CAFE ESPECIAL Köln in Langenfeld

Excellent Mexican food. Service was slow and many times we had to chase down our waitress.

Nice atmosphere, friendly staff, good food and reasonable price.

I find it difficult to find a good Mexican restaurant in Europe, but Café Especial convinced me. We were greeted with free tortilla chips with salsa, adecuate Latin pop music was hearable and the service was great. Our food came pretty fast and was "muy fresco y delicioso"! Together with a Corona beer from the barrel it was overall an enjoyable experience.

We had a lovely lunch here while waiting for a train. Lovely aMexican food. Really nice staff too.

Worst Tacos of my life!- flavour less rice- soggy tacos- very limited options for taco varietiesUtter disappointment to not to have tried authentic mexican food!

Food was excellent. Had corona on tap. Ate here before a show at Laxness, service was quick and though it was busy service was quick. Highly recommend.

One of best Mexican restaurants (outside of Mexico, of course!Ive ever been! The food is awesome, great flavors! All the typical, traditional dishes are on menu, along with a wide choice of cocktails, beers, etc...The location is also a plus, as it is just a few hundred meters away from the Lanxess Arena, and with several parking lots nearby.Prices are fair, the staff is super friendly and everyone speaks English. And, of course, Spanish is also spoken!Highly recommended! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Very nice place and great food

Service can be a bit slow but the food here is excellent! I especially recommend the Fajitas, absolutely great eating!

Good location, great food

Great food , great music

Waited almost an hour for two starters, only one arrived, we had to ask for the second one. The restaurant was mostly empty, yet no one seemed to noticed our empty plates. Groups who arrived after us received their food, so instead of waiting, we decided to leave. Staff didnt seem too much concerned about us not receiving our main course. A real shame, since the food we did get tasted pretty nice.

8 euros for a bottle of water, 11,5 euros for a Caesar salad that was only chicken and lettuce.

Great staff & food alike. Highly recommended, would definitely go back.

Relaxed atmosphere and friendly staff. The food was straightforward but really tasty. The tomato salsa they have is delicious. Problem was that we waited about 40 mins for 2 mains and received the wrong order.

Disappointing food. Tiny chicken wings that tasted stale. 2 tacos on a plate with some rice and beans cost over €15. Would not recommend.

A very disappointing experience. I had my eye on this restaurant all week as it looked very good. We arrived at 19.20 and were quickly given a table outside. After a few minutes of waiting we ordered 3 beers and shortly after that we ordered our food. After about 30 more minutes I had to get up and go looking for our beers as they had been forgotten by the waiter. While we waited even longer for our food, we noticed people coming after us, being served and finishing their food. The customers beside us explained to us that there was a staff shortage in Cologne so we waited patiently for a while longer (the restaurant wasnt too busy and there were about 6 waiters). At the one hour mark we called our waiter over to ask about our food. His face dropped as he realised he had forgotten to order our food for us. This is very disappointing as the forgotten beer and seeing us sit at the table for over an hour, and bringing us 2 bowls of corn chips didnt remind him to order our food for us. At about 20.40, after wasting well over an hour, we had to leave and find a proper restaurant that would not forget to serve our food. I refused to pay for the round of 3 beers that had been eventually served to us, to which the very apologetic waiter agreed. Great looking food, restaurant, menu and prices but pretty useless waiter in our experience!

Simply delicious food. Order with care, it can be quite filling.The location is great, right outside the Messe-Deutz train station.The restaurant also has this retro Mexican vibe.The washroom was too compact, could be a little more spacious.

Lovely food super Service Ambiente toll wine Lovely

Delicious and very authentic Mexican food. We had a great time here, really loved the variety of dishes there. It can be very busy in the evenings as well, so make sure to have a reservation.

Love your food and atmosphere, guys!Thank you!

Quite good Mexican foodNot too fancy but still fun to eat at

Its a really good Mexican restaurant with very nice people 🙂 Food was delicious and I loved Mojito. Wed like to definitely visit again once we are in Köln

Service and Atmosphere were nice.We had the quesadilla with beef and enchilada with avocado. Also the margaritas were authentic.It is no fancy high class or fusion food but you get exactly what you order. Will go there again!

Good food, even better service! (And not to say that lightly as good service in a restaurant in. Cologne seems to be an endangered species lately).Just beware of the hotness level in some dishes, it really gets close to the fiery level of Mexican cuisine.

Amazing food we loved all the dishes that we ordered. The Tortilla chips were so delicious they were so fresh and homemade. We ordered the Enchiladas for the main course and they were delicious we finished the entire dish in one go. A must go place. Highly recommended when in Colonge. The staff was very friendly and service was good.

Good location! Perfect service! But the food isn’t so tasty as I expected.

Well, atmosphere is nice.Staff is very friendly.But in my opinion drinks n food were not upto the mark… we ordered 2 pretty standard cocktails, both were sour. Food took exactly 60 minutes to reach our table. Some people around us cancelled their orders due to delay.

