Excelsior Hotel Ernst
2nd place: Heavenly service and devilishly good cuisine: The Excelsior Hotel Ernst near Cologne Cathedral is one of the flagships of the German luxury hotel industry.
We let go of the cathedral in Kölle, because that's where we're going," goes perhaps the most famous German carnival song. Just like the cathedral, the Excelsior Hotel Ernst is also part of this city of millions - and has been since 1863. A lot of water has flowed down the Rhine since then, but the Excelsior Hotel Ernst has remained the only five-star hotel in the city center over the years. So it's no wonder that it has long been regarded as a living hotel legend and that the people of Cologne love it almost as much as their Kölsch breweries - although the Excelsior Hotel Ernst is certainly a touch more elegant.
At the Excelsior Hotel Ernst, the guest always takes center stage. This also applies when it comes to culinary delights. The hotel's culinary offerings are open to everyone - not just overnight guests. In the multi-award-winning Hanse Stube, chef Lars Wolf combines French haute cuisine with Rhineland accents, making every lunch and every dinner something special. It is not for nothing that the gourmet restaurant is also known as "Cologne's parlor". The East Asian star cuisine taku is located in the basement. Here, Mirko Gaul combines delicate fine dining and uninhibited experimentation to create exciting, Asian-inspired compositions. He has been inspiring the international gourmet scene for years - rewarded with a Michelin star every year since 2011.
The winter garden is also particularly popular, where everything revolves around the "art of small things", as the Excelsior Hotel Ernst likes to say. The delicate patisserie by Executive Pastry Chef Pavel Tanev and the "Excelsior Afternoon Tea" are served to the sound of Steinway pianist Robin Meloy Goldsby. The hotel bar has long been known among Cologne locals, but is a real insider tip worldwide. In the Charles Bar, named after hotel owner Charles Roulet, friends of good cocktails, wine or champagne meet and forget about time for a moment. Because that's what it's all about here: time and the opportunity to enjoy it.
At the Excelsior Hotel Ernst, you can of course not only feast exquisitely, but also sleep beautifully - in a total of 134 luxuriously furnished rooms and suites with elegant marble bathrooms and a timelessly elegant ambience. Quite a few of them have a view of the Domplatte directly opposite and probably the most famous cathedral in the world. There's not even "the view of the cathedral from the balcony" missing! La la la lalalala ..."
Gaumenfreuden
At the Excelsior Hotel Ernst, the guest always takes center stage. This also applies when it comes to culinary delights. The hotel's culinary offerings are open to everyone - not just overnight guests. In the multi-award-winning Hanse Stube, chef Lars Wolf combines French haute cuisine with Rhineland accents, making every lunch and every dinner something special. It is not for nothing that the gourmet restaurant is also known as "Cologne's parlor". The East Asian star cuisine taku is located in the basement. Here, Mirko Gaul combines delicate fine dining and uninhibited experimentation to create exciting, Asian-inspired compositions. He has been inspiring the international gourmet scene for years - rewarded with a Michelin star every year since 2011.
The winter garden is also particularly popular, where everything revolves around the "art of small things", as the Excelsior Hotel Ernst likes to say. The delicate patisserie by Executive Pastry Chef Pavel Tanev and the "Excelsior Afternoon Tea" are served to the sound of Steinway pianist Robin Meloy Goldsby. The hotel bar has long been known among Cologne locals, but is a real insider tip worldwide. In the Charles Bar, named after hotel owner Charles Roulet, friends of good cocktails, wine or champagne meet and forget about time for a moment. Because that's what it's all about here: time and the opportunity to enjoy it.
Sleep well
At the Excelsior Hotel Ernst, you can of course not only feast exquisitely, but also sleep beautifully - in a total of 134 luxuriously furnished rooms and suites with elegant marble bathrooms and a timelessly elegant ambience. Quite a few of them have a view of the Domplatte directly opposite and probably the most famous cathedral in the world. There's not even "the view of the cathedral from the balcony" missing! La la la lalalala ..."
