"We were returning from a round-trip in Europe. Our last stop had been Paris and we were looking for somewhere to stay overnight. We found Gevelsberg and, since Gevel sounds like devil (in Swedish, that is), we thought that it could be an interesting place...to spend one night. The hotel where we stayed (Zum Alten Redaktion) had no restaurant and the lady in the reception told us to go outside to find one. That is how we found the Old Post-coach Nice lady (the head-waiter) had a smoke outside and we got a favourable impression , so we entered the restaurant and ordered one Hänchenbrust and one Wildragout mit Spätzle. Good and safe choices in this part of Germany. Delivery was fast and presentation OK. But I think that the dusting should be avoided. Just like bean sprouts and trickling sauce on the plate is an outdated class marker. Anyhow, we had the meal and the Hänchen was, according to wife, OK. I ate some of the Spätzle, but had a problem with the meat. Large chunks that were not exactly tender and some of them were downright difficult to chew. So, I left most of my meal and asked for the bill. Bill came, but AMEX was not accepted by the machine we tried MC Debit which the machine didn't accept. We then tried the white MC which didn't work. We had been paying hotel bills and Autoroute péage with these cards for the whole trip and knew they were good. There we were. Cash isn't king any more and the few € I had in my wallet were needed for other things the next day. I then told the chef (he was also the restaurant manager) that he could send us an invoice and that it would solve the problem. It has worked in similar situations in France and USA and I think that it is a universally accepted way of doing business. That is when he got quite unpleasant. He told us that we Dutch were a funny people (we are Swedish, actually) and that we should bring functioning cards with us when we visited restaurants. I couldn't help commenting that it would be better if he made his card reader work. I finally gave him my last cash and he sent the waitress back with the change which she put on the table without a word. Germans are normally polite people, but when they think they have a reason, right or wrong, some of them get rather nasty. When leaving the restaurant through the bar, our case was discussed by the locals and we were obviously not very popular. The chef/manager, the head waitress and the waitress were all involved in the discussion. That is not what one expects from professionals. We are happy not to have any reason to visit that place again."
