Why would someone spend tons of money renovating an old restaurant and turning it into a really attractive place, serve really bad food and allow a bunch of incompetent people to run it??

After swearing that I would never go back to Taxi Diner after the last time I was there, some colleagues of mine and I decided to go to watch the first half of the Germany-Serbia game and to have a late lunch. I should have reread Najib’s post and comments of several readers (including mine!) to remind me of how crappy that place really is!

To be honest the place looks very nice. They have private viewing rooms on the bottom and top floor. There are TVs all over the place to enjoy the game while eating and drinking.

We reserved two hours before we went and we couldn’t manage to get a table in the non-smokers section. The restaurant smelled like an ashtray.

The minute you walk in you feel that they are understaffed, unlike Roadster Diner which has a really high Waiter/Customer ratio.

We sat down exactly when the referee blew the first whistle.

Highlights:
0 minutes: Because of our previous experience with this restaurant, one of my colleagues asked the waiter how long it would take for the food to arrive. He told him “7 minutes for appetizers and maximum 22 minutes for the steak, everything else between 10 and 15 minutes”.

7 minutes: Lunch and drinks ordered. No steak ordered so maximum ETA for the food was @22 minutes

21 minutes: Drinks arrive

25 minutes: Man with vuvuzela walks in.

30 minutes: Man with vuvuzela starts vuvuzela-ing

35 minutes: Nothing

38 minutes: Serbia scores a goal and German fans everywhere can’t believe it. (This one’s for Najib). On a side note, did you notice how everyone is saying that this world cup is not fun because all the big teams are losing? Turns out the guy with the vuvuzela is a fan of the German team and does not express his joy by playing the vuvuzela

40 minutes: Waiter promises that the food will be on our table in exactly one minute.

45 minutes: Nothing. Table next to us get their food despite arriving after us.

Injury time: Nothing. We complain to the manager. The waiter gets annoyed and looks like he’s gonna cry.

Injury time + 10: We pay for the drinks and leave.

Injury time + 15: Eating chicken shawarmas at Hawa Chicken. Yum!

Never going back there again, that’s for sure! I highly doubt that this place will stay in business for long. I really hope the owners are aware that the place is run like a zoo, not a restaurant.