Casa Del Gatto, Bonn – Germany

I was in Bonn on business and had been staying a few weeks.  It so happened that we were staying when the Bonn carnival was on.  My client had informed me that the festival was on but I didn’t really understand how big an event this is to the locals.  It was the Monday of the carnival and as people had been drinking since very early, most of the restaurants I saw were quiet.  The same could not be said for the pubs!

I had wandered around Bonn with a colleague for a while and I saw an eatery that looked interesting; it was called ‘Casa del Gatto’ (Cathouse).  The logo they used on the sign amused me so I stopped to look at the menu.  There was the (normal for Bonn) selection of pizza, pasta and sandwiches.  It was very cold and as it was getting late, in we went.

When we first arrived I was a little concerned that the restaurant was closed; there were no customers and no staff.  We were about to leave when a waiter appeared from around the corner and invited us to have a seat; it turned out that the customers (and so the staff) were all sat in the smoking area.

The décor here was pretty unremarkable – some brick and some paint, the focus certainly wasn’t on having a trendy eating area.

Our waiter was pretty attentive – he made a recommendation for beer (although my colleague was disappointed to discover that they didn’t have any dark beer) and delivered them to the table quickly.

We decided we would order a number of snacks rather than more pizza (we had had so much of it) or pasta (the Germans don’t seem to get it quite right, offering dishes such as Penne with a mild curry sauce…) and ordered Nachos (€2.90), Garlic Bread (€2.90), Feta with Onion Rings (€5.10) and some bread with aioli (€2.40).

It didn’t take long for the items to arrive.  The garlic bread turned out to be garlic pizza bread, which was huge but pretty tasty.  The onion rings with feta was very tasty but different from what I expected; we were given blocks of feta with some rings on red onion – nothing was deep fried here!  The nachos turned out to be more than a little disappointing; some cheese Doritos has been placed into a bowl and was served to us with a small ‘salsa’ dip.  I don’t understand why the Germans can’t understand the concept of spice!

I was toying with the idea of ordering something else (I know, I know) when I saw the kitchen staff walk past, beers in hand.  That was the end of that idea!

Beers here were pretty good and I think the prices on the food offered pretty good value for money.  I couldn’t find even a tenuous link to cats though… can you?

Casa Del Gattom Kaiserplatz 20, 53113, Bonn.  Website (German)