Brauhaus FRÜH am Dom — Restaurant in Cologne

TLDR: Horrible experience. Don’t visit.

Visited this brew house on our last night in Germany. After we sat down, before we received the menu, two glasses of Kolsch was placed on our table (for my wife and I) by a waiter and he walked off without saying anything.

I remember reading about how the “traditions” of brew houses in Cologne involved the servers replenishing your Kolsch non-stop until you put a coaster over your glass. So I thought the brew house was just practicing their customs (though the servers in other brew houses in cologne always asked me for my drinks order before serving the kolsch) and I kept mum about it. Anyway, I was going to order their Kolsch. And to be fair, their Kolsch is pretty good.

But it was rather… weird after I noticed that other tables’ guests had waiters attending to them and asking them for their orders before bringing them drinks.

We ordered Sauerbraten, a dish of marinated roast beef for myself Potato soup for my wife

The Sauerbraten was to come with pickled red cabbage and potato dumplings. But I realised I wasn’t into German potato dumplings from previous meals so I requested to change to fried potato. They were gracious enough to entertain my request.

However, the Sauerbraten was poorly done. It was tough and dry despite the presence of plenty of gravy. My wife and I took merely two mouthfuls of it and decided it was enough. The pickled red cabbage was overly sweet (but sure, maybe some people like it really really sweet). The fried potatoes were fried well, only that it was unevenly seasoned. A mouthful might taste decent with the next mouthful too salty and the following too bland (sure, we can go along with the law of average)

The potato soup was… simply bland. It was thick with cream/starch but there was hardly any flavours. Still, one can add enough salt and black pepper on the table. I wouldn’t give a 1 star review for that.

During the service, our servers were seemingly grumpy. When one of them was to place our plate of sauerbraten and soup on the table, he literally placed the plate onto my left hand on the table without warning and I had to quickly withdraw my hand from the table so that the plates can be let down.

After taking a few mouths of our food, we thought that’s enough for the night and we would rather pick up a sandwich on our way back to the hotel. So we asked for the bill.

When the server came and saw the food on the table, he didn’t raise a question about the food (which we didn’t expect him to honestly. But just highlighting this to let you guys know that he didn’t bother much about us and the importance of the next point). I asked for payment in cash (so as to spend my remaining cash Euros)

When the check was presented, I saw a bill of $31.80 (as seen in the receipt). I took out a $50 note and a $2 coin for the bill expecting $20 in change.

Now, I did understand that while tipping ain’t common in Germany, everyone welcomes more money. My experience in Germany so far: the waiter might ASK you if you like his service and hint for tips (no biggie. What’s there to lose by asking?) the waiter might round up the bill to the nearest dollar and keep the pocket change the waiter might simply return you the exact change and you can then decide if u want to tip or not

But for this case… after passing the waiter $52 for a bill of $31.80, he took out a $5 note then put on the table and asked “enough?”

$15 tip on a $31.80 bill? For the worst meal we had over 2 weeks in Germany?? For service that was non-existent? And for the way the tip was asked for???

I said “no”. The server took out another 2x $5 bill and asked me again if it was enough. When I said “no”, he asked how much did I want back then. I said “$20”. He then said he needed to go get change for it.

He did go and get the change and returned me a $20 note. After the exchange, I looked at the receipt again. There was a “tip” component that was at $3.10. Maybe they had “expectations”. But to ask for a $15 tip on a $32 bill this way? It was ugly. 0...

Sweet Beer, Bitter Experience

After dozens of recent trips across Europe, this is the first restaurant where I’ve felt a clear attempt to scam me and judging by other reviews, it seems to be a common issue here.

The food was mediocre at best. During our family meal, one portion of French fries was served stone cold. (First time I've been served a cold main meal in my life , I thought it was a myth!) The fries were eventually replaced, but it took longer than expected, and there was no apology or goodwill gesture while the rest of my family finished their meal.

When it came time to pay, things got even more suspicious. No receipt was provided just a total amount of around €80. I thought this was odd, so after paying by card, I mentally added up our order from the menu and estimated the total should have been closer to €70. I approached the waiter, who was lingering at the front of the restaurant, and asked for a proper bill. After about five minutes, he returned to our table and said there had been a “mix-up.”

He claimed some extra charges were accidentally added because the food had been cold and he had forgotten to remove them. Conveniently, the “extra charge” was labelled as a tip of €7.30. I demanded a refund, which he reluctantly gave, but he wouldn’t let me keep the receipt or even touch it. As soon as the money was returned, he quickly disappeared with the copy of the bill.

It now seems clear that when customers complain the management are asking for names or details from the receipt and in turn the servers are actively not providing receipts, possibly to avoid accountability when these “accidental” tip charges happen. I’m happy to tip for good service but in this case, our plates weren’t even cleared 20 minutes after finishing our main course and still remained on our table when we left, and no one asked if we wanted dessert or more drinks. It was one of the worst service experiences I’ve had in Europe, and certainly the worst in Germany.

For such an iconic location, this place is a major letdown. Judging by other Google reviews, the tip and bill scamming appears to be widespread here. What a shameful experience for tourists and visitors.

People of Germany you should be ashamed of this place!

Update, management has requested details however I believe this will be lip service; Saturday, 14 June 2025. 18:16 Amount: -€80.80

We were sat up the steps, back left in the very corner of the restaurant near the tree, the servers watch is in my photo, we had 4 bears as well as three main...

It is not safe to go to Brauhaus Fruh unless you carry a local with you, because before long and without proper guidance you risk finding yourself hopelessly drunk and confused. Brauhaus Fruh is not a bar but a game, and it is unwise to play unless you know the rules. I was lucky that I went here with my good friend Michael (a local) who promised me a 'proper German beer drinking experience'. The fact that we attended this glorious watering hole whilst also trying to make a connection between two trains is testament to his daring nature and the exceptional organisational skills of this man. Obviously, I was all in. Here are the rules: There is no drinks menu, you just drink beer: 'the beer' 'The Beer' keeps coming whether you have asked for it or not 'The Beer' comes in tiny mustard glasses, there are no pints or other measures If your glass is less than half full then you will automatically get given an another one and made to drink it This drinking madness does not stop once it has begun To indicate that you are capitulating, you must put your beer mat on top of your glass That last point is probably the most important. You should not go to Brauhaus unless you know how to make it stop. The alternative is that you will be carried out of there on a stretcher. Brauhaus is the full throttle German beer house experience. It's an absolute hoot. The waiters speak good English and will stop you from getting into too much trouble. They will also offer you delicious food to help soak up the extraordinary amounts of 'The Beer' that you end up ingurgitating. Their beer is truly excellent, and it goes down very easily. Behind the somewhat diminutive entrance, past the unappealing terrace, lies a huge cavernous series of beautifully wood-paneled rooms. The deeper you go inside the building, the better it gets. This is an old world beer hall of the highest order. If you ever find yourself in Koln with a couple of hours to kill and you want to have a story to tell when you get home, then this is the place to go. New proverb for life: 'When in Germany, drink beer and carry a Michael'. For the record, Michael and I made our train connections that...