We have a few days planned for Munich in advance of a river cruise, and I’m looking for recommendations on where to eat and what to eat at that restaurant – also the best area in which to stay for walking and seeing the sights.
Many thanks
My info is quite old and you will undoubtedly get much more current views but I used to travel to Munich at least once a month for business and loved staying at the Platzl Hotel right in the center of the very walkable old part of the city. It recently came up on a thread of excellent hotel breakfast buffets and stirred warm memories. No specific restaurant recommendations but you must try schweinshaxe (I just googled for spelling and the images made me SO HUNGRY) and also, in my experience, many restaurants have a page of specials that focus on what is in season locally and I was not once disappointed when I ordered from that.
2 Likes
Thanks, GretchenS
1 Like
My favourite upscale German restaurant is Spatenhaus an der Oper, which is on the square close to the Opera. I make a point to visit whenever I can. The main floor is a little more casual than the 2nd floor dining room, but it’s still more upscale than most restaurants serving Bavarian food.
I’ve enjoyed the goulash soup, the cheese spaetzle, the asparagus when it’s in season (March-May). They usually have a seasonal menu as well as the regular menu.
I like visiting Schubeck’s for spices, near the Hofbrauhaus beer hall.
Leberkäse is a Bavarian meatloaf which doesn’t contain cheese or liver. A few spots in Viktalienmarkt (open air market) sell it to-go.
I like having a meal in the Ratskeller, the restaurant under City Hall in Marienplatz. I can’t remember what I ordered last time.
I tend to order roast duck or Sauerbraten when I’m in Bavaria. Schnitzel or sausage will be available everywhere you visit.
A dish I think you will like is schweineshaxe, roasted pork hocks. It should be available at the Ratskeller or Spaten an der Oper.
The potato soups are good. Be warned a soup portion can be meal sized. The portions are generous in Bavaria.
The special cake for Munich is Prinzregententorte. I recommend Café Luitpold for this torte and any other Bavarian desserts.
Dallmayr is a luxury deli with a tea room, the equivalent to Fortnum & Mason. I brought home some lovely Easter chocolates and baked goods on my last visit.
Café Rischart is a bakery Café with at least 5 locations. Some have a dining room upstairs. The food costs more, as it would in Italy or France as well, if you have table service. Good sandwiches, pastries and breads. I like the poppyseed schnecken pastries, and the sandwiches. Good coffee, too.
2 Likes
I love Der Pschorr, situated at one end of the Viktualienmarkt (which of course you must visit!). Updated Bavarian regional cuisine. https://www.der-pschorr.de/der-pschorr-munich-city-centre.html
3 Likes
Schweinshaxen is something I used to repeat every visit and always enjoyed Ratskeller’s other offerings, but none of them come straight to mind. What are those potato balls called?
(Edit - they’re dumplings, Kartoffelklöße)
Also, you already mentioned the Viktualienmarkt. I can spend a day wandering it, if the weather’s clement.
3 Likes
I’ve walked by Haxnbauer many times, also run by the Kuffler Group which runs Spatenhaus. They have haxen roasting in rotisserie in the front window. Google says its temporarily closed. I’d like to try it some day.
1 Like
Many thanks to all.
And Yum!
1 Like
A sort of “go-to” casual late breakfast or lunch is the Weisswurst served in a crock of hot water with the grainy mustard and some big pretzels, washed down with a half-litre of your favorite beer.
I was about to highly recommend the Paulaner pub on Tal street as I’ve been in there several times. But a quick scan of google reviews makes it seem like they may have become hit or miss recently. They still have 4.1 stars overall, though.
2 Likes
A few smaller restaurants to checkout:
Goldmarie Restaurant 23 Schmellerstraße Run by three women, Super Lokal, Small Menu nice alternative to the huge beer halls
Klinglwirt 16 Balanstraße Bavarian dishes made with high quality regional products. A very good bread board with local sausage, ham, bacon and excellent bread.
Giesinger Bräu Microbrewery A smaller brewery Bierhaus with traditional dishes
A couple of big ones:
Schneider Brauhaus Tal 7 They make some of the best Weißbier in Bavaria. If you get there early get the Weißwurst.
