Karawane

This restaurant was recommended to me so I was excited to come here. Sadly, the experience was quite disappointing. Based on the website I expected a “culinary travel through the Orient”. However, what I got was a selection of glorified Döner-Schnellimbiss quality food. Although they did not taste bad, they were very very far from authentic “Oriental” food. Its more like a German translation of North African/Turkish/Israeli kitchen.

The control of documentation about the Covid is well done. It is first done at the doors. One must as well disinfect his or her hands before getting seated. In addition, there is a variety of food, but too salty and sour. Furthermore, except the pictures on the wall, I haven't found anything extraordinary leading to where it was supposed to bring me... : The Orient. I think the decoration, chairs, tables, lights must carry us there. The room was very loud.

An interesting but erratic restaurant. Made a reservation for two adults and three children and arrived on time. Noticed that there were tables outside and my wife asked if we could sit at one. Man behind the counter said we couldn't and used a tone of voice and phrasing that was rude, inappropriate and condescending. 0/10 for his customer service skills. (If the restaurant is reading this: he had a broken leg - that should help you identify the culprit) Seemed like the waitress who showed us to our table noticed and was extra pleasant to us and our kids and remained so throughout. So full 10/10 for her. A second waitress, frowned more than smiled, and bluntly gave us advice on how *she* wanted us to progress with ordering food. Her intentions may have been good, but again it came across more as a stern warning than a piece of helpful advice - 3/10 for her. Moving on to the food. Their signature dish is a plate with about 9 mini portions of different dishes on it (like a degustation menu). You eat them all and then you pick three of your favourites which are served to you in a larger but not large portions. After you have eaten all of these you can go on ordering any of the 9 items until you are full. It's an interesting idea but it is labour intensive for the staff, and as the restaurant fills up, the service gets much slower and forgetful. From our selection of 9 items, I chose: Lamb Ragout which was ordinary. The meat was bordering on the tough which is surprising for a long cooked dish. The Oriental paprika cream soup was enjoyable. The falafel were awful - no salt for pity’s sake, did the chef actually taste one? The Börek were nice, light and crispy and popular, but each time you ordered them you only got one which made me wonder if it was a tactic to reduce the number you ate. The Egyptian rice with pasta dish looked interesting but was a bland and inconsequential. The Iranian melon and goat's cheese salad was nice and refreshing and another spicy salad dish was good too. To sum up our evening, I was a bit underwhelmed by the food (my wife who had been before said it had been better) and the service would have been poor to bad had it not been for the single 'star waitress' For us, it might be worth going again as the contents of the signature dish changes periodically. But then I think of Mr Rude and wonder if we can be bothered.