The Eurofurence Forum
Eurofurence Information => Feedback => Topic started by: ANTIcarrot on 25.08.2011, 13:15:08
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Most of us left the hotel to do other things. Some feedback on restaurants, bars, and other atractions might be useful.
For example I've heard people complain there's nowhere to go late at night. Not true. Myself, Scale, and a bunch of italian furs found this place at the south end of Breiter Weg:
http://www.bingoel-doener.de/bingoel-hasselbachplatz/
Not sure how late it closes, but we had dinner there after the Pawpet show. So pretty damn late.
Good: Cheap food. Vegitarian selection. Awesome ceiling.
Bad: 1km from hotel. There were some drunk people there. Possibly not the best place to go alone or in a fursuit.
I heard reports that staff at the nearby italian restaurant were rude, but haven't gone there myself.
The Green Citidell is well worth a visit. One of the internal shops contains a scale model of the whole structure. You'll probablyneed it to get a grasp on how the whole thing fits together. - And Scale, you have no sense of artistic taste. :P
Zoo... Wouldn't go a second time. Many animals showed signs of severe stress, and some (Elephants spring to mind) were housed in completely inadiquate and barran facilities. You also may wish to take your own food. I've seen far worse, but I've also seen better.
Pizza Hut was ... a Pizza Hut. English menus vailable. Staff will gently berate you if you try to speak german.
Cathedral has some very interesting sulpture inside, one of which depicts the Garden of Eden with a Naga.
Anyone else care to share their experiences?
And possibly make suggestions for next year's sightseeing leaflet?
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Qilin: Affordable, high quality asian food, especially the Sushi was excellent - especially for the price. A clean and lofty place, somewhat unfriendly staff at times, great selection of foods and specialty drinks. I ate there three times.
Goldene Burg: An immensely greasy, moderately to quite tasty Mongolian BBQ. Ingredients were fresh and the variety was decent. Their Asian Buffet was greasy, stale and not good. Their Sushi is the worst I had in my life. All you can eat ice cream included with their buffet deal (3 flavors available). I dined there once.
La Piazza: Excellent Italian restaurant, very nice selection of foods, we loved the wine and pasta, as well as the salads and the Zabaione. I dined there once.
Ortega House of Steaks: Quite excellent, though long serving times. I had the Ortega Salad there twice, and it's the best chicken I had in my life (not exaggerating!) on a decent mixed salad. Other furs said the steaks were quite good, in particular the rump and fillet steaks, as well as the steak in gorgonzola sauce. I dined there twice, and left early when we just weren't served one other time.
Asia Junk Food Shack at the Mall: Don't. It sucks. I ate there once.
Ice Cream Vendor at the Mall: Fantastic, top quality ice cream made fresh every day. I loved their Rocher ice cream. I had ice cream three or four times there.
Spielbank Magdeburg (Casino): Closed, maybe going out of business. Used to be one of the few government licensed casinos in Germany where you can play Poker at moderately low stakes. Hopefully it reopens. I didn't get in. :)
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There was this czech place at the right side of the Hotel (to your right side when you stand in front of the main entrance and look at the hotel).
This place was WONDERFUL.
- The service was nice enough
- The food tasted indeed very much like the czech original (I used to travel to czech and enjoy their restaurants a lot in my childhood)
- I even heared the sanitary installations were very advanced, much better even the one in our hotel.
- The prices were moderate. I payed 13€ including a glass of water and was perfectly full afterwards.
Happy dog is happy. Will go again next year.
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Qilin: the food was very good, but the service is awful.
the first time we went there, they needed 1h40 to prepare a cocktail. even if the place was full, thats severely too long.
the second time, we went to eat sushi, but the waiter only told us they were short of sushi when she came back to take our order ... also brought a wrong plate.
La Piazza: Excellent pasta and pizza, service was pleasant too
Ortega House of Steaks: went there around 14h and they accepted us without questions. excellent meat. they also have pizza if there is a vegetarian in your group.
