Keule — Restaurant in Cologne

God forbid there will be an anonymous Michelin inspector who was there. (Although some restaurant don’t aim for the guide or stars).

On 10th December 2022, my husband and I, along with my brother in-laws and his child visited Keule. Since we didn’t have reservation, we were told by the lady (who was wearing yellow shirt in the team-picture on their website) who was tending the reservation list, we can dine but only for 1hour and a half. We said okay, that’ll do.

She then took us to the table of 8. We were confused why we were assigned to a table of 8 while we’re only 4. Then we saw the reservation that was meant for that table was bailed out. Their English menu only available on the website so we need to read that with slow internet connection. Before we made an order, the same lady came and said sorry she had misplaced us. So we had to move to another table. That’s fine. Then we were looking for the waitress/waiter to order there’re not around. The same lady came again this time furiously asked us to get out from the restaurant because it’s taking so long for us to order. We told her we wanted to order the pork knuckle, she said it’s gonna be too long. No time to serve. Okay then we asked for 3 Rösti with fried knuckle meat, mustard cream, braised onions and coleslaw, and 1 Schnitzel "Vienna style" with mushroom cream sauce and Belgian French fries. 1 pinot grigio 1 cola 1 tea and 1 water. Somehow, the lady was mad and said we cannot order just 2 food and 2 drinks (with anger).

We were confused because we wanted 4 food and 4 drinks. We explained again. In English and slowly. She still insisted us to get out of the restaurant with no apology nor solution.

We can understand that was a busy period. But it could’ve been more professional if they’d said “no, sorry, no table available” rather than being treated like that. We could looked for other restaurants because the child was already expecting the rösti.

Then we decided to just write it here, because there was no chance of discussing it on the spot. She looked away and tending to the line.

It was a pity if horeca business which has good reviews on the food but the service drags it down. Keulen has been a welcoming city for us and we had never been treated like that in any restaurants in Keulen.

I hope in the future there will be an improvement on communication and customer service.

We had a good time in Keulen and the next day my family and I had an astonishing lunch experience at Gilden im Zims. Will write a separate review on their Google Account separately (with photo and...

We were in this place a year ago and I rated with 4 and 5 stars. Unfortunately, the experience yesterday was completely different and it's the first time that after being seated and during the ordering, we stand up and leave the place. This is why: We entered the restaurant (party of 3) and were seated. The waiter forgot to leave the menus. After seeing other tables receiving them when seated and waiting some minutes I stood up and grabbed them from a nearby table (the guests had left without ordering, by the way) When the waiter came to take the order, I started to talk about my son's allergies and tried to display his allergies card. I was not able to finish my sentence. The waiter mumbled something and left to pick up something from another table. My wife and I looked at each other confused. A few seconds later the same waiter came back. I tried to show the allergies card which I have translated in the local language and asked him to recommend what my son could have. Without looking at the card, interrupting me continuously and very roughly he pointed at the part of the menu that contained the allergens and left again. This contrasts with our visit a year ago when another waiter, in spite of the language barrier, was able to point from the menu what options were safe based on my son's needs. With that attitude, we were not willing to spend more time in a restaurant that clearly was not welcoming us. It's Cologne, there are plenty of options and we had a delicious meal 50 meters down the street. They probably don't care since they are...

I had a couple of beers and their extremely large portion of pork knuckle with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut.  The food was quite delicious and one portion could've fed two to three people! The sauerkraut really stood out, as it also contained bits of bacon in it.  I generally don't like sauerkraut, but theirs was quite outstanding.  The pork knuckle had crispy skin and tender meat.  The only thing I would've changed is to have them season the meat.  But I guess that's what the brown sauce is for, to add flavor to the meat. Big credit goes to the two ladies who helped me with my order.  Since I don't speak German and their English was passable, they helped me order my food and drinks.  I appreciated that they were attentive in their service, because most places I went to in Cologne, the staff just ignored you.  Wish I could come back...