Lesbian venue in a cellar, NYE party…read more Music: shitty charts. Coat check at the entrance. Expensive yet stingy drinks, dreadful toilet. I'm not sure if it is always like that but they have this confusing voucher system where you have to purchase a certain amount on the door and then present it at the bar and they cross out the amount. If you buy €10 and then decide to stay for another stiff one (and that's the only stiffy you'll find, I'm not complaining, it's veeery lezzie here) you gotta go upstairs and get another voucher. Let me just say, by the time you leave you'll have pockets full of cardboard coupons. I hope they recycle well. One rude member of staff at the door didn't ruin it for me but it's Germany, the language itself sounds rude and dirty, so maybe she was nice.. or rude. Generally good atmosphere, efficient bar tenderesses, so I guess it was all right. Won't be going back though, not my cup of tea.

On a long night in Cologne, before going to an EDM concert, I stopped by Papa Joe's for a drink on…read morea Saturday night. Located in a really cool area of Cologne, surrounded by bars, restaurants, and good vibes, what originally attracted me to Papa Joe's is that it's a jazz bar. I love me some jazz. Ambiance (4/5): When I think of a jazz club, I have a picture in my head. An upscale experience, dimly lit, with comfortable seating. Papa Joe's is not that at all. Think of it as a casual New Orleans bar. The stage is at the end of the bar close to the bathroom. The ground level is pretty narrow, with some seating and a long bar. Upstairs, there's some seating overlooking the ground floor. This is where I sat and it was a nice vantage point to watch the festivities. They have live music almost every day of the week with different bands performing. Unfortunately, the one playing when I attended wasn't jazz at all. It was funk. Not what I was expecting, and overall, the band wasn't great. Despite the music being a miss on this evening, I do like the vibes at Papa Joe's. Service (4.5/5): My waiter did a great job greeting me upstairs, taking my order promptly, and offering recommendations. Friendly and efficient---exactly what I look for in a service experience. No complaints. Food (N/A): I had dinner prior so I was on a liquid diet. Drinks (4/5): Papa Joe's has a long list of cocktails, including New Orleans classics like the hurricane. Mine packed a punch, which I always appreciate. Most of the cocktails are on the tropical/fruity side. Nice selection overall. Plus beer and everything else you would expect at a full bar. The menu tells you the history behind Papa Joe's which is pretty cool. An interesting spot for sure in Germany, and one that I enjoyed, although it was much different than what I expected.

Started off at 12:30; we were a party of 8. Beers came out quickly. I ordered a goulash. The wife…read moreordered a pork knuckle. The goulash was awesome a bit more like a stew. The one in Hungary was more soupier. The meat was a bit tough but good with paprika, potatoes and peppers The pork knuckle was soft and tender. It was well cooked. The sauerkraut was good. We both would order the pork again, but I would try a different soup not the goulash, but the pea soup. This place was worth visiting. We were going to eat at Peter Brauhaus first but glad we came here.

Great lounge with delicious drinks! They have a little space where you can dance as well towards…read morethe back of the bar, but I noticed most people gathered at the front for drinks and to smoke cigarettes. The crowd is decent too wth a mix of different age groups. Nice place to hang out with friends.

I like this place! It's really hard to come by a nice dance place where there's decent music and…read morethe crowd is cool but this bar does a good job of all of that.

My new favourite place to be on the weekends in Cologne!…read moreDoscovered it by accident (again), I must say that this place just grow to me. I the moment I can't really tell if it was the fact that it combines perfectly a club with a bar, or the great music they play every evening, or just the really nice and professional personal that works here (ok the guy who stays in front of the door is a bit grumpy, but after you pass him, a whole new world will open), but the fact is that I kept returning in the past weeks here, and I just liked it! They have a full bar, and the choice if you wanna dance and have a party, or just meet new people and enjoy the music&drinks is in your hands. So if you are looking for a place that has both party and chill, and you want something different than Zülpicher, this is the place for you.

