This place isn’t actually much of a coffee spot but I really thought it deserved a note here. I am actually starting a new category for these types of occurrences so that they don’t mix with the cafe reviews. It’ll be called “warning”.
So here is the deal, Manekin is a fairly new restaurant in Poznan. From what I know they are a series of restaurants in quite a few Polish cities and were very successful, drawing hordes of people to their estates. Cheap pancakes that taste really good, smiling waitresses and eye-appealing interiors made all that possible. It was one of those places that I really enjoyed visiting until last Sunday when I managed to get in there for lunch.
The only free table available was a small one near the bar downstairs. I actually have never been there having always chosen the seatings upstairs for some reason. Being seated next to the kids’ playground has loads of drawbacks. You can count those in decibels. Kids playing with toys that sing songs, kids screaming that they don’t wnat to eat, kids crying because they hurt themselves while playing. Well, this was not the most annoying thing we experienced.
As we ordered we prepared for a long waiting time. They always take a while here. Especially with the amount of customers they have at almost every time of the day. You can’t really do anything about it and we knew that was going to happen. As we waited we talked and observed what was going on. We were close to the bar so there was a lot happening.
There was this waitress, whose name we know (nametag gave it away) but wont mention here. That wouldn’t be nice. I watched her pouring beer to a glass and noticed something weird. Before she started pouring it there was already a little of beer in the glass and I wondered why. As I continued observing I realized how it got there. You see, whenever she poured beer to the glass she always ended up with half the glass of foam, which she then picked out with a spoon to another glass. And so on to the point when the “foam” glass was 3/4 full of foam. Then the glass just stood there until the foam converted back to beer. Obviously a very stale beer at that moment already over which she poured more beer and there ya go. Fresh and tasty. I was really happy I never ordered beer there.
Oh but this was not the end. She moved a little too fast and half of a pile of napkins dropped to the floor (not a very clean in that). It caught my eye because afterward she just casually picked them up, ordered and put back on the rest of the clean napkins like nothing happened. I subsequently looked on my cutlery in front of me, wrapped in the very same napkins. I later observed how she wrapped other cutlery in the napkins from that pile. I shivered.
After we have waited our share we got our first dish. Half of which was cold, but this is nothing very extraordinary compared to what we have experienced earlier watching the lady by the bar. I really really like the food there. I like the whole restaurant idea. I have been there as one of the first customers when they opened and I was so happy this place opened in Poznan. I guess this would need to be brought to the restaurant management to carefully review who they are hiring.
On the bright side – the food was, as always, very tasty (even the cold Borscht when re-heated was good) and the waiter that attended us was super professional and we actually tipped him even after what we’ve seen (again – I noticed his nametag and would recommend him but since we have decided on not giving the names here I am not going to).
All in all – I can’t understand anymore why there is always a line for the table while it is so easy to notice similar things there. I hope that never happens again.
Ever.
CaffeineSpotter 