What does “anspruchsvoll” mean in German?

Anspruchsvoll comes from Anspruch (claim, demand) + voll (full) — literally “full of claims.” The two-edged result means either “demanding” (a difficult customer) or “discerning” (a person of refined taste). Whether it’s a compliment or a complaint depends on tone and context. A wine critic can be anspruchsvoll; so can the customer who orders a ham roll, then removes every topping one by one.

In the bakery clip, every customer is a study in the word: one strips their Brötchen down to just ham, another asks for a Schokodonut without the chocolate, a third questions whether a wheat baguette is gluten-free. Nobody uses the word aloud — it simply describes them. That gap between the polite Kein Problem from the staff and the ever-expanding list of conditions from the customers is exactly the comic register anspruchsvoll captures. You’ll hear it used approvingly (ein anspruchsvolles Publikum — a discerning audience) just as often as critically.