Cayo Coco

Review

The Cuba backdrop

The Haus der gewerblichen Wirtschaft: built in the early 1950s by architect Carl Appel, somehow remarkable in its brutalism and, with the monumental Hotel Intercontinental, the picturesque Art Nouveau Stadtgarten directorate and the indestructible ground-level café on Heumarkt, one of the diametrically opposed cornerstones of this wonderfully absurd spot.
The young British hotel group The Hoxton took over the commercial building a few years ago, renovated it and opened not only the eight-storey hotel last week, but also a basement bar called Salon Paradise, a ground-floor restaurant Bouvier, where you can eat Käsekrainer for 18 euros, and a terrace bar named after the Cuban tourist island Cayo Coco. The good thing first: the view is absolutely magnificent. The bar consists of an indoor area covered in red and black terrazzo tiles and tiled in green, a spacious covered terrace in front of it and a large outdoor area where, according to reports, BBQ is on offer. The menu not only includes cocktails with Caribbean appeal, but also lots of rums and cachaças as well as a few interesting tequilas and mezcals. And there is bar food that also flirts with the Caribbean idea - wonderful. Now to the things that are rather annoying: for example, the music, an unbearable South Sea dudel house mix in elevator quality; or the somewhat lush indoor greenery. Of course, without the indoor plants, the green tiled room would look like a wet area, but the plants just sprawl over the cramped tables, touching your shoulders and head - quite annoying. The bar food is not bad at all, the tasteless giant shrimps in coconut breadcrumbs with pineapple dip is the most insignificant (€ 10), ceviche of sea bass with passion fruit and hard banana chips is really okay, if not very Cuban (€ 14). The best were the "chicharrones", deep-fried pork belly cubes with a good mojo-verde sauce (€ 6.00). Unfortunately, the drinks were a different story: in the case of the iconic mojito, the cardboard straw had no chance of reaching the little cocktail under the crushed ice (€ 12.50). The Dry Daiquiri suffered from an overdose of passion fruit syrup (€ 13). And when I ordered a rum made from sugar cane (instead of molasses) and without sugar couleur, I got Gosling's Black Seal, a dark brown-coloured molasses rum mix. Because the bartender has no idea about rum or because he's taking the piss? I don't like either. A new hotel rooftop bar with a fantastic view where you can eat pork belly, but should stick to beer when it comes to drinks.

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