HELLERS Brauhaus — Restaurant in Cologne

Hellers is a cozy brewpub that occupies the ground level of a 5-story brick building. In front is their large red sign over the entrance. Above the wooden doors are small wooden barrels and on both sides are crates of bottled beer. Here you can find a good variety of beer. Of course, in the Koln way, their flagship beer is a Kolsch served in a small 200mL glass. It is decent, but I preferred their other two wheat beers which were on tap. They also have 4 varieties of the beers in bottles, making for a nice variety. Interestingly, for groups, they also serve their draft beer in meter-long wooden trays that hold 11 beers, a novelty. When you enter the place initially feels small, with an 8-chair wood bar on the left and a few high top tables on the right. But on the right and further back on a mezzanine level are their dining rooms which have plenty of tables. And there is a covered interior conservatory garden that has many more tables surrounded by lush greenery. For an outdoors experience, they have a 2nd location Biergarten in the park a few blocks away. Behind the bar are mirror backed shelves of glassware. Overhead are hanging wooden trays and a strange bronze statue of a squatting man pulling down his pants, something of a mascot for them. The walls are yellow with brewery themed decorations. The staff is welcoming and wants you to feel at home. They are prompt to serve beers and answer any questions, but please note they are cash-only. Like other places in Koln they will keep bringing beer refills until you tell them to stop (or put your coaster over your glass). Near the bar is a really nice pamphlet that briefly describes the brewery that opened in 1991 and their beers. The brewhouse can actually be seen through windows in the dining room. Outside is a small courtyard where brewing supplies and bottles are stacked. Windows on the other side showcase their wood jacketed copper brewing vessels. It is not a huge operation but they are proud of their good organic beers. The brewpub has a full menu of German cuisine and the food is very well prepared. The place wasn't very crowded when I visited, making for a relaxing atmosphere. It is a charming brewpub worth a visit for a...

Terrible costumer service, the worst one I have ever experience so far in Germany after 2 + years living here. Some of the bar tenders were really rude, the lady that served our drinks was busy (actually she was the only friendly employee there), we wait in our table to paid for longer than 10 min, then we decided to go to the cashier and pay there, after asking and waiting for other 5 to 10 min, we ask again if we could please pay our bill and we were told :"go there and find your bar tender".....in a very rude way, apparently they " could not " process the bill themselves nor could go to find the person that first served our drinks...or could not use at least a "please" or "bitte"........amazing! then I went to find the our bartender, she was sitting on a chair making some numbers, so I payed to her and when I was about to leave another bar tender only then urged himself to go and ask to the bar tender if I have truly payed or not......if you are visiting Cologne, you just have too many other places with better...

I usually pride myself on my ability to eat large portions of food, but I'm deadly serious when I say that this restaurant put my stomach to the test. The portions were absolutely massive! It's no surprise they charge €17.50 for Pork Knuckle, Fried Potatoes and Sauerkraut. The pork knuckle was very juicy and had an abundance of tasty crackling. However, there was also surprisingly so much fat in it. I thought the Sauerkraut was tasty but the fried potatoes were ridiculously over salted, to the point where I couldn't finish them. The atmosphere was great- people were laughing and drinking all evening. The service was slow at times but usually okay; the server made up for it by being absolutely lovely and eccentric. Overall the restaurant is well decorated and nice, the food is pretty good and the waiters are enthusiastic and clearly...