One small gripe about the Twisted Bavarian bar

...I love the place...great food, friendly staff, amazing clientele (me included), fab location. my only gripe is the service, or rather lack of it! I was in there last night and had to keep going to the bar to get served rather than rely on waitress service. the poor waitress working the floor seemed to be on her own and she was working her little socks off!

a few of us were getting really annoyed about this last night. it´s not the first time we´ve experienced this lack of service to be honest.

apart from that the place is brill, no complaints whatsoever.
feel better now I moaned.

i'll have you know, i actually did wear a hole in the toe of one sock!

we expected about 70 guests for the two parties, plus a few random diners, and at midnight i think we had about 150 guests. so many! we had johnny on the main bar, dory on the back, and i was it for the floor...

it was hard to keep up, and i apologize for the times i was slow -- i know there were a few of you who waited way too long.

it's great to see the place so full. the good news is, advertising hits tomorrow, and if we keep hoppin' then we can staff the place appropriately, and get you all drunk and satt as fast as you can order.

Considering how many people were there last night, I thought they coped pretty well. I bet they're all tired today though.

I love the place too. As for last night, I waited some 30mins for my food, so within the limit. After noticing the waitress was quite overloaded I simply went to the bar to get my drinks – no problem there

@Sin They didn't ACT tired today. As opposed to their customers.

in all fairness, I told them my party would only be about 20people cause thats all the rsvp's and then 60 something showed up, so for not knowing in advance the staff did a GREAT job trying to accomadate everyone!!

I was there on Satuday night, I really like the place, but the service is appalling. Not so much the service, as the fact that they employed one poor waitress (who was doing her very best) for the enitre place, and an untrained barman. On a Saturday night. Where at least two large parties were expected. Not to mention your normal Saturday night crowd.

I was sitting at the bar, and had to go the back bar each time for a drink. It took ages, they ran out of white wine by about 11pm, every single person I spoke there complained about the service. At least four people told me they would never go back. Sadly this is not the first time either, I went there in November, in the four hours I was there I managed to get 2 drinks and my food took over an hour. One of the guys at our table was kept waiting 90 minutes for his dinner. I've worked in bars and restuarants before and know that that is no way to run a business. It's a real shame too, because I really like the place, but quite honestly that is the worst service I've come accross in all the years I've lived in Munich, which is really saying something.

yes, I'm sorry to say I agree that the service has been poor there.
have been there quite a few times and I was also there on Saturday night when it was really quite bad.

it's a shame cuz apart from that it's a great place.

how will you lot cope when you visit Britain and have to go to the bar yourselves?

to defend the management (and management only ) of the place, they are aware of the issue and have actually let go a few folks who weren't cutting it. Thus poor Katy's stand alone service. They are also new to the business, which they haven't had open long, and are working out the kinks. If we continue to give them our patronage and support, they will be able hire the more qualified people they need, and we can keep eating the bayer-mex food that we love.

Hi guys,

Lets forget the service for once and appriciate the event.
For m it was the my first visit to a meetup and the whole experience was exceptionally wonderful. It was great to be amogst pople who speak english, though I have been only a month but it seemed like ages that I had done so..

So from my side a big kudos to the organizers. And a big thanks to all he people there who welcomed me to the party and made my day. I will surely be looking forward to more such events.

@boomtown rat: I'm irish and used to the fact that at home you always order from the bar. What you don't expect anywhere is to be sitting at the bar and have to wait 20 minutes to order and a futher 10 to receive your drink!
by the way, am fully aware that all this complaining I'm doing about waiting for my drink makes me look like a complete alcoholic...

erm... i had no problems getting served on Saturday night! was i in the wrong place?!

Nah, nilpferd, they just know that should you wait too long, you'll go postal and smash the place up!
But seriously, the speed of drinks was no problem, I also had no problem with the pay-as-you-go (entirely sensible with a crowd that big). My food did take a while but this was also understandable due to the size of the crowd. It might be an idea to have a team of casual (i.e. deseprate student) staff "on-call" so to speak, not so much for cash-handling but more for clearing tables etc.

well I still maintain that me and my large crowd of pals were all disappointed by the poor service on Saturday night. it has happened to us before too.

also, the few times I've ordered food there, it's taken ages (lopngest wait: one hour) to come even on quieter nights, although it was delicious when it finally arrived.

I am sure the management will sort out this small service issue in time and I appreciate that they are quite newly opened and it takes time to find reliable and capable staff.

moi?! jamais!!

