Alchimistenklause

I attended a very nice Company dinner here, along with Jesse T. and others. We arrived via a historical trolly ride that first took us through the streets of Merseberg and Halle.

I enjoyed the harvest theme decor of the interior, although I thought it was a little dark. We had our own room within this medium-sized restaurant. There is one key design issue here in that the men's restroom door opens directly into on of the dining areas. I got yelled at by a patron because I apparently didn't close the door quickly enough.

I really enjoyed my meal and with Jesse T. making the beer recommendations, how could I go wrong? Service was very good, especially for a group of our size. English really wasn't spoken here, but we had plenty of German speakers to see us through.

Another night last year in Germany with a large group of people. We had come from Merseberg on a classic trolley made in the Czech Republic and used in the DDR during the 1970s.

I had a liter of Doppelbock on the trolley, so I was glad to find that they had plain old Bock Beer in liter mugs. I got that and half a duck. I remembered it was a huge portion, but it was delicious. Restaurant is a little dark, and there were dried hop bines above, so I thought that was pretty neat.

In comparison to other countries, the service in Germany is generally speaking not great to start with but this place was something else. Our waiter was so rude and actually tried to pick a fight with me. I had asked to swap the starch for more veg and was told that it would cost more. Fine, add it to the bill I said. After taking our order, we continued our conversation when the waiter turned around and with a raised voice asked me what I just said about him. Seriously? Obviously we weren't discussing the waiter but he was full of attitude. I wanted to leave but my fellow diners didn't want to make a fuss so we stayed. Unfortunately, it didn't get better; the food was overpriced for what it was. Portion size was average and the quality really wasn't worth the money. A shame really, given the previous good reviews on Yelp.