stefan van den broek
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Terrible service - we walked out!
Like the year before, we had reserved a table for 4 well ahead of time to celebrate the final evening of our skiing vacation. We looked forward to the good, albeit pricey food creations based on our previous year's experience.
When we arrived and were shown our table, we were very disappointed. Instead of a proper, regular table, 2 smaller tables where joined together and shoved against the wall. There was only lighting at half of the table. As it was quite dark, it meant that 2 out of our party would be in the dark and 2 would be facing a blind wall.
As this seating arrangement was unacceptable to us, we asked the head waiter if anything could be done. He flatly told us that nothing could be done, even our suggestion of moving the table 10 cm was dismissed as it would 'inconvenience' him on his way to the wardrobe.
It also became clear they had chosen this set-up for our table as they preferred to seat 5 people at a regular table, hence trying to maximize profit rather than respect early reservations. The head waiter was quite smug that they were a popular place, fully booked and it basically was 'take it or leave it'.
We decided to leave it and we want to thank the Hotel Marent / Bruderherzstube to show us that good customer service is never guaranteed. We regularly dine in Michelin starred restaurants across the globe, and this is the first time we left a restaurant as far as I can remember. However I'm glad we did as we ended up in Restaurant Gebhard, which we can fully recommend for both food quality (at least on par with Bruderherz) AND excellent and friendly service.
My only comment to the Bruderherzstube is that arrogance is a bad strategy in the restaurant business.