Old Town, Düsseldorf

2 more images

Uerige may serve food but mostly what they serve besides the best alt beer in town is a good time. This place is packed just about any hour of the day or night. There’s a multitude of rooms if you get bored but my favorite is in the hallway where little barrels are set up as tables. What’s nice about this space is it’s close to the front door so you not only get to see people as they arrive (or stagger out!) but also you get some much needed fresh air to revive you for the next round. Alt beers come in small glasses but it makes for drinking more since the waiters make sure to get you a fresh one once you get close to empty. Be on the lookout for snacks brought around by the waiters too since once they are out of a particular thing you are not likely to see it again.

Dress Code: Despite the city's reputation as the fashion capital of the country, it seems the brewpubs cater to a more casual crowd. ;)

My favourite night spot in the old town. Most nights Bands are performing music mainly from the 1960s to 1990's. Most guests are aged 25 - 60 years. Suitable for businessmen as well as for backpackers.

Dress Code: no dress code

The Uerige ale house is very famous locally, and they pride themselves on being the oldest public house in all of Düsseldorf. They have their own brewery, along with their own excellent ales. The service is gruff, in keeping with the "rough" tradition of the Altstadt, but not rude, and the ambience is cosy and warm. The beer, especially the dark "alt" beer is particularly good.

Dusseldorf has four small scale breweries located within pubs.

They mainly sell 'alt', meaning an old fashioned beer which is 'top-fermented' and is a speciality of the city.

Although relatively low in alcoholic content and served in small thin glasses, it is extremely tasty and slips down a treat.

The large brewpub we used was doing a roaring trade in serving good hearty portions of germanic food. Every meat going, with generous additions of mashed potatoes and cabbage.

I'm not saying this is the finest meal I had in a while, but my one-year-old hadn't eaten more than fresh air in three days due to teething. Within 20 minutes of entering this place he was happily wolfing down the pub's mashed potato like it was going out of fashion.

2 more images

The most famous bar is Braurerei Uerige and it’s the oldest one. Situated in the very center of the area, this bar offers the famous Alt beer. Believe me, there were more than hundred people outside everyday drinking beer and chatting.

This is a great little jazzbar and possibly the most wellknown in town and it's located in the old city. Above the entrace is an oldfashioned neonlight sign saying "Dr,.Jazz" under which a red carpet leads your way down the stairs to the bar.

Every night you can listen to livemusic, a lot of times consisting of jazz and blues music, but also from time to time rockabilly and rocknroll.

If youre lucky you might see a blond swedish girl perform with a group of old, very cool guys and a saxofonist/clarinettist called John Bull. That would be me:-).

I love this bar, its great and the people working there are always very nice. There is a wide range of whiskey in the bar and if you like cigarrs, it's posible to get one here. The wineshore has more wine than shorle ;-) and the standard beer is ofcourse the "Alt", which is a local specialty.

If youre in D-dorf, go to Dr, Jazz :-)

Dress Code: No

We come to this kitschy place regularly because they serve the best cocktails here. The "Mai Tai" and the "Suffering Bastard" are my favourites here and I hardly ever came out of this huge bar in the old town sober. Prices aren't cheap but I'd rather pay 8 EUR for a good cocktail than 6 EUR for a bad one.

The only downside here is that the cocktail card here doesn't tell you what the cocktails include. They serve a huge number cocktails (100 or so) but it's not really easy to try new ones because the only thing you know about them is that they are sweet, sour or creamy. The description they use are more like "A Polynesian Dream" than like "Rum, Pineapple Juice, Galliano, ....." unfortunately.

Dress Code: None. Come as you want to.

We stopped off here on a balmy night in April. It was nice to sit outside with a few beers and put the world to rights.

We tried the dark, local, Alt Frankenheim beer, but to be honest I wasn't that impressed and so went back to the lighter lager.

I'm a big fan of dark beers, and I so was very satisfied with the smooth and rich Altbier of the Altstadt. My friend Dieter took me to two different beerhalls; I'm not sure which one this is, but he told me that there's not a great difference among them, so I don't think you can go wrong.

If I were pressed to give my preference, I'd say that I like the Alt of Düsseldorf more than the Kolsch of Cologne. Not really much of a contest, either.

Here you'll find, besides all the places to eat and snack, a great number of bars, pubs and discos. Just check out the location, there'll be something for everyone, and surely enough to keep you busy all night long!