CARUSO Pastabar

The story

CARUSO Pastabar, Cologne: Handmade Pasta and Modern Italian Cooking

CARUSO Pastabar at Kasparstraße 19 in Cologne is an Italian restaurant built around fresh pasta made by hand, and the Michelin Guide lists it as Recommended for 2026.

Pasta since 2013

Marcello Caruso opened the first Caruso Pastabar on Barbarossaplatz in 2013. The pasta is made from durum wheat semolina, and the kitchen still treats it as the center of the menu. In 2022 Caruso and managing director Emanuele Barbaro set out to build a more personal restaurant. The cooking pairs classic Italian dishes with a modern touch and influences from elsewhere.

On the menu

Dinner is a three-course menu at 52 euros or a four-course menu at 64 euros, and the pace is unhurried at around two hours. Pasta dishes include paccheri with Jerusalem artichoke and black olive earth, tajarin with North Sea shrimp and dill sauce, and maccheroncini with rabbit leg and anchovy beurre blanc. Starters range from octopus carpaccio to tuna tataki. Dessert might be a deconstructed cannolo with ricotta cream and pistachio sorbet.

Seasons and wine

The Schlemmer Atlas gave the restaurant 2.5 Kochlöffel in 2026. It points to porcini, game and asparagus as the seasons turn, served beside homemade pasta, lamb or scallops. The kitchen reserves the right to change dishes, so the card on site is the one that counts. The wine list comes from small, selected producers, chosen to sit alongside the food. The restaurant is in the historic Dreikönigenviertel, and it also offers outdoor seating and vegetarian dishes.