Colette S.
Yelp
Dinner on a Sunday night in Berlin can be tricky. Lots of places are closed, so make sure to check before you head out. We went to Alpenstueck with a couple of friends and had a good time, with a few glitches in service.
We arrived and ordered a bottle of wine while we were deciding on food, plus a bottle of tap water. To be completely honest, I'd had way too much to drink the night before, so really felt dehydrated. I hate paying for water to be bottled and shipped around the world when I'm somewhere with perfectly good tap water, so had no qualms about asking for this. (yes, this is a bugbear of mine, but I don't think it's particularly crazy). The host accepted the wine order but said we had to order a bottle of water because "they didn't have any vessels to put the tap water into." (not kidding). We were with a native German speaker, and an English person who lives in Berlin and speaks fluent German, so it wasn't a lost in translation moment.
We ordered starters and mains each, and again asked for a round of tap water for the table to go along with our wine. The waiter gave the same line, but we indicated the 750ml mineral water bottle which we'd just finished in under 5 minutes and offered it as a vessel which seemed capable of putting tap water into. He finally understood that we weren't kidding, and brought out a wine carafe of water. .2L carafe. Americans, this is less than a large glass of wine. For four people. And was sniffy about it.
The native German speaker asked him about it, and was told that it was "the norm" in Berlin, even though it wasn't something we'd experienced anywhere else.
Our starters came, and were very good. I had a jerusalem artichoke (sunchoke) soup, one person had a goat-cheese salad, and two people had rustic meat ravioli. There was a full vegetarian menu option available, and plenty of veg options to order as well.
But we were still thirsty. We asked for more tap water. The English/German person explained that we weren't just being cheap, but genuinely wanted tap water, at which time the waiter slightly perked up. He'd been incredibly stiff before, borderline rude, but warmed up to being neutral. And brought a couple of carafes of tap water, and we all just figured we'd drink plenty of water when we got home.
Mains were good. Two of us had the cheese spaetzle, which was a generous portion and very tasty. One person had steak, and another had breaded veal. Everyone was happy.
When the bill came, I was amused to see that one 750ml bottle of water was more than the cost of my starter. Which completely explains why the guy was a PITA about bringing "free" water.
Our food was good, a solid 4 out of 5 stars, but the service was bad to start and only warmed to decent. I would consider going back, but the whole water thing left a bad, money-grubbing, impression, so we'll see.