Der Besuch im CBE war eine einzige Zumutung. Wir standen ewig in der Kälte, niemand fühlte sich…read morezuständig, niemand hat informiert, und selbst als Menschen wieder ins Gebäude mussten, weil es draußen schlicht zu kalt war, wurde nicht reagiert. Das war weder professionell noch respektvoll - sondern einfach verantwortungslos. Auch die Abholung der Jacken war eine Zumutungsaktion ohne Struktur, ohne erkennbare Organisation und ohne Rücksicht auf die Gäste. Man hatte durchgehend das Gefühl, dass hier Chaos herrscht und die Probleme bewusst ignoriert werden. So behandelt man keine Besucher. Rücksichtslos, chaotisch, unkoordiniert - ich würde hier definitiv nie wieder hingehen und kann nur ausdrücklich abraten.

Keine gute Musik. das Ambiete war schrecklich. Überall standen Mitarbeiter die Besucher ohne Grund…read morean den Arme rausgeschliffen haben. danach sind wir direkt gegangen. So ein Verhalten geht nicht.

Bootshaus has been rated the #7 club in the world in the past. So I knew I had to check out this…read morevenue while I was visiting Cologne. Luckily, there was a performance going on that I was able to attend. The DJ? Levy. Bootshaus is located on the outskirts of Cologne away from the center of the city. Since we were on foot, it took us 45 minutes or so to walk to the venue. Which I didn't mind because it gave us the opportunity to explore a new part of the city. The club is in more of a rural part of town, surrounded by trees. As I arrived, I was loving the vibe. Upon entering, I began to realize how large Bootshaus is. There's a large outdoor area. On the patio, there were food options, bars, and a DJ playing out on the patio. We are before, so I can't comment on the food. Once you get inside, that's where the heart of the action is (and where the headliner performs). Pretty similar to large clubs I've experienced in the States. Drinks aren't cheap. You're packed in there like sardines. This I expected. There were a couple of things I didn't expect. There's no A/C inside. Given the number of people that were there on a Friday night, it was extremely hot. I know I'm an American, so I'm fitting the stereotype, but some A/C wouldn't gone a long way. It was June after all. Also, given how the venue is constructed, it's tough to actually see the DJ from a lot of vantage points. That's because the DJ set isn't elevated. It's the opposite. Which means you're going to have trouble seeing the DJ unless you're towards the front or extremely tall (I'm 6'2" and had to stand on my tippy toes to even see the DJ a bit. Not the smartest set up logistically. If you've ever been to an EDM show in the U.S., you know that the headliner typically comes on around midnight. In Europe, it's going to be later. They will come on around 2 a.m. Make sure you're down for a long night if you're raving in Cologne. While there are definitely some cool aspects about Bootshaus, the DJ set-up and the lack of A/C took away from the experience.

MONEY-GRAB. AVOID AT ALL COST…read more I have been to raves and concerts for close to a decade now, going to dozens of venues across Germany and the United States and this one has got to be one of the ABSOLUTE WORST places to go to. Do yourself a favor and go ANYWHERE BUT HERE. Not only do they criminally oversell tickets to the point that they intentionally break fire code, where it becomes so crammed that people cannot even move past each other to get to the bathroom or outside (which are all equally as crammed), but they also do not have ANY water fountains and refuse to hand out any free water at the bars, and they even went as far as recently changing the sink faucets in the bathroom to spray at a really slow rate (instead of flowing in a normal stream), intentionally done to prevent people from refilling their cups/bottles with water from the bathroom sink, which is a liability (especially when they oversell tickets to the point that the place is so tightly-packed that people are constantly falling over from heat exhaustion). There is also a serious danger of suffocation and stampedes, because of the sheer amount of people they let into the venue at once, just so they can make as much money as possible off of those in attendance, to the detriment of their health, safety, and experience. Moreover, the bartenders are EXTREMELY rude to their guests and refuse to even give out empty cups for people in desperate need of water, and the so-called "shots" they sell appear to contain only syrup and no alcohol. The production is also one of the most underwhelming I have ever witnessed, with countless small local clubs having better sound and lighting than this place. Lastly, they often don't start letting people into the venue until well past the event was supposed to begin, leading people to queue up in a massive line for ages, because they are too incompetent and understaffed to properly process people. Security was also a joke, with the security guards barely patting people down and not even asking folks to empty their pockets, making it extremely easy for someone to sneak in a switchblade or other form of knife/weapon. The amount of negligence I have witnessed at this venue is truly mind-boggling. I would give them zero stars if I couldX If you value your health, safety, and a quality experience, AVOID THIS VENUE AT ALL COSTS.