Brauerei Pfaffen — Restaurant in Cologne

Absolutely a terrible atmosphere in this place all run by rude men waiters who think they are above the customers. We arrived having passed it on the street and thought we’d give it a try. We were given a table by the main front entrance and noted a few others at tables. We were there quite a while and no menu was offered or were we asked to buy a drink so we managed to get the waiters attention passing who replied ohhh your eating? Lol. We were given the small traditional beers and not offered any kind of drinks list or food menu so we took a food menu off another table. Eventually they took our order abruptly. I felt odd in this place like they didn’t want our custom. Then a huge group of roaming tourists came in with a loud tour guide shouting about the history of the place and we were drowned out so I asked the main waiter (yes the very rude 1) if we could move tables to the rear dining area. He replied no it’s closed back there (noted it had people at tables already eating at the time).it was open. I must point out he did all he could to avoid any kind of customer service and continued to chat to a man he knew. We were about to get up and leave but we’d had 2 beers and the food was ordered then after about 5 minutes when it suited him he said do you want to move 2 tables down we took the offer and moved ourselves no help from the waiters. The food arrived and was ok and it’s a shame the waiters and man managing this place have no idea how to treat customers and only want to take tourists money as they know they will never return again. Ordering a glass of wine was hilarious they only have 1 wine to offer. At the end another rude waiter took our payment and yes wait for it only cash lol. I paid him and he did all he could to delay giving me my cash change. No payment receipt was offered. As you can imagine their tip was zero. Never again awful place those waiters have no idea. Fawlty Towers of Cologne.

Dennis &...

I think you should not be charged for using a toilet if you are a customer… and if you are asked if you can pay with a card, you should mention limits you set right away….

We came here to get away from busy Christmas market streets. I asked in german whether cad payment is ok here and staff told all is good with that. We got 4 beers and asked for a bill. Only then staff started explaining how you should spend at least 30eur before you can pay with the card. I said I asked you beforehand to make sure we can pay (we had no cash) and you did not mention any limits. They also are not written anywhere. But staff just said this is how we do it here and you can pay extra 5 eur if you want to pay with card for your bill.

My husband went to withdraw cash to avoid these arbitrary additions, and meanwhile I tried to use the bathroom. There is a lady standing there in the way taking money from everyone who comes in. I did not have any coins and asked if this is compulsory and she said yes. I returned and asked staff - they also said yes.

An answer “This is how we do it here” is great, but should you keep doing that just because this is how it has always been? Should you underpay your cleaning staff so bad that customers of the restaurant need pay her salary separately? Should you not allow card payment unless it’s 30 euros and then say if you want to pay by card it’s extra 5eur?

Leaving these 2 stars here as I do not respect the way you do your business(the beer was good, so 2 stars). If you have a card payment limit-then say it beforehand, and make a sign that says that we don’t pay our cleaners here - you as a customer have pay their salary. Then expectations are set right and people will know what they are dealing with beforehand - no confusion, easy-peasy :)

If everything above did go right, it’s actually a nice brewery with fast workers, good atmosphere and good beer. What a shame though that this is not the comment I am leaving...

Brewery Pfaffen—dang was that fun!

First things first: I went there with my partner who’s from NYC and my two best friends from New Zealand and London. We all live in Berlin and got sick and tired of a city filled with grumpy and moody people who all feel like they’re alone in the world and don’t need to mind their surroundings. So we wanted to explore areas where we believed people are fun and friendly, warm and welcoming and made it to the Rhine area.

The brewery is such a neat establishment! The front is a small and beautiful facade. The inside has partially colored glass windows and loads of dark wood worked into the whole place—tables, walls, ceiling, bar. There’s loads of neat little accessories like metal poles—to help you keep your balance if you had a Kölsch or two too many—or the “Pfaffen” (sort of a guard/watchman) carved out of wood.

In the end we sat down outside in sort of a publicly accessible backyard with a cute little fountain covered by a huge tree spending shade. This was also a plus because walking tours stopped there and we got a little Cologne history lesson for free with our stay.

The “Köbes” (waiter) was so friendly, fun and chatty and really made our day! His service wasn’t the best, it took him some time to serve us beers and believe me when I say those 0.2 glasses of Kölsch are empty faster than you think. But he definitely made up for this by being the nicest and funniest waiter we had for a very long time!

The food … hm … the food was great! We had the Cordon Bleau, the Ravioli and Spätzle. None of these dishes are the very classics for a Cologne brewery unlike Haxe (grilled pork knuckle) or stuff like this. But the kitchen did an amazing job (except the side salad was drowning in dressing and none of us really touched it…). So much taste and everything on point.

Overall it was a really great experience and I can honestly recommend to check out this place for lunch, beers and good...