Frank We are here together, Julia and myself, to talk about a restaurant in the town that she lives, in Mannheim in Germany. Hello Julia, how are you?
Julia Hi, I’m fine, thanks. How are you?
Frank I’m doing great. I’m very excited about your choice of restaurant. We talked about this before we started recording. And you described it in a really enthusiastic fashion. So, Julia, can you tell us the name of the restaurant and for those going to Mannheim, where can we find it?
Julia Of course. The name of the restaurant is Cafe Vienna and it’s located in the city centre of Mannheim, in the “Quadrate”. I’m not quite sure but I think it’s in U or T.
Frank U or T.
Julia Yes.
Frank Alright, so we’re going to move one step to one side at the moment because a lot of people will actually do not understand what this U or T, Quadrate is all about. So can you very quickly describe what the city centre of Mannheim looks like?
Julia The city centre of Mannheim is built out of squares and they don’t have streets with street names but they just took the alphabet and some numbers to locate the different squares and streets.
Frank Okay, so if I ask somebody on the street in Mannheim where is the Cafe Vienna and he will say it’s in T15 then I should be able to find it very easily because the whole city center is divided into letters and numbers. And I have to keep walking until I find the letter T and then I walk along this road called T and come to number 15 and then I will see it or whatever the address is. That’s the way it works, yeah?
Julia Yeah, that’s how it works.
Frank Right, so we’ve arrived at the restaurant, Julia. Can you sort of tell us a little bit about the atmosphere, what it looks like, the vibe? Is it a Michelin star restaurant, Cafe Vienna? It sounds very noble, you know, typical cafe in Vienna or can you tell us about the ambience in the atmosphere?
Julia I actually don’t know why it’s called Cafe Vienna because it has nothing to do with Vienna at all. It’s a really casual restaurant and the food is really not expensive. It’s good food and its large portions but it’s not expensive because it’s mostly addressed to students, I think. So you can get, for example, “Käsepätzle” and things very cheaply.
Frank Okay. Can you describe a little bit the decor of the place? Can you say what it looks like from the inside?
Julia It looks like they don’t have one, they don’t have similar tables and chairs. Everything looks different so every table is different to the other and they have changing art on their walls. You can buy it. It’s from local artists who share their art with the Cafe Vienna, so it changes every few weeks and sometimes it’s really beautiful art, sometimes I don’t like it but it’s always interesting to see.
Frank Is it run by students or who manages this place?
Julia There was an owner until recently and he only… but the persons who are working there are always students or young people so he only…
Frank So he employed students?
Julia He employed students mostly but he died recently and I don’t know who this place belongs to now.
Frank Okay, so it’s really casual, easy going, no stress, nothing complicated, a romantic dinner for two or something, not the place to go, yeah?
Julia No, I wouldn’t maybe recommend it because the music always depends on who is at the bar at the moment so if the student doing the bar is a heavy metal fan, it is possible that you will listen to heavy metal two hours straight. Yeah, you never know what to guess.
Frank Okay, interesting. Right, so these students will not be professionally trained waiters and so on so what’s the service like? Will I actually get what I ordered and will I have to wait six hours for me to get it or what happens?
Julia They’re not trained, you’re right but I’ve never waited too long for my food or they’re not… they’re really friendly. I’ve not made any bad experiences but if you expect to meet somebody who’s trained to serve your food and talk to you then it’s maybe the wrong place.
Frank Okay, so is it clean?
Julia Yes.
Frank That was a little hesitant.
Julia It’s a student like a place where lots of young people come together and they’re open until night so sometimes it’s keen so you don’t have to be afraid to get sick but it’s yeah. Maybe it’s yeah, I wouldn’t go there with my grandma because she would think it’s kind of run down.
Frank Oh okay, interesting. So grandmothers are not the target groups. Okay, any grandmothers listening don’t worry. When was the last time you ate there or went there?
Julia Maybe four weeks ago.
Frank So you didn’t get any food poisoning so can you remember? Do you remember what you ate and drank?
Julia I think I ate a Portion Schinkennudeln.
Frank So pasta with ham.
Julia Yes, and I drank beer, I think.
Frank If it’s all run by students, someone’s got to cook this stuff. Is there actually a good choice of food on the menu or is it really a small menu and you can have pasta with ham and pasta with ham and pasta with turkey and pasta with chicken or can you have a good choice?
Julia The menu isn’t too big. There are some salads that are really delicious. For example, I like the salad with tofu. It’s really delicious but they also have like noodles with mushroom or ham or things like that. They have I think schnitzel and they always have some vegetarian things.
Frank I can imagine if it’s targeting students that they probably have a good selection of vegetarian and vegan.
Julia Yes, so if you’re a vegetarian you still have a choice between different options because sometimes you come in a restaurant as a vegetarian and there’s only the salad or feta you can take.
Frank Right, okay. Your pasta with ham, did you get enough to eat? Did it taste okay? Did it look okay? Or was it something that you would expect in a typical student canteen at the university? It’s whacked onto a bowl and put on the tray and then you carry it to the table yourself?
