German Curry - lethal stuff. Stick to the pasta (Restaurant Ubersee (Bremen))

Member Name: koshkha

Product:	Restaurant Ubersee (Bremen)
Date:	24/10/09 (74 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good quality, great prices, fine on your own

Disadvantages: Portions are a bit too big for some people

Whenever I visit the German town of Bremen, which is usually every month or two, my favourite place to eat is at the Ubersee Restaurant, located on the ground floor of the Ubersee Museum. It's not just me - the colleagues in our local office always seem to choose to eat there too whenever there are visitors in town.

For me and other visiting colleagues, there are two really good reasons that we like the Ubersee; firstly the location is really close to both the hotel where we most often stay and to the local office and more importantly the food is good and great value for money. Even when times are tough and the pound is really weak against the euro, nobody in the accounts department will be able to quibble over a bill from the Ubersee on your expenses claim. It's such good value that an MP could eat there and not get taken to task by the press.

I'm ashamed to say that I must have eaten in the restaurant about ten times before I ever got to actually look inside the museum but I can certainly recommend that too.

On one recent visit I arrived from Dusseldorf by train at the main station which is just next door to the museum. A new colleague was making his first visit to the Bremen office and so the local boss decided to take us both for dinner. He, the sales director and the new colleague had been in the Ubersee for about an hour before I arrived and had very politely decided to wait for me before they ordered. No doubt that was why the waiter looked so excited to see me when I showed up with my suitcase in tow, straight off the train. At last he could sell us some food.

The restaurant has two main eating areas. The main restaurant is an L-shaped room at the front of the museum building with large windows looking out over the Bahnhofplatz. There's a second smaller dining area at the back of the main restaurant and if you are planning to meet others at the restaurant, make sure you find out which of the rooms they are in, to avoid wandering around looking lost and friendless. Several times I've turned up late due to flights being delayed and the waiters always go out of their way to help late arrivers to catch up with the rest of their party - there's no sense that you are treated as a nuisance if your dinner companions are already a course ahead of you. When the weather is good you can also eat on the terrace in front of the museum (at least during the day time) or have lunch in the lobby of the museum.

The menu is mostly Italian in influence and many of the waiters are Italian or at least doing a good impression that they might be. The portions though are distinctly German in size - you really don't need a starter at the Ubersee because all the main courses are enormous. The service is fast too so take care that you don't over do it by ordering a starter because you think there's going to be a long wait for your food.

When I arrived last time everyone was ready to order and had already polished off their first beers. Beers at the Ubersee are big and Germanic so if you don't want a half-litre glass be sure to let them know you want a small one. I ordered a penne Arrabbiata, two of my colleagues also went with pasta and our new Belgian ordered a pizza. We all raised our eyebrows because we know how enormous the pizzas are. Mind you, after they'd waited so long for me to show up, I guess they were all hungry. I ordered a weissbier and we sat back to wait for the food. Most of the pasta and pizza dishes are priced well under the Euro10 mark so don't be fooled into thinking they might only be small starter portions. My penne at under Euro7 was of a size that would feed both me and my husband if I were making it at home.

The food arrived within 10-15 minutes and all the portions were suitably hearty in size. The pizza was boat-shaped - a bit like a Turkish pide in appearance - but was absolutely enormous. Considering our jobs involve us in eating bakery products all day it was amazing that we all polished off every scrap on our plates.

It might sound a bit pitiful but by the time we'd finished our main courses we were bushed - no space or urge for much more. A couple of people took coffees but the desserts were definitely a challenge too far and we all passed on those. The bill came, the boss paid and we headed out into the night.

On other visits I've hopped around the pasta menu, tried one of the fish dishes, tried the Italian-German interpretation of a curry (and I never really got the stain out of my shirt - that stuff is lethal) and I have also dabbled in the salads. When my husband and I went over for a weekend we had lunch there and probably would have popped in for breakfast if it hadn't been included in our room rate.

To date I've not had a single bad dish or any kind of defective service. Mind you, keeping in mind the size of the beers, I'm not sure I'd remember if anything did go wrong.

It's unlikely that you'd try the Ubersee if you weren't staying in the area around the railway station. There are loads of great restaurants on the waterfront district and in the city centre of Bremen but for me the Ubersee is almost as convenient as the hotel restaurant (I usually stay at the Intercity on the other side of the station) and it's a lot cheaper. I have eaten there with a variety of different colleagues and I'm also quite happy to go in on my own with a book or a newspaper to help pass the time though I have to admit that when I'm alone I don't much like the slightly seedy atmosphere that the area in front the railway station takes on at night. It's not unsafe - I don't think any place with that many taxis lined up round the clock could ever be unsafe, but it does seem to attract a lot of vagrants, drunks and scruffy folks with dogs on strings. They're all probably lovely people but I feel happier when I'm in company.

Summary: It's my favourite choice for easy dining