2. A waiter told us the terrace was fully booked, but we could sit on any table that gets available on a certain side space on the terrace. So we waited. When a table got free we sat. A waitress came to us and told us someone was already waiting for that table, so we apologized, stood up and kept on waiting. Some minutes later another table was going to get free and another couple came and took it before we could react. We were expecting the waitress to tell them that table was reserved for us, but she didn’t. I asked her to do her job and tell those customers that that table was for us, but she kept on arguing with us and tried to avoid doing her job. Instead she told us to take the next table that gets free. I got a little annoyed and I finally convinced her to do her job. She went to the table and said something to the other customers but they did not stand up and let us sit on the table that was theoretically reserved for us, which means that she didn’t do her job as she should have. She did not apply the same treatment to us as she did for the previous customer. She applied preferential treatment to the previous customer. That is unfair, rude and unprofessional.
Luckily another table got free some minutes later and we could finally sit.
We ordered beverages and food. The waiter brought the beverage for my girlfriend and 5 minutes later the beverage for me. As far as I understand, he should have served both beverages at the same time, especially when it comes to an exclusive restaurant.
Some minutes later he brought the starter. The food was very good. The Carpaccio was fantastic.
When we finished the starter, the waiter took around 20 minutes to bring us the main dishes, which I found way too long indeed. The main dishes were tasty and special.
When we finished having dinner, we chatted for a while and felt like going home, so we ordered the bill. The waiter took 30 minutes to bring it. Unbelievable. He decided that picking up glasses and cleaning other tables was a priority. After 15 minutes we ordered the bill again and he said it was already ordered in an unpleasant tone. This was not true, because he was the one in charge of printing the bill at the cash. He didn’t apologize for the delay. When we finally got the bill, we paid and in order to show our dissatisfaction, we decided not to tip. At this point, the waiter did not take his chance either to apologize and he didn’t even say goodbye.
The waiters from Bayerischer Hof are not professional waiters. They are arrogant students that have not received the proper training to serve customers that pay high prices for beverages and food. It is shameful that with such high prices, they do not hire more professional waiters or at least give them proper training. There should be more waiters on the terrace to reduce the time to serve customers or if you want to create an exclusive atmosphere, you should not let some many people in at the same time. That is a serious fault of the management from Bayerischer Hof.
We were expecting to have a great time and an exclusive experience on Andrea’s 30th birthday at Bayerischer Hof, but it turned out to be certainly unpleasant. I have to admit that, when we have dinner at regular restaurants, we pay 1/3 of what we paid at Bayerischer Hof, they treat us a lot better and they serve us a lot faster.