Kebab at the Mall (lowerlevel): Quite good for a kebab, excellent quantity/price ratio
Ice Cream Vendor at the Mall: good icecream but it was melting quite quickly, also they do sandwich and toast snack good enough if you dont want an icecream.
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Pizza Hut was ... a Pizza Hut. English menus vailable. Staff will gently berate you if you try to speak german.
That's funny, cause this Pizza Hut was nothing like those we have at home (Netherlands). Ours are of McDonalds level, only serving grease-dripping pizzas or putty pastas, and certainly not offering proper restaurant seating. Was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food here, though the waiting staff was hit-and-miss.
I'm surprised that in 4 reviews no-one has mentioned Alex yet (located at the rear lefthand side, facing the hotel, at the big fountain). Really great food, perhaps on the expensive side for local restaurants, but still cheap by my home standards. Friendly staff, and waiting times were always acceptable.
ANTIcarrot, cheers for the tip on the Green citadel, will definitely go looking for that model next year.
Does anyone know if there is a museum for local Magdeburg history? Comparing photos in the old Johanniskirche to present day situation offers a glimpse, but would like a more complete story.
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That's funny, cause this Pizza Hut was nothing like those we have at home (Netherlands).
I should say it appeared to be a pretty bog standard British Pizza Hut. At least one the recently built and shiney new ones.
I should say there was a model last year. Didn't loo kfor it this year and don't know if it'll be there next year, but good luck!
And if I understand, you were looking at Sait Johannis Church? You might want to try the Museum of Natural History and Cultural Heritage. Item G on this year's tourist map. I've no idea what you'll find in there. Personally I was saving it for next year. :)
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Yeah I assumed you meant British Pizza huts from your location. :)
Will give that museum a try next year, thanks!
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The Alex bar out the back of the hotel and turn left, was really good! I went there more than any other restaurant in Magdeburg. Great lunch and dinner, special Sunday offers, awesome drinks, very friendly staff who seemed to really enjoy seeing all the furries. Really my only complaint was the place was a little pricey. Not too bad, which is why I went there so often.
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my experiences:
Steakhouse Ortega: really good
Alex: service is a little "simple", but at the end on the positive side of "good enough"; can deal with a real crowd of people
Italian "La Piazza": really good
Asian "Qi Lin": service always seems a bit over-strained, even with a small number of guests; but food and drinks are very good; check the bill! I can not say whether it is on purpose, but with us and other groups there were several errors.
Spanish "La Bodega": really good
Greek Asteria: really good
The coffee house at the rear entrance. I think it was the "Köhlers": Service was damn slow at first but ok at the end. Coffee specialities and the fine cakes are really great.
Apart from the restaurants we had some smaller dishes, typically as brunch. For example the "Heisser Wolf" in the Allee Center and the Subway in the train station. There were no bad experiences to me.
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A place that was not mentioned so far:
Cafe Hansen (7 minutes walk from Hotel)
All you can eat breakfast buffet, with eggs, cakes, all sorts of bread/spreads/cheese/meats, free drinks for 7,00€.
The catch: Only between 7.00 and 9.00 am :P
Did it once, was not disapointed. Nice place and tasty food for the early birds out there ;)
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LOL that was about the time I went to bed most days.
Might go there for "late night" dinner next year, haha.
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La Piazza:Italian restaurant
... pasta was really outstanding, but the steak was a disaster: ...
Well, generally spoken: Order the stuff that is typical for the restaurant. At a italian one get some pasta or pollo (chicken). Pork and veal also is a good choice. For every dish you need some kitchen equipment and some experience to be perfect. If you want steak, go to a steak house. You really have some more pleasing results if you respect this simple rules.
