maiBeck

Rating: 14
Author: Gault&Millau

Am Frankenturm 5, 50667 Cologne, Germany

14/20
Chef's Restaurant

1 PHOTOS

Chef: Johannes Adler | Maximilian Dreisigacker
Cooking: European | German | International | Vegan | Vegetarian
Services: Access for people with disabilities | Garden | Terrace
Style: Casual | Elegant | Romantic | With children | With friends

Gault&Millau's review 2025

When things get stressful or exhausting, we humans take a deep breath. From a purely oxygen-technical point of view, this is little more than a gesture and yet it has a liberating and relaxing effect on us. The MaiBeck is a breather in gastronomy form. In a mixture of industrial and shabby chic atmosphere, Jan Maier and Tobias Becker have been serving reliably unstrenuous cuisine for years, which Insta-influencers would call "Yummy". A nice example is a strip of cornbread with appropriate cream and roasted corn, whose sweetness is contrasted by sour-spicy kimchi asparagus. Or a plaice with cauliflower, whose intense tomato sauce makes them swim directly into the Mediterranean. Desserts have never been a compulsory exercise at MaiBeck. "A kind of Black Forest cherry dessert" is the name of the intense mixture of cherry-chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream and pickled cherries, which not only lets guests breathe deeply, but also sighs in happiness. The unpretentious service is happy to reveal where the processed products come from, because Maier and Becker already relied on close contact with suppliers from the region when this was not yet everyday life. On the other hand, the MaiBeck could be ahead of its time in another respect: Five days a week, guests are not only allowed to take a deep breath in the evening, but also for lunch.