Café Gallery 4 - Specialty Coffee & Community in Köln Rathenauviertel nähe Belgisches Viertel — Restaurant in Cologne

Edit: just opening and someone left a recent review? So that means it's completely possible for me to have visited the place, right? Weird, seems like you are trying to discredit me instead of taking a bad review seriously. And also don't understand your 3 year/1 year/6 months old reviews. But let me share more details to others: I approached the counter to order and there were 3 of you there doing something at the espresso machine. One asked if I knew about specialty coffee or wanted to know about it, to which I politely replied that there was no need since I have knowledge on the subject and that’s why I was visiting. Your reply was filled with an attitude "ok, so you know everything" and left. After this I stood there for like 5 minutes at the counter waiting to order, while one barista was overworked, but apparently others could not take my order. That was a bad start. I waited a long time even after ordering, and the place was almost empty. My flat white was disappointing. It had a very very strong roasted flavor, and this is actually mentioned in someone else's review as well. Unfortunately it was absurdly hot, to the point that it was not possible to hold the glass. Clear sign that the milk was frothed to a way higher temperature than it should. I still bought some beans to bring home, but upon opening them I realized that they were just too dark, too roasted - even for a dark roast. I have been trying to dial it up with different methods and variables at home, but all I got was that "too roasted for comfort" taste. Hope this clears any doubts about my "can't be a recent...

Gallery 4 isn’t just a café. It’s a portal. You walk in for caffeine and somehow leave with a tote bag, a new personality, and a burning desire to launch a zine.

The coffee? Violently good. Like, file-a-police-report good. My flat white tasted like it was filtered through angel tears and roasted by a philosophy major with unresolved parental issues ... just how I like it.

The vibe is aggressively curated. Every chair screams “I was thrifted for irony,” and the plants look better moisturized than I am. One guy was sipping espresso while sketching sad girls on a Moleskine. Another typed "capitalism is a prison" into a MacBook Pro that costs more than my rent. Iconic !!

Baristas? Beautiful. Mysterious. I tried to make small talk and they hit me with a nod so powerful I questioned my social skills for the next 48 hours. I loved it.

Also, shoutout to the playlist. I don’t know what genre it was ... probably something like “Nordic techno-folk for emotionally unavailable creatives” ... but it slapped.

Final verdict: If you’re in Köln and not at Gallery 4, are you even in Köln? Come for the coffee, stay because you're too embarrassed to leave after...

In my 3 days in Cologne, I tried 7 specialty coffee shops.

Tied for 1st: Meramanis and Cafe Gallery 4 Cafe Gallery 4 had some amazing and truly unique beans available for hand brew. I went with the Ron Oscura, beans that had been fermented in rum barrels. The smell was powerful, but the taste was appropriately subtle.

Here are my rankings and my notes for anyone looking for pour over, third wave, or hand brew while in Cologne.

Tied for 1st: Meramanis and Cafe Gallery 4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3rd: Zwookaffee ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4th: Coffee Gang ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5th: Wiewaldi ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 6th: Cafe Kogi ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 7th:...