Savoring

Ah-Un
Hansaallee 246, 40547 Düsseldorf, Germany
Feb 25, 2026

Here’s something I didn’t know before this trip: Düsseldorf has one of the largest Japanese communities in Europe. Look it up!  They actually call it “Little Tokyo on the Rhine.” Even so, I wasn’t prepared for yakiniku of this caliber to be sitting in the middle of Germany.

Walking into Ah-Un, the vibe hit immediately. I was met with a lively restaurant buzzing with energy. Everyone at every table was clearly having a good time. The smell of sizzling beef fat dominated the space. Each table had a grill built right into the center (much like Korean BBQ), and one wall featured a large diagram of a cow with every cut labeled in both Japanese and German…I’m sure there’s a joke in there somewhere if you look hard enough.

We kicked things off with a raw salmon salad. The salad featured delicate slices of bright, buttery salmon over crisp greens, lightly dressed as to let the fish do the talking. A clean opener before the richness that followed, helped along by a round of shochu shots.

Then came the Gokujo Premium Plate, and this is where things got serious. An assortment of wagyu cuts arrived raw on the plate, deeply marbled with fat running through each piece. The beef was impossibly tender, with a buttery richness that lingered on the palate. It leaned fatty, especially by wagyu standards which are already fatty to begin with. Still, it seemed like the perfect dinner for my coworker, who turned 23 that day. Definitely a good way to raise the steaks for the occasion… I’ll see myself out.

The real surprise of the night was the unagi. It was my coworker’s first time trying eel, and he wasn’t sure what to expect. Glossy, lacquered fillets with a savory-sweet glaze, smoky and tender enough to pull apart with almost no resistance. He was pleasantly surprised, and it tasted just like the unagi I’d had in Japan.

We closed with beef ramen. To be fair, it was more of a  kimchi ramyun with steak than a traditional ramen. The broth was deeply fermented, punchy with heat and that funky, tangy flavor that only kimchi brings. Sliced beef floated through an orange-stained, spicy broth. After all that wagyu richness, it was exactly the palate-clearing ending the meal needed. My stuffy sinuses thanked me.

Was it exactly like eating yakiniku in Japan? Not quite. But for Germany — and honestly, for anywhere — it was excellent. Easily one of the best meals of the trip.

KULAYAN Nepali Cuisine
Europa-Allee 121, 60486 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Feb 26, 2026

Technically this was about three hours away in Frankfurt. But it was the same work trip, and it absolutely deserves a spot in this story.

This was my first introduction to Nepali food, and it turned out to be a great one. The cuisine sits at a natural crossroads where Indian spicing meets Chinese technique. It makes total sense considering Nepal’s geography.

We started with a spread of appetizers including golden samosas with a spiced potato and cashew filling, veg pakora fried in a savory chickpea batter, and chicken sekuwa, grilled and marinated with coriander and chili flakes. Everything was crispy, shareable, and dangerously easy to keep reaching for.

For mains we went with a chicken biryani, a fragrant basmati layered with tender chicken and whole spices, and a shrimp chowmein. And obviously, garlic naan. Soft, blistered, slicked with garlic butter. Non-negotiable.

The flavors across everything were bold but balanced, with spicy and smoky flavors providing warmth without any one element dominating. It was that comforting, generous meal you need after standing on a concrete floor for ten hours a day at a five-day trade show.

I’d give Kulayan a solid 4.5 out of 5. A fantastic introduction to Nepali cuisine, and one of those places I’d go out of my way to revisit if I’m back in Frankfurt.

Final Thoughts

This trip ended up reminding me that great food really does exist everywhere, if you’re willing to look past the obvious choices. One night I was grilling wagyu and drinking shochu in Düsseldorf. The next I was eating Nepali biryani and chowmein in Frankfurt.

A couple of honorable mentions that didn’t get the full treatment: one evening we shared tapas in the Altstadt with business partners, and it turned into a genuinely great night of good food with good company. And in a development that surprised no one more than me, the tradeshow food at the venue was actually solid. A crispy chicken rice bowl with chicken that was, legitimately, crispy. If you’ve ever eaten at one of these things, you know how low that bar usually is. This cleared it easily.

Not bad for a work trip.