We had dinner at Old Bavaria Haus last weekend with a group of about 10 people - it was a birthday celebration. The first noticeable thing was that the place looks like a large house surrounded by other restaurants. The decor inside reflects that - its quaint, and tricks you into thinking that you have some Bavarian relative who's snuck you into their house for dinner along with 30 other people you don't know. The second noticeable thing is that as a group of people who mostly all just turned 30 we were about 20 years younger than any other patron we could see in the restaurant.
Dinner was tasty. Expect salt, when you eat the schnitzel. It was salty breaded fried tastiness in veal form - nearly everyone at the table had schnitzel and there was not one complaint. It was pounded thin, fried golden on both sides, and retained its crisp whether it was plain, had a cream sauce or had a peppercorn gravy. The surprising thing (pleasantly surprising) is that they had a good list of vegetarian schnitzel options as well as a few tasty fish dishes. The portions were universally huge. Only the big eaters of the table finished their plates.
They had a decent selection of wines, even a Domain du Chaberton by the glass, hooray for wine that fits in the 100-mile diet. Personally I tried the Red Devil cocktail before dinner and it was an excellent balance between tart and alcoholic.
For the most part it was nothing to write home about. The drinks were above average, the food was delicious for anyone not watching their sodium levels, and the service didn't especially stand out in a good or bad way until the end of the meal.
Remember how I said that just a few gestures from the server can change the whole meal experience?
There was a bit of a tangle when we tried to settle the cheque. Some people paid cash, everyone chipped in for the birthday girl, speaking generally I wouldn't envy any server who had to sort out that mess. Our server managed to show off a particular lack of grace. He whisked every payment away from the table so that we couldn't square it all off. Without waiting for the last two people to pay he came back to the table and pronounced that he was only getting a $2 tip on a $200 table (remember - 2 people hadn't paid at all yet). He didn't even ask if anyone else needed to settle up - his first assumption was that we were giving him a 1% tip - us youngens.
This inspired us to sit at the table and debate over the cheque for about 20 minutes, pulling out our smartphone calculators and trying to think through the fog of the drinks from earlier in the evening. I went up to talk to the server to clarify the bill, and even when I assured him that we were aiming to give him a proper tip he treated me like I was trying to cheat him out of a night's wages.
In the end we went to the extent of calculating the exact percentage of tip we had left for the server (12.7%) and wrote out the math on his behalf. If it hadn't been for his confrontational attitude the other people at the table wouldnt've snatched back their extra $2 here and $5 there intended towards the tip - he would've broken 15% easily. I included an editorial note on the receipt that pointed out that 12.7% is generous for a server who copps an attitude.
Was it productive? Did the server learn anything? Probably not. At the end of the day, though, even though the food was respectable the only thing that all 10 of us could talk about was how unpleasant the server was when we were settling the bill. Up until the last moment the server just wasn't memorable, but now we will think of that bad experience every time we think of the Old Bavaria Haus.
