Greg Sj
Google
won’t come to your surprise.
I specifically booked a table at Beuster to celebrate my 10-year anniversary of living in Berlin. I requested outdoor seating because the weather was amazing. When we arrived, the host told us that outdoor tables aren’t reservable and that we’d have to wait in line. There was absolutely no mention of this anywhere—neither on their website nor on the booking platform.
The host told us to wait but didn’t give us any estimate of how long it would take. After 1 hour and 15 minutes—and two check-ins with the host—we were finally seated. By that time, the sun had already gone down, and mind you, this was on one of the longest days of the year.
We were starving, frustrated, and annoyed. The food was just okay—the aubergine lacked flavor and the steak wasn’t a great cut.
You need to seriously improve your communication with customers. If we had known we’d be waiting over an hour, we would have gone somewhere else. Be clear on your website and booking system that outdoor seating can't be reserved. If someone makes a request for it, at least send an email explaining the policy. Telling people last-minute is not acceptable.
If guests are clearly unhappy, the least you can do is offer some water, apologize, or do *something* to try to make it better.
And one more thing—only accepting card payments is fine, but when we asked for a moment to decide how to split the bill, the waiter insisted we pay immediately and “figure it out later.” It was awkward and came off as rude.
The girl serving tables inside was absolutely amazing and very professional