Bier-Esel — Restaurant in Cologne

Bier-Esel is a restaurant that has been serving mussels since the 17th century. It is Cologne's oldest restaurant serving mussels. I have enjoyed every visit to this restaurant during my numerous visits to Cologne since 1994. In fact, as long as it was an "R" month, when mussels came out of cold Atlantic or North Sea waters from September to April, it was my habit to make at least one visit to Bier-Esel on every trip to Cologne.

What I especially loved was a menu item called "Mussels Exzellent", an ample portion of cooked mussels served in a pot. The pot was filled to the brim with a white wine broth made with white wine, bay leaves, garlic, onion and carrots. Together with a plate of french fries (ordered extra), the mussels would be accompanied with buttered German black bread. In Cologne there was no more divine dining experience than this combination ordered with a Kölsch, the local German beer from Cologne. All of this food and drink was served by charming German waitresses who would remember each diner and what they enjoyed.

This evening, in September 2018, I again visited Bier-Esel, and again ordered Mussels Exzellent. To my dismay, the portion was smaller although still served in a pot, and the extraordinary broth occupied no more than an inch at the bottom of the pot. As a consequence, the mussels at the top of the pot were dry and lacking in the flavor of the missing broth. The black bread had been substituted by a tasteless baguette, and the French fries were half the usual portion served with a odd pink mayonnaise based sweet and sour sauce whose country of origin could not be determined.

When I asked our male waiter (who, along with the new manager, also male, seemed to have been cloned from a management team at TGI Friday's) whether this revered and historic restaurant was under new management, we were told that it had been purchased by a local restaurant group 4 years ago.

Don't expect the Bier-Esel of your pre-2014 experience. Unlike previous visits, the restaurant was not even half-full of happy diners. The food was a thin semblance of its former quality. The service was lackluster. It is a tourist trap in the making, at which tourists will done and wonder what all the fuss was about.

Farewell Bier-Esel! We loved you when you were authentic and passionate about quality of preparation and service, but nothing good...

Went here for dinner for our first night in Cologne. Highly reccomend! Service was very welcoming and we were made to feel at home.

The server gave us plenty of reccomendations for good popular in Cologne. Before we ordered mains he reccomended we try the Mettbrötchen which is a traditional German dish comprised of raw pork on bread, sometimes topped with onions or something else. I've never had raw meat before... And would never usually order it.. But I was pleasantly surprised with the dish and it was fun to try something new; I was glad he reccomended it.

Mains were great; highly recommend the mussels!

At the end of the meal some staff helped us out with reccomendations of where to visit in Cologne. Check this place out..! Amazing friendly service, and very good food for...

We went here based on the ratings for a local Cologne experience but left a bit disappointed. I was really looking forward to the mussels but they did not have them since it was not in season. We went in June.

Instead we got the blood sausage and schnitzel and also the raw pork starter. The Mettbrötchen came shortly and was good. We waited over an hour for the mains and with no acknowledgement for the wait. This was around 9pm on a Saturday night, busy but not packed.

The food was nothing spectacular but there was a piece of foil in my apple sauce (assuming it’s from the packaging). I notified the server after we paid, as it wasn’t a huge bother. He notified the chef who happened to be in passing. Again, no acknowledgement from either of them. Maybe this is the norm here, I...