Delicious Persian food in Cologne. As a Iranian, I've grown up with mommas cooking my whole life…read moreand it is nice to walk in and instantly get the smell of fresh soltani and the different kebabs. The mixed grill, fessenjun, and gorma sebzhi are the most traditional dishes and this is how to judge a Persian restaurant. They absolutely nailed it here and the amount of food you get for paying a few more euros in comparison to the other Persian restaurants in the city is not worth it. This is my go to spot if I'm craving some homemade Persian dishes.

I finally found a wonderful Persian restaurant after only a couple months of living in Europe and…read moreit was in Cologne of all places! Not that I was looking particularly hard or anything but the one place I tried in Paris a while ago was so "meh" and since I have family who is always looking for an excuse to cook kabob for me that I hardly ever look for places. But today after the Bayern game when this restaurant came up on Yelp as in the area, I had to try it. Especially since it bares the same name as one of Iran's most well known kabob restaurants. For appetizers we ordered the most-o-mooseer (sour yogurt with garlic), salad shirazi (tiny diced salad of onions, cucumbers, and tomatoes in lemon juice, oil, and vinegar), and naan-o-sabzijaat (fresh baked Persian flat bread with a plate of fresh herbs, a quartered white onion, small pieces of feta cheese, and sliced radishes. All were very traditional and good although the portions were smaller than I'm used to. There was also no garlic in the yogurt though. Think they forgot and gave me regular yogurt. For the main course we had 3 different Soltani dinners: joojeh, chenjeh, and regular. The regular came with a skewer of lamb barg which is usually a thin cut of the filet. This was good but a little chewier than others and you knew you were having lamb. I didn't try the joojeh (chicken) but the chenjeh (chunks of beef and spelled very weird in German on the menu) was the best meat of all. The koobideh which is always the second skewer on a soltani plate was great. The dinner was wrapped up with Persian tea. No, this wasn't the best kabob or the best ambiance but something about the familiarity of the food, the people, and the culture made this dinner perfect for a cold and wet night. I wish I had tried the desserts...

This Persian restaurant was recommended to me by a fellow Persian and Washingtonian now living in…read moreGermany. I have to admit I was skeptical when his recommendation included, "Oh, and for the record- better than Amoo's." If you know me or have followed my reviews, "Amoo's House of Kabob" in McLean, VA is my gold standard. Their kabob soltani is to Persian kabob restaurants what pad thai is for Thai restaurants and pho is for Vietnamese. It is the one dish you judge the entirety of the restaurants food because after all, if they can't do that right, why bother? So, finding myself in Köln with my brother-in-law one evening, we had to put my friend's claims to the test. I started with an appetizer sampler of sorts: mirza ghasemi, kashk-o-bademjan, mast-o-mooseer, and mast-o-khiar. With their homemade bread and a spread of sabzijat va paneer (herbs and feta cheese), Pinocchio pulled ahead with an early lead. My friend had also told me to try the Persian stews and not base my entire judgement on the kabobs. Unfortunately, they were out of ghormeh sabzi so I had to settle with gheimeh but they had a wide selection of other dishes like khoresheh-karafs, fesenjan, etc. They also did not serve tahdig which was a huge bummer. The place is cozy and comfortable and the service is friendly but I can see why some people might feel ignored if they aren't Persian. But with serving the main dishes, Pinocchio did not live up to the hype. Their kabob was nowhere as good as Amoo's! So the final verdict: The gheimeh was great! It was made with lamb and slightly fatty but it was fresh and very tasty. The kabob soltani did not come close to Amoo's. It is good. But neither the size or the quality of the meat comes close to Amoo's soltani. This place is a good kabob fall back but I would rather go there for the stews and appetizers than just for kabob. The best part, they serve Kolch (regional beer of Köln). I look forward to being back here soon with more of my family and trying out the rest of their menu.

The restaurant was very nice when I came in and got seated within five minutes. I had the lamb and…read morechicken Cuba day pita bread was really good and the actual lamb was my favorite part. It was very juicy along with the boss money rice with butter the service was OK and I paid roughly €25 for my meal. It was decent and I would come back to try the other items.

The appetizer we had (kashk-o-bademjan) was great. This was the only high light of my meal. The…read moreyogurt with wild garlic was too bland. The bread served with it was old... I had a Chelo Kabob Soltani: the filet kabob was a tough piece of meat and the Kubideh had too many onions.