Asking for tap water in a restaurant or bar

Hi TTers

Can anyone help?

Every-time I've asked for tap water at a restaurant (while ordering food and other drinks) I get a really confused look from the staff who then say it's not possible and I have to buy bottled or drink from the tap in the toilet- even IKEA!

So my kids can't quench their thirst unless I pay rip of prices for water or hold them under the tap in the loo? !

I've read old threads where people mention they normally ask for tap water and get it so I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong.

thanks,

Abby

Might just be different places that other people ask for the tap water and get it. It is not common to ask for tap water in Germany so it is possible that not all places serve it.

I've never managed to get tap water, and when I visit my relatives they look at me like I'm crazy when I ask for it.
Sadly, the rip-off that is water in German restaurants is still preferable to paying 3€ for 200mL of cola in my eyes...

The word is "Leitungswasser". If you ask for it in addition to another drink, then you will generally be grudgingly served it. If you order it instead of a drink off the menu, you will probably be refused.

SmallTownBoy is right - I am German and German restaurants just don't do that. Sadly they usually expect the customers to just buy a glass of water.

There is a Bakery/ Cafe near my work that serves tap water without any frowns, even when one does not order another drink.
On a separate note, once I was out to lunch (at an asian imbiss) with couple of colleagues and one of the colleagues ordered tap water and we thought it is a good idea since it does not happen often ... to our surprise when paying time came the lady in charge added an extra 80 cents to each of our bills.
After inquiring, she mentioned ... Yeaaaaaaah I have to wash the glasses!!!

Funny but it does not show the generosity of the owners! She is a tactical Vietnamese lady though

Another trick is (depending on where you are at the time) to nip in to somewhere like Galeria Kaufhof, or some of the big shoes shops on Kaufingerstr. where I am sure I have seen water dispensers with those little paper cones hidden in a corner.

One of my fondest memories in Berlin was when I asked for a glass of Water 'vom Hahn' and the lady serving me said no, they didn't give out free water. A few minutes after sitting down, her colleague came up to me and presented me with a glass of tap water, whispering, "es gibt immer Ausnahme". Makes me smile everytime

Something I'll sometimes do is first order food, and then when the food comes ask for a Leitungswasser. That usually makes for a better reception, albeit by no means a warm one. "Kann ich bitte von Ihnen ein Leitungswasser kriegen?"

Ethnic (non-German) restaurants not owned by people of German descent, where politeness and honor tend to be held in very high regard, are usually much better about this.

The only places I've ever been charged for Leitungswasser are Weimar, Dresden, and Berlin (and in Berlin only occasionally), that is, in the former East in restaurants apparently sensing the entitlement to prey on tourists from the west. Cheap bastards. If this happens, you can always return the favor by taking it out of their Trinkgeld. This has never happened to me in Munich (where I live).

Asking for tapwater in a bar! How moronic can you get?
As for asking for tapwater in a restaurant; cheapskateism of the highest order.
Christ, how low and mean can one get? Stay home if you want cheap water.

I quite often ask for 'Leitungswasser' here in Cologne and generally have had no problems, though like James Runner I always order it alongside either the food or a second drink.

Nobody has ever said 'no', but sometimes I think they either convieniently forget or deliberately give you a stupidly small glass.

How do you know the details of another person's life that you get so judgemental?

The OP mentioned that his KIDS can't quench their thirst. Well, I don't know about his kids, but my 2 year old hates the taste of bottled water with a passion. If it doesn't have the taste of Kalk-laden tap water, he won't drink it. So sure I'll ask for a glass of Leitungswasser for him if we're out (usually explaining at the same time that he hates the taste of bottled water). Haven't been refused yet.

However, (and this might be useful for the OP) I usually carry tons of water for him from home. Even in a restaurant I'll bring out this water and let him drink from it, and there hasn't been any complaint yet in any restaurant we've done this in. They probably realise that the alternative is a screaming toddler and are happy to turn a blind eye.
So maybe look into carrying your own water if this is an option.

Or get the kids to carry the water themselves in little rucksacks when they go out?

Prepare them for when they have to carry half the contents of the house to Grundshule and back again everyday in those huge garish rucksacks.

Poor kids alway remind me of little pack ponies.

or sherpas

Yes I also order it alongside another drink and indeed they do always give you a small glass.

But most of the time I only order Leitungswasser if they don't actually have still water. I cannot stand the bubbles. Quite a lot of places don't have still water so I make them feel like they have no choice but to give me tap water.