You forget - I've been to Bishop! ha ha ha

That explains a lot then!!

hmm a lot of people say the food at TB is great but we were there on NYEve and were totally surprised by the poor quality. the tacos were stale, the chicken tough and the wild rice served with it is that packet stuff from aldi. one of our group ordered a spinach and goats cheese starter which was impossible to eat and which was then served up in the main course as the chicken filler too. that is a big nono where i come from. i have held back from saying anything as the place is new, but everyone keeps saying how great the grub is. maybe i caught them on a bad night?

having said that, the wine was great and it was a cheap deal, but as the place is selling itself as a restaurant more than a bar, i'd have expected the reverse. ie save on wine and invest in food.

EEK! GASP!

Yes, we did get slammed on Saturday, however, in our own defense I think we did damn good. We had a private party at the main bar with 50 reservations and 80 showed up. We had 15 reservations for the back bar and 67 showed up. We had staffed 2 bartenders and 2 servers. When the very large crowd hit all at once, it was crazy!

The back bar never had more than a 2 minute wait on drinks.

Thank you to all our supporter's for being understanding. We are normally complimented on our friendly and capable staff not to mention our prices are
F _ _ king cheap!!

Dont make excuses.. just put the problem right...

I would love to come over and eat there, but there are too many conflicting reports..

Good food, crap service,"other" problems and its blamed on staff or something else..

Admit your faults and take on board critisism... No one wants you to fail..!!!

Take it on the chin.

Good luck

G

Mmmm. Never been to TB but lookin forward to it.
Don't really get the 'i had bad service' complaints on here.
Everyone gets that once in a while no matter where u go. If you don't like it - tell management. If you do - tell everyone else.
If you've gone to management already and they've brushed you off, then fair enough to complain to the world - but in this case it seems a genuinely busy night in a fairly new establishment and not really worth all the whingeing.

I was there on Saturday and at the bookswap on Sunday. Had fun both times. I had Paulaner Pilsner (in bottles), and the Nachos Rancheros, both of which were delicious.

My main kudos however, go to the friendly atmosphere at TB. I found the service pro-actively friendly, which is often not the case here in customer-service-deficient Germany!

Well, I've already stated, I was sitting in the backroom and ordered a Guiness while sitting at the table, then after 20 minutes gave up to go to the bar, only to find now my Guiness is being served, but I am def going to give the Twisted B another chance to redeem themselves, it was a little crazy in there on Saturday.

Hmm, have held back with my comments for a while. I've been to TB when the place has been packed and when its been quiet.

On saturday night I waited I guess around 40 minutes for some chips and salsa. There have been times before when the place has been empty and I have waited the same time. I can understand the saturday night problems, the previous time is where I struggle and that reflects badly on the saturday issues too.

The beer service at the bar was excellent And for a smaller bar they had an great choice of beers too!

Guys, keep up the hard work. It takes a long time to work out what works and doesnt work. See you all soon

P

what a riot.

I was there on Sunday for the bookswap and ordered a slice of cheesecake and it was very nice, but such a small portion!!! About right for a five year old.

Otherwise though I have always found it a really great place to go.

@Andrew
I bet my four year old would have traded it for his ice cream

Ive only been to the Twisted Bavarian once and I enjoyed it. There was one thing I mentioned (complained would be too strong a word) to the barman/owner (don't know his name sorry) and he corrected it straight away. Don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen in most german bars.

Example of service I got at Kilians. Sour faced waitress complained when people hadnt shown up and gives tables away. Complains again when more than the original booking turn up and dont order beer from her cos they cant get served by her. Me the customer taking complaints from a waitress.

I've been in many bars in Germany where we have complained only for the service to get worse and in some cases be told what we can order and what we cannot order.

Example of service from Saturday - Way more people than expected show up on the night, no complaints from any of the staff. Everyone working that night no mattter what served me with a smile and a friendly attitude. I knew it was busy so I waited till everyone else had eaten before I ordered my food. I got it within 15 minutes.

Hey, steady on..

Do you have to call the pub and make arrangements with them each time you go out...??

I have never had to wait more that 20 mins at GMs or The Arc for food nor beer.

There is something wrong, but what!?

G

I think you should be saying that to the people who organised the parties instead - its their responsibility to at least be vaguely close with estimates. TB can't have extra people hanging about just in case 4 times the intended number of people turn up

Am I the only one who's gotten rotten service at established restaurants and bars here in Munich? If any other place had been that busy in Munich, the service would have been slow, rude and would have gotten yelled at, here I got a smile. I saw that it was busy and just went to the bar and at both bars I got served immediately. And as far as I remember, MBangura (sp?) who had the night off that night got up and started helping out because it was so busy.