Delicious mexican food. They serve chips w/salsa before you order. The chips are really tasty. Beans and rice real mexican. They have carajillo as well, which isnt easy to find around. I didnt try the tequila but they have banderita (3 little glasses, one w/tequila, sangrita or tomate juica and another w/lime juice). Really good place and good service.

The food and service are great. The price is also fine, some of the dishes can be shared by two people. Even if it is Mexican they have amazing spare ribs. It has also a nice menu for lunch (Monday-Friday), which offers a fair price.

Great atmosphere, quick service and delicious food and cocktails! Friendly staff and plenty of tables but gets quite busy so may need to book, we got lucky however as there was only two of us to seat, but otherwise the place was packed!

We walked into Cafe Especial without booking on a very busy Saturday night, the waitress said that unfortunately they were fully booked (which was understandable!), so we reserved a table for another night....however she moved some things around and got us a table there and then! We are so glad she did, the food was great, easily the best Mexican we have ever had! Service was quick for both food and drinks and the place has a nice lively atmosphere. We will definitely be visiting again! Highly recommended!!

The food is amazingly good and authentic. Id recommend booking a table as this restaurant is very busy in the evenings. The Fajitas are out of this world, I wasnt expecting this good of a taste, zingy and very tender. Guac and Sour Cream were tasty aswell. Only downside, the cocktails. We ordered some Mojitos and they were all very short of liquor. For 9€ I expected something better. But the food was very good and quickly served. Waiters were nice and quick, had to wave some of the down but the restaurant was buzzing at that time. Im coming back for sure.

Great food; but terrible place for groups. Several missed orders, and long delays in getting food. Some even had their plates taken away after they had finished their food, 20 minutes before the last people in a 15-people group had gotten their food.

Really lovely place and service, delicious food too 🤩

We where a group of 10 people.Food: 3, fairy good flavours. Bad structure, everything mashed together.Service: -3, forgot several orders and wasn’t service minded at all.Atmosphere: 2

They were understaffed and it took them 15 minutes to get us the menu. The waitresses response to that was basically that we just walked in and eventually got us the nenus. When the waitress finally decided to check if we were ready to order the drinks we said we were actually ready to order food, saying Ill be back she went to get a pen and paper but instead of coming back to our table she started taking the order from some other table that came after us.Other than that the floor was dirty and there is salad all over the floor.

Mexican restaurant/bar close to the train station. Friendly staff. Decent décor. Why not do a couple tequilas before a train ride?

Ambiance was nice, food was okay (I found bones in my chicken, besides that very tasty), staff was friendly and fast,we didnt have to wait long for food or drinks. Would be nice if they would serve more than 0.2 l bottles, especially because Mexican food is spicy.

Great food, vibrant atmosphere and friendly staff.

Waitress was impolite. Due to full occupancy, i was aksed to wait outside. After 40 min of waiting, there was no information how long more should i wait. It was especially odd, since other outside garden was free, yet no one was let in.

Very delicious with friendly staff. The location was ok right next to a busy street. The reservations can be made online. Though they never responded to my online reservation.Ordered the beef enchilada. Was quite impressed it actually was an enchilada and with Spanish rice with re-fried (pintobeans. Most places do have enchiladas but they are not authentic enchiladas. There is also an option to get tequila beer but the local Kölsch beer was not too bad.Would definitely eat there again.

One of my favourite places to have Mexican food. Sure, its not authentic Mexican cuisine, but still great! This is a bigger restaurant, with a nice bar. Always good for a larger party and its usually quite crowded. They also feature outdoor tables, I prefer the ones on the side which are more chill.

A bit pricey. Tasty food. Service can be slow based on the crowd. Polite staff. Great location. Easy to reach. Complimentary nachos. Good atmosphere.

Food was good but a bit pricy. Sitting outside is a better option if weather allows. Service was a bit chaotic (too many waitress who does not seem to coordinate well). Overall would recommend but only if the weather is good enough to sit outside.

what a dive ! nice bar with a lot of drinks, but the possibility also to eat mexican.big place with outside seatings also.I went there just for a coffee, it was great to see the place. at 5PM a lot of people arrived to eat, and 1 hour later it was almost full.all seems very good and not to expensive.not the "center" of the city, but a place to discover for sure.

Loved it! Best Mexican food Ive had in Germany. A good selection on the menu with plenty of ability to customise to your taste. A really friendly staff that stopped by enough to be friendly but not be overbearing. Great amount of food for the price too! Cosy atmosphere and plenty of seating. Fast service. If ever in Köln we will definitely eat here again. Outstanding!

As a Spanish speaking person, I was enthusiastic about enjoying a Mexican evening in a family dinner. We were made to wait for 1 hour after our orders were taken and no waiter/waitress came to attend us during that time (drinks...). I dont recommend it and the owner didnt offer an apology.

I couldnt believe this place still exists. I used to go there a lot 30 years ago - after it only just opened. It still looks good and even though we did not eat on this occasion, the food I saw coming out of the kitchen and the service, all looked good. Will be happy to visit for more than pre-concert drinks next time.

Absolutely love this place. Been here three times now, and it is still not boring me. The portions are huge so make sure youll go here on an empty stomach! The atmosphere is great, also for drinks.