Bullshit, Baldi. It should be a matter of common courtesy to provide tap water. Creates goodwill among customers. (Although we did once have to play for a dance at a completely teetotal wedding where the ONLY drinks were jugs of water set out on a long sideboard. Everyone's face fell, including, I'm sure, the management of the hotel where the wedding was held.)

I asked for tap water in a chinese restaurant on a day when I didn't want wine/sparkling water and the waitress brought me warm water from the tap. I suppose that is one way to get the message over.

I often ask for tapwater in a bar/restaurant, (along with a beer that is) it's nothing to do with being cheap, I just want to quench my thirst and I don't like mineral/fizzy water and this is all a lot of bars and restaurant have.

I'm wondering if you have always been this judgmental or if this post reflects your successful integration into Bavarian German society.

no, actually, that is how the Chinese generally drink their water (warm or hot). They never drink cold water and you generally get funny looks when you ask for it.

Brilliant mate....I agree....I mean, you can understand asking for a bowl of tap water for your dog, but for yourself! In a restaurant!!!

If you are going to be tight then buy beer, it's usually cheaper than bottled water and after 4 or 5 beers then you don't really care about skimping any longer.....

I'm not talking about tapwater as a chaser.
...and jealousy will get you nowhere Jesse!

i often ask for a glass of tap water with my meal.... only had problems at one bar, when we asked for tap water with our drinks and they wanted to charge us.
its not about being cheap, I am a thirsty person, and the germans over salt everything, I get even more thirsty (and no I am not diabetic)..... I am not a beerdrinker, and they over charge for cocktails here anyways, its about customer service!

It's a glass, not a bowl, and is generally provided without asking in North America. I'm not sure why you find the concept of drinking water to be so unusual. I generally ask for water alongside a beer. I like the taste of beer (depending on the brewery, of course), but beer dehydrates, so if I'm thirsty, I want water.

Its amazing how Americans are the capitalist scumbags and the Europeans are the ones that charge for water and toilets...

don't forget the ketchup!

They charge for Ketchup at my work's canteen here in the UK.

On the topic, I also find it much easier to get tap water in the UK than Germany - in Freiburg I have been to a place where they just blatantly refused to give me a small glass of tap water although my friend and I had already eaten something and had also consumed quite expensive cocktails. Won't go to that place again.

I, too, am a thirty resident. After shopping for a few hours, I want water (and now remember to pack my own) to quench my thirst. I just can't seem to drink one beer to quench my thirst and the salty food here makes me even thirstier. Doctor told me to drink 2 liters of water a day. That's a heavy bottle to carry so when I run out, I want tap water, not that expensive carbonated water either.
(BTW, I enjoy the clean toilets in this country and I'll pay 20-50 cents without complaint.)

This is the norm in China. They boil the water, cool it, then serve it; partly because it helps kill bacteria and partly because they otherwise drink tea, and many Chinese don't understand why anyone would like to mix hot food with cold drinks.

... and use the water bill as yet another stealth preperty tax.

Trucking all that fizzy stuff around in bottles also struck me as going against the grain of Umweltfreundlichkeit vs. immensely more environmentally-friendly pipes. My wife explained to me this way: After WWII, municipal water systems were pretty dodgy, so people developed a taste for mineral water. It soon became a bit of a social stigma to either be a consumer or purveyor of tap water in a public setting. The mineral water lobby was also pretty convincing over time. I also have a theory that it has now become the waitstaff's revenge on tightwad tippers (notice that they'll always bring you a ridiculously-priced bottle of Apoloniaris or Gerolsteiner instead of the local stuff unless you ask for it).

In fairness, I think their reaction must be similar to the reflexively negative reaction I feel when when German acquaintances ask for coffee at really weird times (23:30 at the end of a party, 16:00 on a blazing hot summer afternoon, which is clearly is time for an iced tea or a beer, not a piping hot cup of coffee!).

Here in the Barony, we require guests to have their own tapwater with them or subscribe - we serve mineral waters free of charge.
Lots of people visit us just because of that.

Or Ice cream in the winter..

I used to happily serve tap water to customers when I owned a business - in fact, I didn't even stock bottles of still water. Sometimes people were shocked when they ordered a bottle of still water and I told them that we didn't stock it and suggested a free tap water instead. If someone who had been drinking all night and was very drunk came to the bar and ordered a drink, then I'd often suggest that they have a tap water to go with it. We'd also have sporting teams come in after training or games and a few of them would want tap water first to rehydrate. They would always stay and inevitably buy a few beers afterwards.

