Reviews

(Translated by Google) We were there with friends, 4 adults and 3 children. Service was cheerful and friendly and we had a lot of fun eating. Ordered 8 dishes and all were very tasty. Kung Pao chicken, pointed cabbage with glass noodles, spicy fried eggplant, Sichuan tofu, fried cauliflower, lotus root with honey, cucumber salad and a dish with noodles and beef. All highly recommended. If you are looking for an authentic (Sichuan) Chinese restaurant in Cologne, I can fully recommend Höfchen. (Original) Wir waren mit Freunden dort, 4 Erwachsene und 3 Kinder. Service war gut gelaunt und freundlich und wir hatten viel Spaß beim Essen. 8 Gerichte bestellt und alle sehr lecker. Kung Pao Hähchen, Spitzkohl mit Glasnudeln, scharfe, gebratene Aubergine, Sichuan Tofu, gebratenen Blumenkohl, Lotuswurzel mit Honig, Gurkensalat und ein Gericht mit Nudeln und Rindfleisch. Alle sehr empfehlenswert. Wenn man in Köln ein authentisches (Sichuan-) chinesisches Restaurant sucht, kann ich Höfchen vollumfänglich empfehlen.

(Translated by Google) At first it seems quite expensive, but it is worth the price! I had the beef in chili oil and at first thought that €20 would be a lot, but this dish is easily enough for four people! Anyone who manages to eat everything alone has probably consumed over 4000 kcal. Of course it's designed for chopsticks, so there's a lot of oil left over, but that would be a shame, so I took my huge leftover with me :) It's spicy - but very pleasant in the mouth, but scratchy in the throat and throat - had to cough a bit. My more European stomach doesn't tolerate the whole thing very well. But I also certainly chose the most intolerable dish. But for me that is a feature of authenticity. It tastes very balanced, spicy, umami and well prepared. I've been looking for an authentic Chinese restaurant for a long time and finally found it. The only stupid thing is that I was alone and couldn't try everything. I'd be happy to come back with several people and catch up on that. Absolute recommendation for food lovers who want to try real Chinese cuisine. (Original) Zunächst erscheint es vermeintlich recht teuer, aber es ist den Preis wert! Ich hatte das Rindfleisch in Chiliöl und dachte zuerst, dass 20€ relativ viel wären, doch dieses Gericht reicht locker für vier Personen! Wer es schafft, alles alleine zu essen, hat vermutlich über 4000 kcal zu sich genommen. Natürlich ist es für Stäbchen ausgelegt, sodass eine Menge Öl überbleibt, was aber schade wäre, ich habe deshalb meinen enormen Rest mitgenommen :) Es ist scharf – aber sehr angenehm im Mund, aber kratzend im Rachen und Hals - musste etwas husten. Mein eher europäisch geprägter Magen verträgt das ganze nicht so gut. Ich habe aber auch sicherlich das unverträglichste Gericht gewählt. Das ist für mich aber ein Merkmal der Authentizität. Es schmeckt sehr ausgewogen würzig, umami und gut zubereitet. Ich habe lange nach einem authentischen chinesischen Restaurant gesucht un es endlich gefunden. Das einzig doofe ist, dass ich allein war und nicht alles probieren konnte. Ich komme gerne mit mehreren Personen wieder und hole das nach. Absolute Empfehlung für Food-Lovers, die echte chinesische Küche testen wollen.

This is one of the best Sichuan restaurants that I can find in Europe 💓 The food is so authentic and to die for. Spicy chicken and twice cooked pork are top notch! You have to try the pork hock in spicy chilly oil, it’s a cold dish and it’s my favorite. Their desserts are very nice as well, all are my favorite 🤤 Their service is pretty good as long as you don’t have high expectations. 😉 In my experience, Chinese restaurants always have similar level of service. They are not talkative or they may seem to not care much. But they are focusing on what they are doing. As long as they don’t disrespect me, I honestly think that is authentic experience if you dine in Chinese restaurant. 😆 For all of these people who complained about service. In Chinese restaurant, if the service is good, there are 2 scenarios: either the food sucks, or it’ll be very expensive. I’ve been to a very good Sichuan restaurant in Amsterdam and it’s much more expensive than here but you get 5* service 😃 And for people who complained about the amount of oil they use, please google Sichuan food and see how they actually cook their food. 🥹 I do agree that their consistency is a little off. I’ve been here around 7-8 times and sometimes the seasoning is less on point than the other. Overall, the food is still good 👍🏻 I am Vietnamese but I love Sichuan food. I’ve trying so many Sichuan restaurants in the US and Eu and we have Sichuan friends too, they often explained to me how the food should taste like so I’m pretty confident with Sichuan cuisine 😆

The best Sichuan restaurant in Cologne. Recommended dishes are Fish in chilli oil, Aubergine and beans, cold mushroom salad and all of the wok options.

