An Indian content creator has alleged that she and her friend were treated “extremely poorly” at a restaurant in Germany, with a staffer scolding and taunting them over a minor issue. Ananya, a scientist by profession, has been based in Germany for work for the last few months. In a recent Instagram video, she detailed what she called her first experience of “racism” in the European country.
Her video led to a response from the restaurant, saying that a probe is already underway to determine what went wrong.
Poor experience at German restaurant
“Yesterday, I think I might have experienced racism for the first time in Germany. I mean, I don't know if I should call it racism exactly, but me and my friend were treated extremely poorly. So this happened at Peter Pane Burger Grill at Warnemünde Beach in Rostock,” Ananya said in her video shared on August 13.
The Indian scientist and content creator explained that Peter Pane is a burger chain in Germany. On that particular day, she and her friend entered a Peter Pane outlet at Warnemünde Beach.
“Basically, in Germany, restaurants have hosts at the entrance, so every time you go to a restaurant, you have to check in with the host, and then they tell you if there's a table available or not, and then they seat you,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}“Basically, in Germany, restaurants have hosts at the entrance, so every time you go to a restaurant, you have to check in with the host, and then they tell you if there's a table available or not, and then they seat you,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}When Ananya and her friend entered the restaurant, she saw there was nobody at the host station. Meanwhile, a German family that had entered with them went straight inside the restaurant without waiting to be seated by the host.
“We got confused and wondered if we should wait for the host or we can just take a table by ourselves,” she said.
Trouble over a table
After waiting at the host station for a few minutes, Ananya and her friend decided to enter the restaurant. They did not sit down at the table but stood around to see if someone from the staff could direct them.
“No one shows up for 5 minutes, so we enter the restaurant. And even then, we don't seat ourselves at any random table; we're just standing and looking around to see if we can find some staff to figure out what system they have,” she clarified.
Just then, a staffer wearing a “grumpy” expression ran towards them. Looking at his uniform, Ananya realised he was the host and asked him if they could get a table for two.
The host’s response left her surprised.
“You know you're not supposed to come in here, right? You're actually supposed to stand there and wait,” the host told them.
The Indian woman claims she did not take the staffer’s rude tone personally. She explained to him that they had been waiting at the host station for five minutes and nobody had attended to them, so they got confused and came inside to check.
Instead of responding more politely, the German host doubled down. “You literally waited just 10 seconds!” he allegedly told Ananya.
Taunts from the staffer
Ananya again clarified that they had been waiting at the host station for a few minutes, but the host refused to buy their clarification.
“He's like, ‘No, no! You waited 10 seconds! You waited 10 seconds!’ At this point, he's raising his voice even more, and I still didn't say anything,” Ananya claimed in her video.
She and her friend followed the host to his booth, where he then taunted and scolded them.
“He taunted us for a third time, and he said, ‘You guys must be really hungry,’ with this face,” said Ananya.
The Indian creator says all her attempts at clarification fell on deaf ears and the German host continued to scold them, even accusing them of lying.
“NO! Don't lie to me! Don't you dare lie to me! DO NOT lie to me,” the German staffer told them. Ananya claims that he was basically “yelling” at them.
He eventually led them to a table and “slammed” the menus down. Ananya claimed that throughout all this, she never raised her voice.
However, she finally lost her cool when she noticed the host was going around to other tables and pointing to them, probably talking ill of them.
“He's literally treating us like we committed some sort of crime, like we walked in and we stole something and we were walking out,” she said.
At this point, Ananya and her friend decided that they no longer wanted to eat there and walked out.
She ended her Instagram video by saying this is the first time in eight months of living in Germany that she has had such a negative experience.
Restaurant apologises
Peter Pane Burger Grill responded to Ananya’s video with an apology and said a probe had already been launched.
“We just saw your video about your experience at Peter Pane. First of all, we sincerely apologize that you had such a negative experience with us. We are truly sorry that you did not feel welcome and respected,” the official account of the burger chain posted under her video.
“We take your experience very seriously and are already in contact with the restaurant to understand what happened.
“At Peter Pane, everyone should feel welcome and respected. This is an important part of our company culture, with people from over 100 nationalities working together across our company,” the statement said.