mike_b12

My trip is getting closer 3 months and counting. Thank you everyone for your help.
Just wanted to know where to find real German food not a tourist place. Will be in Cologne, Berlin and Hamburg. Looking for good and fair prices.
thanks,
Mike

ekellyga

As we were standing in line in the airport in Atlanta, on our way to Germany in 02.....a man told us to go to this restaurant in Cologne. now...we never put a restuarant on our itinerary. We just eat when hungry, but we were there and were hungry so we tried it and it was good. In fact...a year later when we were living 2 hours south of Cologne, we diverted on a weekend trip to go to cologne and eat there again.

The place is right across from the Dom (cathedral). If you are standing looking at the Dom, it will be to your LEFT. The Dom is sort of elevated, so when you look left, you are almost looking at the 2nd floor of those buildings, so you might not spot it.
Now, what he told us to order was a plate with German sausages (I think there were 3 different kinds) Saurkraut, and mashed potatoes. With a hefe-Weissen beer..it hit the spot.

USNR

The restaurant referred to is called "Fruh."

ekellyga

Dear USNR
Thanks. From your opinion, was it worth going to? Maybe we were just starved, but we still remember that first meal. Now that you said the name, I do remember that.

USNR

I recalled the name because I went there to have a glass or two or three of their beer, a variety called koelsch ("kelsh&quot, served only in the Cologne area in small glasses. Their food is supposed to be quite good. I believe it is served in dining rooms on upper floors. Worth a special trip? Maybe others can tell you.

DAX

I had lunch at the Fruh am Dom earlier this year and thought the food was just OK. There are better German restaurants in Cologne, one that I would recommend is Keule(Heumarkt 56). They serve simple but terrific German dishes.

DAX

In Hamburg, you can have traditional Bavarian dishes at the Franziskaner which is located on the corner of Grosse Theaterstrasse and Colonaden(a diagonal street filled with shops and restaurants). It has a simple interior atmosphere, but it's a good place if you are looking for the typical southern German dishes. For nouveau creative German dishes, try Cox in the less dodgy area of St George (on Lange Reihe if I'm not mistaken) It looks like a simple bistro but the food is creative/ interesting if you get tired of traditional German dishes.

DAX

There is another good traditional German restaurant in Cologne, I can't remember the name but it's located amongst the bars/cafes in the wellknown rowhouses facing the Rhine river called Fischmarkt. It was completely filled with an older German crowd when I had dinner there. I'm sure any hotel concierge can tell you how to get to the Fischmarkt. Keule, however, had a younger German crowd when I ate there. Fruh is definitely more touristy than these two due to its location.

xyz123

In Munich, right behind the main square, there is an outdoor market with many food stands and a beer garden. Try a white sausage (made of veal) and a 1/2 liter of German beer....delicious and inexpensive.

Never thought I would say that about German specialties.

hsv

Hamburg:

Top notch: Landhaus Scherrer on Elbchaussee no. 130.

A bit cheaper, but still very nice: Landhaus Flottbek on Baron-Voght-Str. no. 179.

For regional seafood (among other styles): Fischmarkt on Ditmar-Koel-Str. corner of Neustaedter Neuer Weg. Try plaice Finkenwerder Style (fried in bacon) or the Hamburger Pannfisch (assorted fish fillets in a mustard based sauce). Not cheap but worth it. Try a German dry Riesling from Schloss Vollrads.

For regional seafood (not much of an ambiance but authentic): Fischerhaus on Fischmarkt 14. Try the plaice Finkenwerder style. Slightly cheaper than Fischmarkt. Have a beer.

Down-to-earth hearty regional fare: Klopstock on Eppendorfer Landstr. 165 (rather cheap) or Freudenhaus on Hein-Hoyer-Str. 7-9. The latter a former brothel turned restaurant just steps from Reeperbahn in the red-light-district.

Of course, there is Franziskaner as DAX suggested, but I find it rather tacky and simply find it a waste to try Bavarian cuisine in the North. Not authentic, not as good as in Bavaria. Hardly anyone I know goes there. Cox, on the other hand is a rather good suggestion, but has some French influences in its cuisine.

Danna

Be sure to try to eat at Weinstubbe Schellenturm (Weberstrasse 72) and Kachelofen (Eberhard Strasse 10.

The swabische cuisine is absolutley lovely.

Danna

oops... forgot to say these restaurants are in Stuttgart. In Swabia be sure to try the Maultauschen and the warm potato salad under the crisp greens are to die for!

