Restaurant Museum - Tübingen

Very nice building for classic events!

Were there on a very recently! very tasty eating, great ambiente (above in the room) was cooked on the spot not cooked, not.

We have had dinner and lunch at the Restaurant Museum on several occasions. The food is consistently of a very high quality. Gluten free requirements have been very graciously and deliciously accommodated. The serving staff have been unfailingly gracious and helpful. Each visit has been an extremely positive experience.

Very torn about the Restaurant Museum which positions itself as one of the top fine dining restaurants in Tuebingen - located very centrally within this Southern German University town. I had high expectations, and really liked the menu offerings with a focus on fresh local Swabian and German dishes. Nevertheless, I left disappointed in the end since the overall restaurant experience clearly fell short of my expectations.I visited the restaurant with family for lunch during a day trip to Tuebingen, and we were hoping to take advantage of the very attractively priced "business lunch" special as well as the expected fine dining experience at the Museum. Positively, the food and drinks prepared by the kitchen cannot be faulted: this is honest, local cuisine which is freshly prepared, tasty and of good quality. The value is clearly there, and overall the Museum offers a pretty "safe" option if you are looking for standard Swabian and/or German dishes prepared on a good quality level. But this is unfortunately where the good news stopped for us since - at least for me - a really good restaurant experience entails more than just the quality of food and drinks served itself. The guest experience at Museum is where this restaurant falls clearly short. Firstly, Restaurant Museum disappoints with a cold and sterile dining room ambiance with little to no flair offered with regards to making guests feel welcome. Don't get me wrong: I am no stranger to minimalist decor, but the "bare bones" approach at Restaurant Museum for me came across as old fashioned, uninviting and very stiff in an almost "rude" kind of fashion. It is hard to pinpoint, but the complete lack of decor and zero decorations complemented by dark wood paneling on the walls (which has clearly not been maintained well over the past decades) just does not convey a "fine dining" atmosphere. The frugality of the guest room surroundings felt off putting for me, and showed a lack of care for expressing what true hospitality is about. There is nothing really "wrong" with the interior of Restaurant Museum, but for a fine dining establishment I do expect that there actually needs to be something "right" - or even interesting - with a dining room in terms of making one feel equally welcome and comfortable. Complementing this first impression was the very "detached" service attitude offered by the Museum staff. Since it was clear that we were mere tourists upon our entry to the restaurant, we were constantly given the impression of somewhat being intruders, and not truly "worthy" of the attention of the waiting staff. How much we were considered a nuisance became clear when we were able to observe how the regular lunch time guests were treated compared to us "foreign folk". Don't get me wrong, the staff is always polite and treats you in a very "correct" kind of way - but we felt very clearly that we did not belong to the regular lunch crowd to whom the service team was very happy to extend their attention - while we were given the impression to be merely "tolerated". This might sound harsh, but it is not difficult to "read between the lines" and catch subtleties in how service staff behaves in front of and treats guests they clearly do not feel quite so happy about to have to attend to. Nevertheless, if you are positioning a restaurant as a top fine dining experience it is not enough in my book to simply offer well cooked dishes - you also need to provide an excellent overall dining experience and welcome every guest at your tables in equally friendly and hospitable fashion. And this is where the Restaurant Museum - at least in my experience - falls woefully short. In the end, the business lunch still was an "okay experience" for me which is why I have given 3 out of 5 stars. But I do have to admit that I very much left this establishment with the impression that the staff were quite happy to see us leave as we clearly did not fit their expectations of guests "normally worthy" of their esteemed establishment. This is of course was no problem for me since there are many more options available in the beautiful city of Tuebingen. Thus, even if the value and quality of the cuisine offered clearly is there, we really did not feel a compelling need to return to Restaurant Museum in the future. What a pity. P.S.: also note, that if you are male and physically challenged in terms of your personal mobility the visit to the only available bathroom does provide quite a bit of a challenge since it is located in the "cellar" area of the building, and can only be accessed via a quite steep and slightly narrow staircase. The bathroom itself is very clean and nicely furnished, but due to it's location and access route it is only suitable for physically fit guests.

The MUSEUM RESTAURANT in Tübingen is a culinary find! Not pretentious or overbearing...the dining experience affords fine prepared Swabian tradional choices served in a warm and welcoming atmosphere! LOTHAR SCHMID has curated a must-stop in the region....much like the postal-inn stops of a bygone era...where a traveller felt being attended to personally. A protagonist of FOOD KNOWLEDGE, he and his alert associates have advanced the standards in the kitchen while enhancing the feeling of his guests in the dining room!