XIAO Köln — Restaurant in Cologne

Affordable Buffet but Disappointing Food

We found this all-you-can-eat Chinese restaurant online, which has multiple locations across NRW. Their weekday lunch buffet costs only €14.90 per person (excluding drinks)—a relatively cheap price considering the variety of food and the upscale environment.

We visited the Cologne branch, as our train was departing from there. The restaurant is about 10 minutes from the main train station by tram, requiring a transfer.

Ambience & Service - The restaurant is spacious, clean, and elegantly designed. We were seated quickly, and a waitress attended to us. However, she informed us that ordering drinks was mandatory, even though this was not stated anywhere on the menu. The drink prices were overpriced, so we reluctantly ordered a glass of juice and left no tip.

Food Quality - The buffet offers a wide selection, including sushi, salads, Asian dishes, desserts, seafood, and vegetables for teppanyaki. Unfortunately, the Asian dishes were disappointing—they all tasted similar and did not reflect authentic Asian flavors. The Sichuan prawn dish barely contained any prawns, and the teriyaki noodles were undercooked and overly salty.

For teppanyaki, they do not offer salmon—instead, they serve tilapia, redfish, and pangasius. The teppanyaki itself was average.

The Positive Side - The desserts were a highlight, especially the pandan cake. They also offer a good selection of fruits, including papaya, which was a nice surprise.

Final Thoughts - While the price and variety seem appealing, the quality of the food—especially the Asian dishes—was disappointing. The mandatory drink policy and overpriced beverages were also a letdown. However, if you’re mainly visiting for quantity over quality, it might still be...

It’s nice place with good quality ingredients and beautiful looking dishes but most of the don’t taste how they should.

The pricing is good for the centre of the city but there are other all you can eat options that are more enjoyable for me.

The restaurant over all has modern and nice interior with nice and engaging staff I could imagine my self going there with some friends and enjoy a nice evening.

The food looks beautiful but taste very European , sweet and nothing is really spicy the spiciest food is the kimchi even dishes that should be spicy are not. I really didn’t enjoy the food because everything was very sweet.

There was mainly Asian cuisine, but also Italian stuff that is okay because when you’re in a group, not everyone likes Asian food the dessert I was nice with a chocolate fountain that’s really unique.

They have a big station to take fresh ingredients and they prepare it for you. They also offer a big variation of spice mixes I chose the shishuan style but it didn’t taste like it’s no spice and no Sishan pepper aroma.

The only dishes that I enjoyed wear sushi and Teriyaki lamp rips, the sushi is okay for all you can eat standards that are not mainly based on sushi the lamp rips supposed to be sweet so it was enjoyable.

I will not visit again because I don’t like the food at all it’s a good place for people how never...

I want to share my impression of visiting this place. I’m giving one star only because one of the waitresses who served our drinks and handled the payment was very sweet — just like the drinks themselves. But as for everything else — the sushi was awful! The fish quality was poor, the rice was tasteless, and the combination of vegetables and sauces was terrible.

Moreover, our grill orders were mixed up twice. The first time, they brought the wrong sauce for the seafood. The second time, instead of the two different plates I had carefully prepared myself, they brought one plate with completely different contents. This couldn’t have been my mistake, because I personally put together both of my plates and clearly remember what I chose.

At the table next to us, orders were also mixed up, but the staff at least explained the situation to the couple and apologized. Meanwhile, my plate was simply taken away without a word.

And finally… I just want to say that the churro on my plate could have been used either as a hammer or a nail — I couldn’t cut it, break it, or bite into it. That’s absolutely not acceptable.

Unfortunately, our table didn’t enjoy the visit to Xiao, and I will never recommend this...