Dusseldorf dining?

I've only eaten in Düsseldorf once, year ago, and it was a business dinner, paid for by the other company (I didn't even see the prices). We ate at zum Schlüsssel in the old quarter of town. Very nice restaurant, good food and bier, but maybe too expensive for you. The prices are on the menu which you can download on their website. BTW, Düsseldorf (or Duesseldorf) is the town (Dorf) on the Düssel river. Dusseldorf is a town of idiots (Dussel).

Düsseldorf was completely destroyed in WW2 and absolutely nothing there is authentic anymore. I think it's even absolute fair to say the city is ugly. All you can see is 1950s-1990s purpose-built houses. There is one exemption: The "Medienhafen" (media harbor). It's a former dock of the Rhine river port which is now surrounded by 21st century architecture (like the London docklands) with most of the tenants of the building being players of the media industry. There you'll find fancy modern restaurants. Much more authentic - and only a 30 minutes drive or train ride from Düsseldorf would be Mettmann. The old town is very unique and typical of that part of Germany. Also it's in the Neander valley where in 1856 (to the best of my recollection) those remains of those pre-historic people were found. Of course one can visit that site as well. In Mettmann you would find plenty of authentic and reasonably priced restaurants. Or you do what I always do when I have to be in Düsseldorf for business: You take the train to Cologne (also just 30 minutes) and stay there. Düsseldorf to Cologne is probably a bit like Newark to Manhattan...

True, but I still prefer Düsseldorf to Duisburg or Essen, architecturally speaking.

Randy, This may be a case where you can find more useful advice from the local experts on TripAdvisor. And, of course, there's Wikipedia, where you will find a lot of good information. Not many people on this site use Dusseldorf as anything other than a pass-through city. Umlauts can help with pronunciation, but English stylebooks I use in my work suggest dropping foreign accent marks when writing in English. On the other hand, I have not been very consistent about its use, myself. PS: I suspect that a lot of folks in Cologne agree with Lee's definition of Dusseldorf. They are supposed to be rival cities in team sports and business.

We visited our friends in Dusseldorf last year and they took us to Cafe Heinemann in Vereinsbank-Passage, Martin-Luther-Platz 32,This is the website and note they're open until 7PM & 6:30 on weekends: http://www.konditorei-heinemann.de/index.php?lang=en. They have about 5 locations in Dusseldorf. The cafe-restaurant is upstairs above the confectionery and the food is excellent...German of course. I remember the schnitzel and potato salad I had like it was yesterday! This location is very central. And the chocolate in the store is very high quality and good for gifts. Reasonable prices.

Thanks for everybody's help on this! Randy Rasmussen

Randy, Go to the Altstadt in Düsseldorf, more eating and drinking establishments there. You can get there by U-Bahn from Düsseldorf Hbf. (remodeled in the last few years), direction Heinrich Heine Platz, if I remember correctly.