In Germany those people that order "Jägerschnitzel" where ever they are in the world are a running gag. They will never experience some real gastronomical highlights ;-)
On the other paw a real good restaurant does not offer anything they can not serve perfectly. It is sad lots of restaurant think the people expect those choices. But you never know... Maybe their regular guests like the steak that way ;-)
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Since many of us made REALLY bad experiences with the House of Steak last year, we decided to search for a new steak restaurant and found the "Bralo House" right next to the dome. (http://www.bralo-house.de/)
Their service was very friendly (we went there with app 15 people, but reserved seats before of course) and the food was delicious! I ordered a rare steak and got it on a hot stone - not like the House of Steak where you get it on a cold plate.
So if you want to have some marvelous steak next year, I can only recommend this restaurant. :)
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House of Steaks - first night we went here and it was jam packed. The server sat us outside, behind a wall and round the corner and promptly forgot about us (out of sight, out of mind). We left and went elsewhere. We did return on the Friday night however and got seated, pretty quick friendly service, and excellent food. Depends on your luck.
Qilin - again I think it depends on your luck with this place, we went here Thursday, got seated right away and service was timely. The food is pretty nice and the prices good.
Asian buffet - this was the one down the street from the House of Steaks which was offering the free drink to con goers. All I can say is yuck. It was NASTY. Just generally sub-standard food...and yes, I know it was cheap, but it wasn't cheap enough for what they were serving!
Schnizel Temple - dragged our butts all the way out to this restaurant on Friday night with high hopes. It was tiny and pretty packed but they did have space where we could have sat outside, instead we got a REALLY snotty server telling us to "go away, no space" and just a really sh*tty attitude. Wouldn't return, no matter how good their schnitzels. Completely rude!
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We went to three restaurants this year: Wenzel (the Czech restaurant), La Piazza (the Italian restaurant behind the fountain) and Ciao Ciao (another Italian restaurant near the Karstadt, on the Ernst-Reuter-Allee).
Also been to the Bingöl and the small Asian buffet next to the Kaufland supermarket.
All served good food, I would recommend the Wenzel and the Ciao Ciao of them all :)
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In Germany those people that order "Jägerschnitzel" where ever they are in the world are a running gag. They will never experience some real gastronomical highlights ;-)
Interesting choice of example, as a "Jägerschnitzel" is a fried and battered slice of "Jagdwurst" by GDR tradition. You could get one for €1,20, on a bun, opposite the Kaufland cash registers.
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I have a favour to ask you all.
Several attendees came up to me and said that there was a bar nearby that had a Pinky's [something] on their drinks card. Sadly I didn't have time to try it this year, but next year I will make a point of going there and sampling this no doubt divine beverage (TOTALLY not biased here ;) ). Could someone tell me the name and location of that bar? I'd be very grateful for that, thanks! :)
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I really prefurred the little shop next to the Kaufland in the mall for it's amazingly cheap breakfast! (3,50 for a complete start of the day!) Good quality noms there!!! #p
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House of Steaks - first night we went here and it was jam packed. The server sat us outside, behind a wall and round the corner and promptly forgot about us (out of sight, out of mind). We left and went elsewhere.
Same thing happened there on sunday. Me and 7 other furries went there and server sat us outside. We left after about 25-30 minutes, without having even menus brought to us. During this time we went twice inside to ask some service, so they definitely couldn't forget us :(
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The last day we had a quick lunch at "Alex", before taking the road back.
Cheeseburger was brilliant and the ice coffee too.. service was nice with the waitress getting all blushy because of her lack of proper english (she sill did very well according to me)
With the frenchies i also went to the pizzeria near the hotel. Service was not bad but not extraordinary, and they gave us the 10% advertised in the conbook.Pizza was good, if unexpensive (none was over 9 euros).
The only thing is what they dare to call red wine there... it was almost sparkling and tasted more of a soda than proper wine (i don't drink wine often, but THAT was not wine), with a weird vinegar aftertaste... Really dreadful (and also even one of the most "alcohol-used" of the frenchies felt faint after half a glass.. what the heck was that?)
