Schwarze Lene - Essen

It was now the second time in this locality. extremely nice staff. that eat first-class. well decorated plate. the eye eats with. prices in the middle sec. read more It was now the second time in this locality. extremely nice staff. that eat first-class. well decorated plate. the eye eats with. prices in the middle sec.

The restaurant itself is really unique with its great location. view of the sea at best weather - what you want more. we were there as a family to celebrate a b... read more The restaurant itself is really unique with its great location. view of the sea at best weather - what you want more. we were there as a family to celebrate a birthday. of restaurant in this respect no reaction. Shame....Eating itself is very expensive, but good for it.It tasted all.The service seemed very stressed in the evening and it hardly fell a nice word, let alone a smile from the waiter....very bad. especially since the restaurant was not fully occupied (in completely empty and out some free tables).On the service you should definitely work and not give the guest the feeling, you disturb more than that you are welcome.

We were eating with 20 people on Sunday night. the table and the intentions were very nice, but then it started. when the food was brought, the whole table roun... read more We were eating with 20 people on Sunday night. the table and the intentions were very nice, but then it started. when the food was brought, the whole table round was shouted with "hallo, hallo, ruhr here please, hallo" - by the chief of my interopretation. he wanted to assign the courts.That was neither pleasant nor polite. also a court came much later, one wrong. in the dessert order, the extra was asked to call the numbers so that he knows whether with or without seeing, and that was exactly what did not vote at all, because everything was booked without seeing into the cash register. the poor waitress saved the fauxpas well. but that had to come to it at all....The eating in itself was very tasty and the portion size pleasant, so you didn't have to stuff to make it. but the bad service remains more in memory, so a new visit is questionable.

What a shame that we visited in winter. The view must be spectacular in the summer and autumn, when it's still nice enough to sit outside on the patio and watch... read more What a shame that we visited in winter. The view must be spectacular in the summer and autumn, when it's still nice enough to sit outside on the patio and watch boats gliding past on the river. The restaurant is perched on top of a...large hill, and it's tables overlook huge glass windows. This makes it ideal for an afternoon coffee and piece of cake. We only had a glass of wine together, and the weather was rainy and windy. Despite that, the view was spectacular. Looking at the menu, I might come here to eat but nothing looked particularly wonderful. We will definitely come again in the coming summer, though, because I can imagine an o'clock dinner reservation to watch the sun go down along with dinner would be breathtaking. It's worth mentioning that our service here was also very friendly

The first thing to say about this restaurant is that it has possibly the best location and view in the whole Essen area. Perched far above Lake Baldeney the vie... read more The first thing to say about this restaurant is that it has possibly the best location and view in the whole Essen area. Perched far above Lake Baldeney the view is quite breathtaking and definitely beautiful. The restaurant also has a very large terrace so...that one can sit outside in fine weather and really enjoy it. Unfortunately the restaurant fails on most other things. The decor although brand new is very, very Balkan. OK, the owners are undoubtedly also from the Balkan region, as is the influence on the menu, so some might see this as a positive point from the decor, you definitely have the feeling that you are sitting in an Eastern European restaurant not too far from the Adriatic Sea. But for me the decor is not particularly pleasant except that it reminded me of the good years I spent working in the former Jugoslavija ;. Starting with the terrace, which is set out with fake marble tables, and which is framed by a buffed stainless steel balustrade that, although probably very practical against weathering, looks like it would be more suitable at a train station or ferry terminal. I don't know, but it just doesn't do anything for the place. BUT... then go inside and you will find a lot of money that has been spent on furniture that is meant to look fine and elegant but just seems cold and uninviting. Wooden chairs with pointy design features, lots of white table cloths, a mixture of stone and wood that doesn't really bring any character, big chandeliers, and finally a white grand piano! All over the top and not really doing anything for the place. Just check their website; they have lots of photos so you can make up your own mind. So what about the food? International cuisine with a Balkan leaning; which is fine, but the restaurant doesn't exactly advertise itself as such. The subtitle of the restaurant is Steak Meer which means Steak Sea and is possibly a play on Steak Mehr which means Steak .... because although there were quite a few steak and fish dishes on the menu, there were a lot of other dishes as well, ranging from pasta, to lamb, to venison, to salads and even Wiener Schnitzel and really made from veal and not pork!. The classic Balkan dish Pljeskavica was not listed as such even though almost all Germans know this name but rather as Hacksteak gefüllt mit Schafskäse or Hamburger filled with feta cheese, which kind of seems odd, almost like they are trying to disguise the Balkan connection, when in fact this is impossible due to the decor. Oh, and to their credit, the offered a selection of smaller sized dishes for those with not such a big appetite. So we took the smaller Wiener Schnitzel because in Germany it is very common to find schnitzel made from pork but not so often from veal. So, now the next part of the story begins... we ordered within about minutes of arrival at the restaurant. It was a beautiful sunny day, and there were a lot of customers. Everything so far acceptable, even if the waiters were rather officious and dour, they weren't particularly unfriendly. Our white wines arrived within perhaps minutes, which was OK. The side salads another few minutes later. BUT, the main courses took about hours to arrive! This was particularly frustrating and by the time it arrived I couldn't decide if I was really hungry any more or if I had lost my appetite. The quality of the food was just acceptable. The schnitzels seemed a though they had been thrown into a deep fryer along with the fries. The amount of food small serving was just right. While we were waiting for our food, we noticed that there was an extended period of time where actually no meals were being brought out of the kitchen. There were enough waiters to cope, but it seemed that the kitchen was having a lot of problems. OK, it was the first really sunny weekend of the year, but obviously the owners had planned on that because they never ran out of food or cakes, they just didn't have the capacity in the kitchen to serve such a large amount of customers in a reasonable amount of time, so somewhere in the planning they failed. Even after they had realised that they had a problem, they never warned a single guest of the very long waiting time, nor did we ever hear an apology. The waiters, as stated above, were officious and dour: they did their jobs, but they looked like they didn't enjoy it. Not once in the hours that we were there did we see any of the waiters crack a smile! Robotic and unemotional are the words that come to mind. I do not need to go back to this restaurant. Even the great setting and view are not enough to entice me there are other restaurants on the same side of the lake with views almost as good. It is a pity, but that's just how it is