Augustiner Bräustuben Landsberger Str. 19 A little outside of the center but less tourist and a better experience(IMO). Great Schweinshaxe, Goose, Duck and other traditional Bavarian dishes. Worth the detour.
A couple of offbeat sites:
Jeweled skeleton of Saint Munditia in Alter Peter 1 Rindermarkt
Just off to the right of the Glockenspiel
Deutsches Jagd und Fischereimuseum 2 Neuhauser Straße, Sprawling collection of over 1,000 taxidermy beasts housed in a 13th-century church plus mythical Wolpertingers (like a Jackalope)
Relics of Munich Residenz 1 Residenzstraße
The reliquary room part of the “Residenz Museum” portion of the Residenz (Reliquiensammlung – Room 95)
This collection of macabre and beautifully decorated relics most famous among them John the Baptist’s head(there are four that make this claim) and the head of Pope Eleuterus, who died in 189 AD.
5 Likes
The Weisswurst usually isn’t eaten after 11 am. Perfect elevensies. 
1 Like
I’ve always been a bit hungover and not sure of the time. 
1 Like
Despite making around 8 trips to Munich, I’ve yet to enjoy a night on the town. Haven’t ever been hungover in Munich. I have been hungover in St Anton a few times 
1 Like
I’m glad Spatenhaus is still good (I used to go in the early 2000s). Agree on the duck and the other dishes I like there are the Tafelspitz (boiled beef with horseradish, my favorite() and Sparnferkel (sucking pig with crackling skin).
Enjoy
2 Likes
I got really lucky one trip. I had 2 patent office hearings mid September, Tuesday then Thursday, and I would normally have flown back Friday. I found I could save the company nearly $3K in flight costs by staying over that weekend and flying back Monday instead of Friday as I normally would (as against maybe $600 EUR in total additional room costs). So I got to see the kickoff for Oktoberfest.
A bunch of guys from the local firm we were using took me out Thursday night to an NFL themed bar. Not sure why but there was a Thursday game. I was surprised at their claims that lots of Germans like US-style football. The next night they took me to a Havana-themed bar and I don’t think I got back to the hotel until 4 a.m.
Saturday morning a couple of them met me near the hotel to watch the landlords/breweries parade go by on Schwanthalerstraße (the hotel was on Schillerstraße just a half block from the parade route).
We followed the last wagon into the Wiesn but all the tents were packed full, so we just wandered and peoplewatched a bit and then headed over to Englischer Garten - which was nicely nearly empty and no-wait needed at the mini Hoffbrauhaus.
2 Likes
That’s where we stayed when we were in Munich. We also ate at Spatenhaus an der Oper, as well as Alter Hof and Fedora. The food was good, but not special.
1 Like
I like staying at the Platzl Hotel, too. I stayed there on my last visit in March 2019.
The Torbräu Hotel is also a nice hotel, a little cheaper, just outside the Old Town. I stayed there in Jan 2014. I’d spend the extra money for an upgraded room option.
Both hotels have excellent breakfasts. I remember that the Platzl Hotel had weisswurst at their breakfast buffet.
1 Like
Remember that Munich was pretty much bombed flat so anything that looks old, including the city hall probably isn’t. My favorite thing to eat in Munich is the leberkase mit semmel and mustard in the underground. Leberkase is neither liver nor cheese. It is Bavarian veal loaf with a roll and is delicious.
1 Like
I stayed at the Four Seasons during Oktoberfest one year, about 20 years ago. That was the first time I dined at the Munich Ratskeller. I’ve dined at quite a few Ratskeller around Germany.
I didn’t end up going out at night. I’m not a big beer drinker.
I love the beautiful dirndls for sale on the top floor of Loden Frey department store. I’ve never bought one because Oktoberfest in Canada- in Kitchener Waterloo, is a kitschy sloppy mess. I realize in Bavaria and Tirol, some people wear their Dirndls and other tracht for the opera, weddings, holidays, so it would get much more use in the alpine regions than it would get in Canada.
Are you thinking of Dresden?
Quite a few parts of the Old Town in Munich are very old. They might have been repaired after WW2. Munich was not levelled in the way that Dresden was.
