Pumpernickel    黑麥  

I work in the same building so have bought lunch from or eaten here many times. I can't fault them on the food but they could really improve their service and management.

For a restaurant that's so remarkly tiny, they really are quite horrible at managing the traffic and customers' orders. The tables are tiny and cramped and they try to fit four people on a table that's only big enough for 2. So if all four people on the same table order the set lunch, you will find yourself eating half the meal off your lap. It's really simple: if you don't have enough space or staff, do not have so many seats for dining-in!

At the counter, I asked for no butter on my bread. When it was ready for me to take away, I asked AGAIN whether it was without butter. Staff said yes. But of course, it had butter on it when I opened it at the office! And this wasn't even the first time, they've done the same thing before. God forbid anyone with an allergy eat their food without checking! I guess next time I will really have to inspect it on the spot before taking it away!

Not to mention you have to queue for about 10 minutes to place your order with just 2 people in front of you, because for some incomprehensible reason, they have to serve all the people who are waiting to pay their dine-in bills first, despite the fact that people in our queue had been waiting there first and for a long time.

I understand that places get busy at lunch time, but the worst thing about this place is the attitude of the staff. The manager always speaks with this condescending and commanding tone, as if she just doesn't really want to deal with you. A couple of the other staff also speak in a very dismissive and disinterested tone. If they don't have the capacity to deal with or manage so many customers, they really ought to reconsider doing this business.

I've decided to get lunch from Pumpernickel for a change, trying to eat somewhat more healthily than the take-away fast food nearby. I ordered a sole sandwich set with green pea soup and was told that I'd have to wait 5 minutes. No problem.

Except that 15 minutes later, I was still waiting, and seeing those who seated much later than I ordered have already got their salads. Yet my lunch was nowhere to be seen. That ended up as a 20 minutes wait.

The sandwich itself was definitely not worth the wait. Sole fillet was definitely not fresh (a loose texture and lack of flavour says it all), and I still wonder how long that stayed in the freezer before it got cooked for my sandwich. Combination was strange as well, with sliced courgetts (?) and slightly burnt green bell pepper. With a strange, suspiciously sour "mustard cream" sauce.

"salad" was worse. It wasn't a salad at all -- not tossed, but with leafs (again, not fresh) stuffed in a plastic container and sauce drizzled onto it. Not surprisingly the sauce collected at the bottom of the plastic box.

Green pea soup was mediocre at best.

Looking back, I should have stopped eating the moment I tasted that strange sauce of the sandwich, because some 2 hours later the diarrhoea began...

Giving this store the benefit of doubt I won't say that the diarrhoea is definitely due to that sandwich... but I think it is.

Enough said.