DAX

That's a great list of Hamburg seafood/fish restaurants you got from hsv. Seafood is not the first thing that comes to mind when I think of German food, but actually the most subtle & enjoyable fish dishes I've ever tasted are those I had in Germany & France. To me, fish just never tastes that good/refined in the US even in the top gourmet restaurants.

I'd also like to add FISCHEREIHAFEN to the list(www.fischereihafen-restaurant-hamburg.de/sph.htm) and am curious to hear hsv's opinion on this restaurant. I thought it was very good but may be due to hunger at the time.

hsv

Probably was a bit negative last night.

Coming to think of it, you have no Bavarian city included in your itinerary - not that there's anything wrong with that.
If you feel like trying Bavarian food, the Franziskaner would be an option. I basically just wanted to caution you that the food you'd experience there is not authentic for the region where it is being served.

hsv

DAX and mike,

the Fischereihafen Restaurant is a classic. It is as good as ever, now under the management of father and son of the Kowalke family, who have been operating the place for decades and it should have been part of my list. It is a bit on the formal side, but so is Scherrer, which I also suggested.
Dinner is rather pricey (so is Scherrer, but Scherrer BTW also features a Bistro which is slightly less expensive). But they also serve an extremely noteworthy fixed lunch (changes daily, I believe) at comparatively rather low prices.

Here are the links to the restaurants I suggested:

http://www.landhausscherrer.de/index.php?lang=en

http://www.restaurant-fischmarkt.de/

http://www.landhaus-flottbek.de/

http://www.restaurant-fischerhaus.de/

http://www.restaurant-klopstock.de/ueberuns.html

http://www.stpauli-freudenhaus.de/

And for the excellent Cox suggested by DAX:

http://www.restaurant-cox.de/cox.html

DAX

Thanks for the list hsv, it'll come handy for our next visit to Hamburg in 2007. I'm always on the hunt for great game and fish dishes. Mitleid for Germany's WM unfortunate loss in the last two minute last night. It was nevertheless a great game to watch.

caroline_edinburgh

2 excerpts from my Berlin trip report about pub/restaurants with good traditional food :-

1) We walked to the area of Nikolaiviertel which was to become our favourite area for dinner. We ate that night at Berlin's oldest restaurant (est. 1621), Zur Letzten Instanz, Waisenstrasse 14-16 : we had phoned to book (for 9pm) before going out to the opera, but it evidently wasn't necessary, at least that night at that time. It is actually more of a pub with food than a restaurant; but as our guidebook said, there is considerable crossover in Berlin between pubs/bars/cafes/restaurants, with many places serving all functions all day. We were aiming to eat typical German food, and this was a great introduction. DH had 'Grillhaxe', a quite large joint of pork with crackling, potato dumplings and red cabbage. I had calves' liver Berlin-style (onions, apple & gravy) with mashed potato. It was all lovely. Very hearty portions ! We made a mistake by ordering a not very nice bottle of wine, but made up for it afterwards by trying the very nice dark lager. Service very friendly (although in fact we found this everywhere).

2) For dinner I'd agonised over two choices, the well-known Gugelhof or Zur Rippe, Poststrasse 17, back in our favourite Nikolaiviertel area. I eventually decided on Zur Rippe for 2 reasons. The first reason was just that Gugelhof was more effort to get to. The second and more compelling reason was that we had not yet tried Eisbein, pig's knuckle or trotter which is *the* Berlin speciality. It sounded a bit daunting to have a whole portion of this, in case we didn't like it; but we'd read that Zur Rippe did a combination platter of Kasseler, Ribbchen und Eisbein (cured pork, ribs & pig's knuckle) which seemed a low-risk way to try it ! Unfortunately this was not on the menu, in the event. But we loved this place ! Quite similar to Zur Letzten Instanz which we visited on day 2, in that it was more of a pub with food. But extremely charming and old-fashioned, and very friendly. This time I had the Grillhaxe with mashed potato and green cabbage, as I'd envied DH's the other night : this was lovely and the crackling was superb. DH had the eponymous ribs with sauerkraut & very much enjoyed it (the ribs tasted smoked). The beers were also excellent - we tried the dark lager, Veltins pils and Maisel's Weisse to finish. I think this was our favourite place and we didn't want to leave ! We didn't book, just turned up about 9pm & got a table; although it's quite small & there were only ever 1 or 2 tables free at a time.

My full report is at http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34614269, in case it's of interest.

Ingo

Seems I got some new addresses for food for my upcoming Hamburg trip. Thanks a lot hsv and DAX for the tips.

DAX

Have a great trip Ingo! Hopefully hsv is not in Munich/Berlin or Southern California when you're there.

Ingo

Thanks DAX! No, we already made sure he is in town ;-)