7 Best Restaurants in Schleswig-Holstein and the Baltic Coast, Germany

Taste the "Divine beer of the Vikings," a malty cold-fermented amber lager, at Schleswig's only brewery. While the Luzifer Restaurant offers typical brewpub fare, it is the small Viking twists, like roast meat served only with a knife and horned glasses that make this place worth a visit.

Wismar's first brewery (1452) is the only place that still brews Wismarer Mumme, a dark beer with enough alcohol to keep it fresh for export as far away as St. Petersburg. The restaurant serves good-value typical pub food in an old half-timber house near the harbor.

A stalwart of Hamburg's gay and lesbian neighborhood, this local favorite is probably best known for its friendly service and outrageously good cakes—spiced apple; rhubarb; and Black Forest gâteau among them—that are baked on-site in the café's own Konditorei. Beyond its sweet treats, the café whips up solid German breakfasts of bread rolls with smoked salmon and herring or cold cuts and cheeses and has a dependable if somewhat unexciting lunch and dinner menu.

Kiel has been a center of German brewing since the Middle Ages, when industrious citizens brewed around the clock for export and visiting merchant seamen. In this brauhaus you can try the Kieler Original and other north German beers in pitchers, or order Kiel beer in large wooden barrels to tap yourself at the table.

Run by five well-known, award-winning Hamburg restaurateurs, this culinary hotspot lies in the heart of the Hanseviertel quarter. The blend of individual food kiosks and food market not only offers food and drink from all over the world but also a bar area and a stage where music, comedy, and other events take place. 

It's worth the trip here just to see the rustic interior and copper brewing equipment. Since the restaurant is owned by the Störtebecker Brewery, all Stralsunder and several Störtebecker beers are on tap, including the rare Störtebecker Roggen-Weizen, a wheat beer made with rye, and Germany's first India Pale Ale.

While it may not conform to everyone’s definition of a “beach”—in this case a long stretch of trucked-in sand on the north bank of the Elbe, directly across from the giant cranes and container terminals of the city’s port—there’s little doubting the popularity of the Elbstrand (Elbe beach) among locals. Whenever the sun’s out, you’ll find them out here in force, walking dogs and sipping beers and white-wine spritzers from a couple of little beach bars. Strandperle also does a decent chili con carne as well as curry sausages and fish rolls to keep hunger pangs at bay.