(Translated by Google) Really excellent Chinese food in Cologne. But the soda didn't have much flavor, and the big bottle of stillwasser was delivered and had already been opened? (Original) 在科隆真的是很優秀的中餐。但汽水沒啥氣，stillwasser大瓶子送上來已經開過了？

TL;DR Höchfen is a really nice Sichuan restaurant in the heart of Köln with efficient servers and great food. Sichuan food is a bit different from what you are used to, so be sure to prepare to be surprised and delighted by what they can cook up. I highly recommend their Bowl Tea and Sichuan Haxen, but for a beginner's main course I would actually recommend Rindfleisch in Chiliöl which is my favourite dish of all time. Hönchen was, together with Hana's on the other side, one of the two restaurants that I really wanted to visit since I moved to Köln at the start of February. It located at the Barbarossaplatz and is a bit tucked in the corner. The restaurant specializes in Sichuan food, which is a kitchen which is very near and dear to my heart, since it is something that I make for myself whenever I can. Since this was my first time at an authentic Sichuan restaurant, I was very excited to see how those dishes are supposed to taste like. I went alone on a Saturday night at around 21, the restaurant was mostly empty when I arrived. I was given a table near the front next to a lovely group of Chinese women enjoying a nice night eating outdoors. They were wrapping up and asked the waiters whether they could take their leftovers home with them, which the waiters happily obliged. The restaurant uses a QR system to order, and the food arrives whenever the kitchen is done with it. There is a large selection of different dishes, including some good specialities and dishes that are authentically Chinese. In their culture, texture plays a much more important role than in Western food, so they eat parts of animals which are common here. Some examples to look out for are Cow's stomach and Duck's Blood, which feature fascinating and unique textures. I ordered the Sichuan Pickled Vegetables as an entrée and 东坡肘子 (Dong Po Pig's Knuckle) with rice. As a drink, I ordered the Bowl tea, which I had no idea what it was. My entrée was okay and nothing to really write home about. It was nice to have some vegetables, and they had a good crunch, but pickled greens remain pickled greens. The Pig's Knuckle on the other hand was a beautiful, large piece of meat that even impressed the ladies next to me, who looked with a certain jealousy at my main course. It tasted as good as it looked with the meat almost falling off from the bone and had a really tender texture. The dish was spicy, but not overwhelmingly so, and all the flavours were balanced nicely. The sauce paired nicely with the rice, and I had to resist my urge to eat all of it with my spoon. The portion was more than generous, and I could see myself eating this easily with one extra person and still feeling full afterwards Tea is always my indication of restaurant quality, since it is something that it is really easy to cut corners to make some easy money. What I am looking for is restaurants that really try to offer the whole experience, and Höchfen delivered this to a T. I was given a China cup with a bunch of flowers in it with a small plate and a massive jug of tea. After calling a quick helpline in the form of Chinese friends, who first spent five minutes laughing at me for drinking old man tea, I figured out that you put the plate over the cup so that there is a small slit left over that the water can come out of. They were not at all skimpy with the water, so I actually had to spend ten minutes on top of my meal to actually finish all the water. In conclusion, Höchfen is a great Sichuan restaurant that offers high quality food for relatively affordable prices. Chinese food is typically to share, which is reflected in the generous portion sizes. The restaurant offers a masterclass in how you serve tea to your customers, and I was sad that I didn't have time to have their Sticky Rice with Bean Paste dessert, since that looked delicious. I cannot wait to come back to have the Chengdu Fondue and experience more of this great kitchen.

(Translated by Google) The food here is very authentic. The card can be scanned using a QR code and the Chinese name is included with the dishes. There are also dishes that you cannot find in other Chinese restaurants (they are adapted to us Europeans), such as: Pig feet (which my husband (Croatian) also likes to eat sometimes). Not as adventurous as my husband, I got the pineapple fried chicken - it was some of the best chicken I've ever eaten! The sweet and sour sauce was also very creamy and not as runny as usual - very aromatic!!! I can highly recommend the restaurant :)! (Original) Das Essen hier ist sehr authentisch. Die Karte kann per QR-Code gescannt werden und die chinesische Bezeichnung steht bei den Gerichten dabei. Es gibt auch Gerichte, die man in anderen chinesischen Restaurants nicht findet (da halt an uns Europäer angepasst), wie z.b. Schweinefüße (die mein Mann (Kroate) z.b. auch gerne Mal isst). Ich bin nicht ganz so experimentierfreudig wie mein Mann und habe mir das frittierte Hühnchen mit Ananas geholt - das war eines der besten Hühnchen, die ich je gegessen habe! Auch die Süßsauer-Soße war sehr sämig und nicht so dünnflüssig, wie man sie sonst kennt - sehr aromatisch!!! Ich kann das Restaurant sehr empfehlen :)!

(Translated by Google) Super friendly staff. The place was recommended to me by a Chinese woman as the authentic and best Chinese restaurant in Cologne. I can't say whether that's the case, but the food is excellent. Anyway, the best Chinese food I've ever had. And the portions are huge. Definitely come back. (Original) Super freundliches Personal. Der Ort wurde mir von einer Chinesin empfohlen als authentischtes und bestes chinesisches Restaurant in Köln. Ob das so ist, kann ich nicht beurteilen, aber das Essen ist hervorragend. Jedenfalls das beste chinesische Essen, das ich je hatte. Und die Portionen sind riesig. Komme auf jeden Fall wieder.

(Translated by Google) It's really really really really delicious It's a restaurant where you can't measure the bag strap, and the stir-fried eggplant has more tripe than vegetables. The stir-fried eggplant is just heavenly. I'm looking forward to the future and thinking about trying all the menu items here🫶 (Original) 진짜 진짜 진짜 진짜 맛있어요 곱창볶음에 야채보다 곱창이 더 많은 가방끈 측정불가의 식당입니다 가지볶음은 그냥 천상계예요. 여기 메뉴들 다 먹어 볼 생각에 미래가 기대됩니다🫶