Our plan when traveling is to eat whatever is local (and good,of course) so we were determined to eat as much Bavarian food as our digestive systems could handle. Mission accomplished.

We were incredibly lucky to have a young friend living here who loves her city and gave us a list of favorite Bavarian restaurants and beer halls. She also steered us to several of her favorite museums…our visit wouldn’t have been nearly so fabulous or so easy without Janina’s help. It is easy to be overwhelmed in a city with so much to do.

I think we might also have been a bit wary of beer halls. In truth they are so different from any other food experience we could have chickened out entirely—and what a mistake that would have been. Sure, Bavarian food is heavy and rich, but we were only here for a week and one’s body can handle a week of anything, right?

We dug in right up to our last few hours.

First night we walk to Brunnwart and I get my first pretzel

We had had a long day–checking out of the boat, walking to the train station (painfully–my pack was too heavy), marveling at the sausage vending machine, 2 hour train to Munich, 45 minutes figuring out the metro, checking into hotel…so we really deserved an easy supper and thanks again to Janina we had one–Brunnwart, a lovely restaurant and garden a very pleasant 15 minute walk from the hotel.

The place was hopping, but we were happy to sit with our beer and wait a bit for the food, which was delicious of course. I had felt over-red-meated from the time on the boat, so was happy to order an oven fried fish with a cucumber-potato salad (and a pretzel!). I had no second chances for that salad, which is too bad. So yummy and tangy and fresh.

Beer and Bavarian food

Our first morning we took a Walkative guided tour and learned about the six Munich beers and what makes them so good. The definition of these beers is managed in the way any terroir food or drink is—e.g. you must use only local water and these days it is almost impossible to get a permit to dig a new well. We had earlier in the trip learned about Budweiser, a commercial brand which appropriated the name of an Austrian town’s brew because it wasn’t protected even though there is still that town and its beer is beloved…it is not American Budweiser. Munich has been smarter and as a result the Munich six beers are unchanged and, btw, delicious even for a non-afficionado like me. Volumes have been written on this subject so I will stop here before I make an egregious error. Know this: the local beer halls and gardens each feature a particular brand—Augustiner, Lowenbrau, etc.—and the helles, a refreshing lager style, is delicious. It is all draft in restaurants and beer gardens and halls. I rarely drink beer at home but had a half liter glass most of our dinners and does it ever go down easy. It makes Bavarian food even better.

Germany’s restaurant culture is completely different from France, where menus change often, are posted on chalkboards facing the sidewalk, and the midday meal is leisurely. And yet we managed to have long, delicious lunches almost every day, often in museum cafes, as well as big, rich suppers. Yes, we ate a lot! As usual, though, we justified our gluttony by walking most all of most days. Our last day, when we walked the English Garden, it came to 7+ miles. We needed the calories, no?

We ate so much and enjoyed it all. In this post I will tell you about a few highlights.

Lenbachhaus Museum Restaurant

It is delightful to be able to eat well and quickly at a museum cafe. We are deep in art! No time to wander off and find food!

This place was so good, and such a nice setting, we went back a second time between the Glyptotek and its sister across the square.

They even had a museum ticket holder special dish, discounted several euros, which we had to have. Well nourished, we headed for more art.

We love beer halls and beer gardens!

Dear Janina and husband Gustav met us for dinner at our first beer garden experience and explained the ropes…self service for beer outside, table service for the meal. They took us to a favorite of theirs, an oasis in the university neighborhood, the name of which I failed to write down.

I also learned the women’s restrooms are labeled Damen. Not sure if I would have figured that out!

It was white asparagus season so that was what I had. David had his first of several pork knuckle meals and called it fine.

Well-educated on how these mysterious outfits work, we took ourselves to Augustiner Keller, an enormous beer garden where food and drink are self-serve, and a gigantic hall with table service. We chose the hall.

What a scene. The noise level of a full hall of drinkers and eaters is difficult to convey. Talking, laughing, people coming and going with scraping of chairs and rearranging of people at long, very long tables. I had planned to have duck while in Munich but hesitated when I saw the dinner was a half duck, with a potato dumpling (they tend to tennis ball size) and cooked purple cabbage. I was sure this was too much food for me. But I ordered it anyway along with a salad to share.

The salad was a mountain, and yes, a half duck is a lot. Ate it all!

Our last full day was a holiday, Easter Monday, and we planned to walk as much of the English Garden as we could manage, which turned out to be seven miles. No human can be expected to walk that much without sustenance and we wisely stopped at the beer garden at the Chinese Tower, which is definitely not at all Chinese and the day we were there housed a 3 man band playing traditional German music. Again, hard to describe how big these gardens are…and such fun as you take a tray and go from hut to hut loading up your meal. Sauerkraut, spaetzel, donuts cooked in lard, fried potatoes, french fries, chicken…and of course plenty of beer. I wish I was sitting there right now.

Kaisergarten (much better eating than Kaiser Permanente)

When we returned to Oakland David dug into mail, messages, our budget, etc., and he was puzzled to see we had a charge from Kaiser Permanente (we’re not members) from a day we had been in Munich. Ah, mystery solved–Quicken had interpreted our charge at Kaisergarten as that other Kaiser.

The right one was a two metro stops from our hotel, and a few blocks’ walk through a beautiful neighborhood. I had made a reservation from caution–we’d been asked several times if we had reservations when we were just walking in and I was worried this place wouldn’t have room. Glad we did–it turned out to be quite small especially since it was too cold, even for Germans, to sit in the outside garden.

I was delighted to see beef tartare on the menu–I had had it twice in France and wanted to see how the German version differed. David ordered a dish called “meatballs” and was happy to find it was much more than that. Yummy. And we had kaiserschmarrn for dessert–an eggy pancake, torn into pieces, doused in (more) butter and some powdered sugar. We’d had some for breakfast that morning at Rischart Bakery (they’re all over the city but we went to the one on Marienplatz–highly recommended) and couldn’t hold back from trying another version.

Lovely, friendly restaurant right down to the retriever under the table next to us.

Our last Munich supper

Having traipsed, happily, all over the city seeking out delicious food we realized one major Munich dish had been neglected—the famed donner kebab sandwich. Well, to be honest I had a donner kebab sandwich from Al’s Superfood in Marienplatz, but David had not. And mine was sooo good I knew I wanted another.

Lucky for us a great looking donner kebab place was a ten minute walk away.

We were definitely on the early side and as the only customers we were able to chat with the young Turkish woman working the counter. She was excited to guide us through the ordering process. Two sandwiches and an order of fries “Turkish street style.” I was delighted to see they had salty yogurt drinks, and David of course had a beer. Just yummy!

By the time we finished the place was hopping, super chill with obvious regulars—large young men talking sports. If this place was in our neighborhood we would be regulars, too. No, we didn’t figure out why “the most expensive kebabs in Germany” was the primary selling point–and they weren’t.