Best places to eat and drink in Cologne

---

I have been living for almost 2 Years now in Cologne, so I want to share my insights about this great city where you can enjoy a good meal or a good drink.

As I love other cultures, I especially love international restaurants. For that reason, you may find mainly here restaurants, which are not serving German food. However, as I know that tourists love tasting local food, I will also put a few German restaurants that I like!

Cafés:

- Yummy Müslibar: in this cosy café near Rudolfplatz and Molktestrasse, you will find a perfect atmosphere to meet a friend to chat, have breakfast or even a cake in the afternoon. They have a wide range of müslis and cereals, some salty dishes and some cakes. This is a small place so you can be sure that everything is fresh 😊

What I love the most there: their chocolate cake with nuts, their sandwich with egg and their nice Ginger tee.

- Salon Schmitz: this place is in fact a 3-in-1 restaurants because they have one place where you can order drinks and sit down in their very confy sofas and armchairs, they have one place with fresh salty and sweet food (quiches, salads, cakes,..), and they have one place where you can get ice cream. However, as those 3 places are next to each other you can order in one place and eat/drink in another one, which is very convenient!

What I love the most there: their cheesecake, their big hot chocolate cup and their pasta salad.

Restaurants:

- Lai de hao: Chinese restaurant serving dim sum (small pièces) and normal sized dish. Near Barbarossaplatz

What I love the most there: it is difficult to tell because the whole menu is so delicious, but I love their mapo tofu (spicy tofu with beef), the char siu bao (Chinese white buns with sweet pork), the spicy aubergines with beef and the spicy sauted noodles.

- Hans im Gluck: This is a burger place near Friesenplatz. The restaurant is always full even at midnight, so book ahead or come late and be patient 😉 They have a big choice of burger, even for veggies and for people looking for a bit of exotism (spicy wasabi burger).

- Rheinzeit: German restaurant with a local dishes and with a view over the Rhine river. Restaurant located in the old district of Cologne. It is a touristy part of the city but in comparison with other restaurants there, this one offers good food for reasonnable prices!

What I love the most there: their Flammküche

- Kim Van Restaurant: Vietnamese restaurant. This imbiss is really serving dishes as the ones I ate when I was in Vietnam. Prices there are low because it is a fast food restaurant but with very good quality food.

What I like the most there: Bo Bun spicy with coriander.

- Namdaemun: Korean restaurant with bbq menu. This is a perfect place to go with a friend or as a group. You are cooking yourself the meat at the table. I recommend especially the special Korean meat that you will get at the end! So, I advised you: the best meat is the last one so you have to keep place for it 😉 In addition to good dishes, I have to say that the best thing there is the waiter, who is really specialized in this korean cuisine, who shows his passion for it and who will take a lot of time to explain you how to eat the meat with salad and rice.

-Meer sehen: restaurant with a lovely atmosphere. This place is great because it feels so quiet and out of the city with the nice music and the big screen with video from the sea life. The food there is good as well with a large choice of tapas. Those tapas are not the ones of any Spanish restaurant, there are innovative ones with inspiration from everywhere (Asia but also French and some from Spain of course).

What I like the most there: the goat cheese with honey and the potiron soup with cream.

Special for brunch:

- Ecco Restaurant: This place is perfect for a nice brunch with friends or family on Sunday. They have a terrasse where you can stay in summer. They have a wide choice of everything you want for a good brunch. I speak for experience saying that this is so delicious that you can stay there from 12pm to 3pm just because you wanna taste everything there 😊 They also have some vegan dishes.

What I like the most: Their waffles, the brioche, the tortellinis

Bars:

-Shepheard bar: This is the best place to have a -very good- cocktail in Cologne according to me. The waiters there are treating you like VIP, helping you to choose the cocktail, which will suit you best among their huge list of cocktails and the atmosphere is really cosy/chic.

- Wohngemeinschaft: This bar has a very special ambiance because each room is recreating a room at home. so you will maybe choose to drink something in the bedroom on a bed, or have a drink with your friends in the special van in the middle of the place, or chill out in the living room or play table tennis in the next room. Who go whereever you want, the ambiance will be different 😊 This place is good either during the afternoon or during the evening.

-Skybeach: This bar is special first because it is a beach bar right in the city center, it's on the terasse from a petrol station and you have a great view of Cologne with the cathedral. I love coming here when it's summer with friends to just chill out after work, especially after coming back from holidays! There, you can indeed feel a bit as if you were still on holidays!


If there is another restaurant/café/bar that you love and want to recommend others in Cologne, please do not hesitate to send me a mail or to write about it in the comments. If I have never been there, I will go there to try it and write a review about it afterwards.

---