It's little things like that, that build good-will and I think it's stupid of places not to serve free tap water, particularly to people who have already spent money on other stuff. I mean, what's better for the business? The extra €0,80 for you charge from a tap water, or having the customer come back again? And giving drunk people a glass of tap water every once in a while is a no-brainer as well. It helps them pace themselves a bit better and they often end up drinking more booze overall.

Obviously if people take the piss and only order tap water, then you need to draw a line, but I found it to be a good business practice and can't understand why so many places have such penny-pinching policies.

Why oh why would you drink bottled water in Munich? For fuck's sake the tap water here comes from the same place as the bottled stuff, it's just as good and doesn't have to be carted around in lorries. If I'm thirsty in a restaurant, where I usually have wine or beer with my meal, I will often order a leitungswasser and do not expect a discussion about that from the waiter or anyone else.

In fact, the non-sparkling mineral water is mostly trucked in from France (Evian, Volvic, Vittel), which is completely ridiculous when you have Alpine water flowing from every tap. It's not always practical, when out and about, to drink tap water, but it really bugs me that I can't buy mineral water from a local source unless I want bubbles squirting out my nose. Even the "ohne Kohlensäure" German mineral water tastes of... Kohlensäure.

Perhaps you might want to give a little more idea what sort of establishments you are visiting apart from IKEA?

I have never had this problem - with our without children in tow - in fact it is one of the parts of the German waiter service culture that I really like. I am always pleasantly surprised by the speed I am asked if I would like another glass of tap water after I have finished my first one. This can be both before, during and after I have ordered another drink and also instead of another drink.

This must be a regional difference then, because it's completely at odds with my experiences. Although the only place I've been outright refused tap water was actually in the East.

To contribute null to this conversation, yeah, the word is leitungswasser, and I've never had any problems ordering it.

I don't smoke in bars or restaraunts either so some might claim that I am the customer from hell.

I have got tap water frequently in Ossieland too. Strange.

It can be hard to get restaurants to serve tap water (even with food, and other drinks) in Stuttgart. And I hate fizzy (or "medium" which they think means it isn't really fizzy) drinks with food.

This paying for water does take some getting used to.

Was in the Irish Bar here the other day (I don't usually go as it's a lousy Irish bar) but our landlord and lady wanted to visit it with us before we go home. So Landlady gets herself a mug of herbal tea and the rest of us get Guinnesss. Later we re-order and Landlady asks for a top up of boiling water for the tea. The waitress told her that would be in essence a new mug of tea so she would have to have a new tea.

I was irritated at this as this Irish Bar, like all Irish bars I have ever visited, has adapted perfectly to the culture of Irish prices for drinks or certainly a generous add-on to the German prices for everything. So they can adapt to the Irish rip-off prices but can't stretch themselves to the free glass of water or top-up of boiling water that would usually come at Irish bars at home.

However generally I would have no issue paying for water in other establishments as it is the culture here to pay for water. And that is that. As regards having thirsty kids, buy a wee six pack in Aldi and bring a couple with you.

This is TT where people try to sell goods valued at €10 and less.

Evian is naive spelt backwards afterall

You mean an "emordnilap"?

I've asked for a glass of tap water in Kilians and got it. Admittedly it followed about 6 beers, and the bar man reckoned it was in his interest for my stomach to be settled. And he refilled it with a grin.

I wouldn't mind being asked to pay 80c for 1/2 litre of tap water, if they want to pull the: have to wash the glasses angle. However I hate buying bottled water. There's free water, apfelschorle, and other jices at work here, and I just refiall a bottle from the tap. The environment man.

Most places have dishwashers and one extra glass makes no difference. Even without a dishwasher, it hardly takes any time at all to wash a glass.

There is not much difference between American beer and tap water anyway; apart from the colour the taste and strength are pretty much the same!

It's because the Americans are capitalistic and smart enough to realise that giving away services that cost nothing develops good will and with that you can make an associated sell or encourage people to come back again. This complex thinking has yet to reach mainland Europe.

You were also smart enough to believe that Iraq had WMD!!!

Hah and you schmucks followed us in, better to be a fool that drinks cold beer than to follow a fool and drink warm beer