Yuk..
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Well I'm no oenologist, but it seems to me the wine had fermented and was too old.
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Well I'm no oenologist, but it seems to me the wine had fermented and was too old.
Or the wine was still fermenting and in progress. Sounds more like Federweisser (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federweisser).
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In Germany those people that order "Jägerschnitzel" where ever they are in the world are a running gag. They will never experience some real gastronomical highlights ;-)
Interesting choice of example, as a "Jägerschnitzel" is a fried and battered slice of "Jagdwurst" by GDR tradition. You could get one for €1,20, on a bun, opposite the Kaufland cash registers.
Jägerschnitzel is a veal cutlet with creamed mushroom sauce. The sausage-variation ('Jagdwurst') is only a local speciality in some German regions. Everywhere else in the world, Jägerschnitzel is a cutlet, also known as "Escalope à la chasseur": http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/15902/escalope-chasseur--j-gerschnitzel-.aspx
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I loved the "Asia Lounge" near Hasselbachplatz. They had the most exclusive asian food I ever tried, at quite 'normal' prices.
http://www.sushifreunde.de/index.php?city=magdeburg
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The only thing is what they dare to call red wine there... it was almost sparkling and tasted more of a soda than proper wine (i don't drink wine often, but THAT was not wine), with a weird vinegar aftertaste... Really dreadful (and also even one of the most "alcohol-used" of the frenchies felt faint after half a glass.. what the heck was that?)
Lambrusco is a little sparkling also.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambrusco
But even that should not have a "vinegar aftertaste".
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At this EF I found some free time to try some more restaurants around the Hotel.
Asian Restaurant "Qilin": The prices are affordable and the food is excellent! I tried soups, rice menues and Sushi and the quality was always high and the food fresh. Sadly, the place seems to be crowded all the time and you should at least plan on staying for 90-120 minutes because you likely have to wait 45+ minutes for your order to arrive. Especially Sushi.
Italian restaurant "La Piazza": I love that place! It was around 23:30 when I was visiting this restaurant with two friends of mine and they were about to close. After asking they were okay with staying open for about an hour and we even got all the food we wanted, too. The waiter was fun and the food was awesome and affordable as well.
Asian Fast Food Shack accross the street (in the mall): The food is okay but with 5 EUR for a standard menue quite expensive. But you get you belly filled in no time. Saved my *** once when I was ALL hungry but had no time for a restaurant.
Greek Restaurant "Asteria": Nothing to complain or praise. Prices are average and they serve fast.
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Qilin: We got our food after about 20 minutes. It was the best curry I've ever had, affordable too. The staff seems a bit unfriendly, but I guess they were pretty stressed considering the place was packed.
Alex: The food is good, we went there for the breakfast buffet and the next day for lunch. Their non-alcoholic drinks are tasty, but stay away from the cocktails. We ordered three different cocktails one evening in the price range from 7 to 9 € and they all tasted ... meh and were really soft.
The Fan: The food is very good, altough the servings could have been a bit bigger. One waiter had to handle all of the tables outside, but still jokes around a bit while taking your order and was generally very friendly.
Cocktailbar "One": This is the place to go to when you want to get drunk. They're cheaper than the Piano Bar and their drinks taste quite good. Be sure to try out their "Pay 5€ to roll a die and get a drink ranging from water to a Super-Deluxe-XXL-Cocktail"-offer, we all got somewhat lucky ;)
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The only thing is what they dare to call red wine there... it was almost sparkling and tasted more of a soda than proper wine (i don't drink wine often, but THAT was not wine), with a weird vinegar aftertaste... Really dreadful (and also even one of the most "alcohol-used" of the frenchies felt faint after half a glass.. what the heck was that?)
Lambrusco is a little sparkling also.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambrusco
But even that should not have a "vinegar aftertaste".
I know about sparkling wine and this one was not _supposed_ to be sparkling at all...
Just yukkkk