@ BTR

Thats Bollox...

Gms Usually have more than enough staff...

Its not as if they are hosting this event in their front room..

They should have enough staff to cover capacity crowds...

@Grinner, easy to say for an established place like GMs but a restaurant starting out can't afford to keep extra staff on just in case a crowd 2-4 times as large shows up. Plus they were hosting events in BOTH their front room and back room.

guess you weren't at The Arc on opening night then. same situation - new bar, new owners, crowd WAAAY larger than expected, and a few kinks - took forever to get drinks and food and could fry an egg on the table. and can be hard to get a drink there when it's packed - Halloween maybe. It happens. I am still more than happy to give them my patronage. love those guys.

I think only those that have been to a bar have the right to criticize, constructively or otherwise. you haven't been. keep your personal gripes out of this.

As with most events, there is always the Jeremy factor. Its is easy to plan an event and book for the relevant number of people. What you cant do anything about is the 5,6,7 etc etc that turn up unannounced. In the case of TB it was more 50-60 extra that turned up.

well if the yknew they were hosting events, they should at least have had enough staff to cover those plus the days normal crowd. I wasn't there that day but on the (few) times i have, the service speed has never been great. Maybe they are expecting a big bribe (ehem i mean tip) up front to ensure speedy service, as seems to be the norm in many american establishments, according to the tipping thread.

One thing i do remember is that when TB was nothing more than a conecept, the whole service thing was pushed to the forefront and we were promised US style service instead of (lack of) German service. This has not happened imvho and i am quite disapointed that this concept hasn't been held up.

And a start-up must be make doubly sure that at the beginning they have better service or some other USP than existing places otherwise customers won't stick. Better to be overstaffed for a short period, provide excelent service, build up a reputation as better than the rest and later cut down to appropriate levels than have people come once at the beginning and never come again because of bad a experience.

I wish the place all the best but i feel the staffing strategy in the opening months to be incorrect.

I don't think anyone had any problems getting food at The Arc on the opening night - they just walked over to the place near the door and helped themselves. There were rarely more than 2 or 3 people queuing at any one time.

i don't think it's fair to blame the heat on them either, it was the middle of summer...

were you there? it was on fire! not blaming them though at all - there was a problem with their heating/ventilation that they discovered and promptly fixed.

look, I'm not saying any of this to dis The Arc or its owners. I think they did a great job. I'm just saying they had some rough spots starting out too, and the TB's opening shouldn't have been expected to be flawless in comparison.

ah, the irony of my defense... Still, I like the TB, like the owners, and like the food, and want to see them succeed.

i was there, the ventilation being broken didn't help but just pointing out that most places get like that in summer, anyone who's been to Shamrock on a Friday or Saturday night can vouch for that

What is service to people here though? Is it -

Being served your food & drink in a prompt time no matter what.

or is it -

Being served in such a way that you actually feel valued as a customer.

definitely the latter but within reason i would say

Since when does the tip come up front in American establishments? Hm, I guess things have changed since I left, because I've only seen tips given AFTER the meal.

IPJ: check out the thread on tipping. some americans were saying it is best to tip big up front to assure speedy service throughout the evening. this is what i call bribery, not your bog standard add on a bit for excellent service tip.

If I remember correct, TexasTornado said this in reference to tipping up front to a bartender in order to get speedy drinks the rest of the night. Sounded more like at a wedding reception where you might give a small tip after each drink. This is very different then talking about tipping before a meal.

It is not normal at all to tip up front before a meal in the US. I've heard stories of "someones friend's dad's uncle" who does it and it always works, but never seen it.

Not worth trying it either IMO, would much rather tip based on the level of service. Can't do that when you tip beforehand.

My Uncle gave the waitress a $100 tip once beforehand and said to treat us all well. She did. It worked. But she could have treated us well with $10 and he could have given me the other $90!

In all fairness I was the organizer and I did post this and I gave them an estimate of 20 because 11 TTers signed up and 7 newbies sigend up...so i couldnt have given an estimate of 60...guess I should have turned on my ESP powers In all case, I think certain people have posted their complaint a bit much, if you say it once is it really necessary for you to post it 3 times... the owners are aware by now and they have made aplogies and they are working their asses off to fix this, critizism is always excpeted but in my opinion some people are taking it a bit far...

Since when was the event RSVP?