Cologne, Germany + Add a trip

Sixpack

Bad name for a very decent bar in Cologne: nice flock of hipsters, lots of bottled beers and good DJs.

Campi im Funkhaus

Italian café and restaurant with gorgeous late 1950s interior. Very close to the Dome and the central train station.

Barracuda Bar

Cologne's coolest Bar. Somewhere between nerdy, trendy and fucked up.

Music: Cologne Style Minimal, Electronic and Tech House, Sometimes Disco or Hip Hop.

Schnitzel at "Oma Kleinmann"

If travelling makes you hungry, visit "Oma Kleinmann" (Grandma Kleinmann). She (or her cook) will serve you gigantic cutlets. Make sure you booked seats or, in summer, spontaneously choose a table outside.

Stylish retaurant / lounge: Fischermanns' @ APROPOS

Located inside APROPOS COELN, a trendy concept store featuring fashion stores, a beauty salon and a gallery, is Fishermann's restaurant with indoor seating as well as a beautiful patio offering delicious food as well as great drinks (try their wines with the great dessert choices). For menu see here: http://www.apropos-coeln.de/restaurant/restaurant.htm

Bistro / Bar / Lounge at Rhine River: Kap am Südkai

Beautifully located in the south of the city center along the Rhine river lies this nice bistro with outdoor seeting to take in the sunshine on a beautiful day.

Big China

Just round the corner from the Hauptbahnhof and grandiosely furnished... looks like it should be a tourist trap but is actually great food and excellent value (and frequented by lots of Chinese people, which is always a good sign).

"Schweine Haxe/knuckle of pork" in Früh brewery is really awesome!!!

Classic Cologne Cuisine. Try Spiessbraten and Klösse.

A nice French restaurant with friendly professional staff. Great salads and tarte flambées.

A place to see and bee seen. Enjoy a decent coffee and sloppy service from a hipster dufus. Has a T-Mobile wifi hotspot, shoddy T1 EDGE/3G reception inside. A decent place to bring your notebook to do some work, meet up to discuss your next startup.

This place is unique in cologne and probably in Germany. Try the "Cag Kebab", marinated lamb grilled on a very large horizont spit over real charcoal. You can watch the cook cutting slices from the large spit, putting them on a little spit, which he puts on the grill again. The waiters are exceptionally nice, which makes this a five star tip for a meal.

Great local restaurant. Good choice of meat and fish dishes in a modern style.

It's a small, hidden downstairs cocktail bar

Päffgen at friesenstraße!!! highly recommended!

Incredibly stylish and cute place to be at. The cupcakes are just as awesome as the Oreo-Milkshake for example. A bit overpriced maybe, but as long as you're just going for a snack and not for lunch, this shouldn't be a problem ;)

Very nice hotel with stylish interior. Be sure to like yellow color or explicitly order a room with white glass windows. The yellow greenish coloring of windows in some of the rooms leads to a kind of psychadelic mood. Besides that nice rooms and pictures at the walls. Major drawback: our bathroom had only toilet and shower, the washing basin was in the room outside the bathroom.

It took quite some time for the food to arrive (after it took quite some time for them to take our order), but the food itself was worth it. Excellent food for a good price.

Little, very charming café, good food (they are famous for their "blini", a sort of Russian pancakes). Also, most of the guests seem to be creative, innovative people, it's quite an interesting and inspiring place.

If you're looking for real Turkish cuisine, you must try tantuni, a specialty from Mersin, South-East of Turkey. Also, their şiş kebabı are perfect, tasty, and they are not expensive.