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...

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.

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.

I live in U.S. and often visit Germany for work related trips. I tried many Persian restaurants all…read moreover Germany. I highly believe "Pinocchio" has the best Persian food (OMG) that you can imagine. The service is exceptional too. For those of you who are interested to discover a Persian restaurant in Cologne, Germany, this is a must visit place. My recommendations are: 1- Gheimeh 2- Ghormeh Sabzi 3- Kobideh 4- Chengeh 5- Barg Don't forget their fresh bread with Mirza-Ghasemi as your appetizer (my favorit). Thank you, Dr. Michael Ahmadi Dr.michaelahmadi@gmail.com

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.