Julia No, so the food really isn’t special food like Michelin but it tastes good and it’s really large. I almost never can eat my whole plate because it’s a lot of food.
Frank Okay, how much would you expect to spend there? Did you have a coffee or a dessert or anything like that?
Julia No, I would expect if you have a normal dish and maybe two drinks you can pay 15€.
Frank Wow.
Julia Yeah, so it’s really good for students to go there.
Frank What about tipping? Because I mean these are students so they probably will earn the minimum wage or something but I think tips would be very important but students can’t afford to tip. So what’s the tipping policy there?
Julia I don’t know if there is a tipping but I think everybody gives what he can and thinks is right to do.
Frank And I suppose you say you drank beer, non-alcoholic drinks, so your standard drinks. What about wine? Do they have a wine list?
Julia True. I’ve never ordered wine there and I probably wouldn’t try it. To be honest I don’t know. I think they could have but you shouldn’t expect a wine menu or really a selected wine.
Frank Have you ever had anything in that place that really made where you had something like a positive wow experience where you said this is really good?
Julia You mean the food or an experience?
Frank Both food and or experience.
Julia I really like the food. I remember times when I was there, I don’t know, really often with friends but it’s always the same food. It’s now changing menu so it’s not that you go there and are surprised because they have something new and it’s really good.
But I had a lot of cool experiences there because you easily get in contact with other people.
They also have a lot of board games and things and you can sit on couches in some part of the restaurant and you can play games and you can easily talk to other people and sometimes you meet people and you have good conversations and it’s just a casual atmosphere.
One time I went there and there was something wrong with the electric. That was funny because parts of the restaurant went dark all at once. I mean it’s in the city center and there’s some old electric I think.
And it was really cool because everyone in the restaurant was really, it was a nice atmosphere because
Frank They don’t get they don’t get fazed by it. They’re sort of just like okay it happens, no more.
Julia Yes. And somebody, I mean the music wasn’t playing anymore because of the thing and somebody said should I get my ghetto blaster and somebody said oh I know something about electricity, can I help?
And it was it was like yeah everybody was supportive and when the light went back on everybody was applauding and it was back to business so it was it was a great, a great, yeah, a nice experience.
Frank Fantastic. Doesn’t sound like Germany at all. There’s a cliche. Why do you keep going back to this place?
Julia Because it appears, I’ve been there so many times and it’s kind of, I don’t know, I have so many good memories and the funny thing is when, at the time of the COVID pandemic they had, they had problems.
Because they couldn’t sell their food. Of course they did, you could, after one or two weeks you could do takeaways so but they almost went bankrupt and so they started like a fundraising thing and it was great to see the comments people wrote because there were people, I don’t know, they were 40, 50 years old and spent a lot of money and wrote oh I met my wife at this place.
It’s not possible that it is, that it will close. It’s just, it belongs to Mannheim like, yeah, I don’t know, the ”Wasserturm”. And it was, it was great because there was, they got the money to survive.
And it was nice to read the comments because you only read comments like, yeah, we went there every Wednesday after our, I don’t know, class and it was, yeah.
Frank That is such an endorsement for that kind of place that it’s almost like a second home for people and that they care enough about it that they are willing to jump in. Even if there were government subsidies at the time to just keep businesses afloat that the public of Mannheim recognized the value of this place and jumped in to help the team running it. I think that’s such a great endorsement that in itself is a recommendation to go there, at least in my opinion.
There’s nothing comparable, is there, in Mannheim? I mean, Mannheim is full of restaurants and cafes, but it seems to be a unique place or do you know of any other places that come anywhere near it?
Julia No. I mean, Mannheim has a lot of really nice cafes, of course, but it’s different. As you said, Vienna just, it feels like a home. So, no, I don’t think there’s any comparable cafe or restaurant.
Frank Now, you said there were some 40 or 50 year old people who donated some cash in during the Covid period, but it is a place not to everybody’s taste. It’s young, it’s hip, it’s uncomplicated, the food is good, it’s inexpensive.
Who would not, apart from your grandmother, who would not feel comfortable in this place? I’m like a 63 year old weirdo like me. I’m really attracted to it. I would like to go there, but do you think I would like it?
Julia I know that you really like good food and good wine and things. I don’t know if you, do you think you would enjoy eating? It’s nothing special. But apart from that, I think you would like it.
And I think, I mean, what I wanted to say is that my grandmother wouldn’t like it there because it’s sometimes it’s loud and there are many people and it’s, as I said, tables and chairs, they don’t fit.
But I think the people there would enjoy my grandmother being there. I think everyone can go there if he or she wants to.
Frank You just have to know what to expect. So the atmosphere is fantastic. The people are great. The food is, well, it fills the gap. If you’re hungry and you want a plate of decent food, nothing special, then that’s a great place to go.
Okay. All right. Well, it’s on my to-do list. Julia, thank you so much for sharing this experience. It’s certainly different. And we’ll see if anyone else wants to join me to go to the Cafe Vienna in Mannheim. And if they have a website, then we’ll post it there as well. Julia, many, many thanks.
Note, the restaurant’s website is on Facebook. But you can also learn more on TripAdvisor. Click here.