Bratislava - Part 2 - Where Not To Eat

I have the habit of tasting the local food, the local specialties if possible. I believe that's one way of knowing the culture and the people better but this is only one of the reasons. The other is that the culinary world has so many to offer, you just have to be open and sometimes brave and taste everything that comes your way.

That being said, let's see what happened with me when I wanted to taste the local food in Bratislava.

As I said yesterday in my first post, we only had one day and had to make the most of it, so we saw a restaurant in the old city center, a Slovak restaurant and decided to give it a try. It was full summer, a hot July Sunday, so the terrace and the umbrellas looked like a good option.

The menu is listed outside the terrace so you can decide if you want to sit down or not before you go in. This is actually a good idea, you save the place for those who really want to eat there and not waste it with the indecisive.

You could also check the prices to see if it fits your budget.

The terrace was very rustic with real wood furniture that I love.

We set down, after ten minutes of waiting a waiter came and brought us the menus. Opening it was a bit funny as the first page was in many languages, Slovakian, English, Italian, German, French, Russian.

The next pages were different though, English was missing but there were photos, so you could guess what it is, plus speaking four languages and understanding another few helps me a lot, so in these cases I'm not in trouble. Those however coming from another continent with a totally different culture can find it hard to distinguish between the dishes offered by the restaurant.

We decided what to order, which was soup, main course and I wanted strudel as well but the guy told me he's not sure they have it. There was a soft drink on the menu, called Kofola and we were curious to see what it is, so we asked the waiter. He was a young guy, barely twenty I believe, who barely spoke English. All he could say about it was that it's sweet. I'm not expecting anyone to speak perfect English as my English is not perfect either, it's a foreign language to me, but because it's about a public place, a restaurant in the heart of a capital city, where thousands of tourists are present each day, it would be nice for a waiter to speak English. Besides, all he should have said was it's like coca cola, but he couldn't. I'm not blaming him, I'm blaming those who have hired him without ending him to take some English classes.

So off he went with our order and we waited. We waited and waited for an hour and ten minutes, hungry like wolves, while around us others, who came after us were served. At some point I decided to go ask the guy where is our food and why others who came after us were served first. Just when I got up our waiter showed up with some plates at our table. He brought us the main courses.

My jaw dropped to be honest. When you order soup and main course, soup must come first, then the main course. I asked him where is the soup, he said coming now, so we got both dishes at once, which is not professional at all. Soup should have been brought out shortly after the order was placed as the soup is usually ready but didn't happen here.

We were happy we got our food as we were very hungry and besides, time was flying, we didn't have much time to waste but we wanted to order something that wasn't included initially. The waiter told us it's ok, we can order more but it's going to take another hour. This was extremely disappointing. I was so angry I forgot to take photos of the food, which has never happened to me till now. I've been to plenty of restaurants across Europe but have never been treated like this.

As I was expected, the strudel that the waiter should have checked for me was forgotten, he never said a word about it. When the bill was brought, the tip was already added. Looks like there's a law in Slovakia, for tax purposes. Usually when I'm treated without the minimal respect I don't tip the waiter as there's no reason for me to do it. Here we had no choice but we made sure to give the guy exactly the amount that was on the bill.

It was a very unpleasant experience and I couldn't figure out why were we treated this way. We spoke Hungarian at the table and it's a fact that Slovaks don't like Hungarian. Could have been this a reason but I don't like to judge anyone without proof. The other reason could have been the lack of organizing. The restaurant itself was a tiny one and I believe the terrace is functioning only during the summer. Maybe the terrace has doubled the workload and the kitchen was working at its maximum capacity. This could be an explanation.

The staff unfortunately had a lot to learn. This waiter guy was definitely not ready for a job like this and the other waiter could also learn a lesson about how to treat customers and colleagues. While we were waiting for the food to arrive, at the next table there was something wrong with the order or the bill, the other waiter, a woman, called the young waiter guy out and upbraided him very rudely in front of everyone. I didn't understand what was the problem but whatever it was, you don't do that. It was very unpleasant to those at the table, not to mention the waiter guy. You don't wash your dirty laundry in public, you smooth things out with the customer and then you can do whatever you want inside, away from customers. At that point I felt sorry for the guy, imagine what a day he had. He was really trying though.

We left very disappointed and then came the other cold shower at the supermarket I was writing about yesterday. I would not go back there and would definitely not recommend it, that's for sure.

Read the first part of my journey here -> Bratislava - Part 1 - Hospitality