The 14 Best Restaurants in Munich, Germany (2024)

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Best Beer Hall: Hofbräuhaus

It has been called touristy and overrated, but there is nowhere as quintessential to the Munich experience as the Hofbräuhaus. People come from all around the globe to visit the world's most famous beer hall. Legend says that the beer from the Hofbräuhaus was so famous that King Gustavus from Sweden agreed not to invade the city in exchange for 600,000 barrels during the Thirty Years War.

The hall can hold up to 5,000 people in the heart of Munich's old town in Marienplatz. Expect to crowd around wooden benches with oompah bands and waitresses in traditional Dirndls serving their beer in hefty one-liter steins. Feast on platters of Bavarian food such as weisswurst and hefeweizen for breakfast, crackling pork knuckle and märzen for lunch, and even more beer after dinner.

If you visit during Oktoberfest, note thatHofbräuhaus has one of the largest tents at the festival, Hofbräu-Festzelt. It is certainly one of the rowdiest and most touristy of the bunch.

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Best Restaurant for International Reputation: Tantris

This elegant, two Michelin-starred restaurant has ranked among the top 50 in the world. The name means "the search for perfection," with diners regularly finding it in the finest dishes in the city.

The restaurant's interior design is a surprising throwback to the time it was opened, the 1970s. Located a bit outside the city center, Tantris serves Asian-inspired seafood as well as fresh takes on modern German. Make a reservation for one of its famed tasting menus and be sure to sample something from its legendary wine cellar.

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Best Restaurant for People Watching: Hey Luigi

Hey Luigi is a hip and affordable bar and restaurant with an international menu.
The food is simple but tasty, and the place is well-known for its wide
selection of pasta variations and salads. After all, Italian is German's
favorite cuisine.

Relaxed and unpretentious, the best seating is on the packed patio where diners can watch young Münchners walk by. As the day passes into the night, Hey Luigi morphs into more of a bar with signature drinks that work perfectly as a Digestiv after a bowl of pasta.

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Best Bavarian Restuarant off the Tourist Radar: Augustiner Klosterwirt

Not to be confused with Augustiner am Dom near touristy Marienplatz, this is a local's favorite for traditional Bavarian food. Located next to the Frauenkirche, this is the place to order a good hunk of meat. Theirschweinsbratenis a masterpiece, and this is a place that knows what to do with its potatoes. Finish your meal with a comforting slice of Oma's Apfelstrudel. Whatever you order, prepare for a feast within this dark wood interior, stately chandlers, and curved brick.

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Best Three Michelin-Starred Experience: Atelier

It wouldn't be the best of dining in Munich without three Michelin-starred restaurant, Atelier. This intimate, fine-dining experience in five-star Hotel Bayerischer Hof is within the Haidhausen, Munich’s French quarter.

It features a modern art studio design and truly innovative cuisine. Head chef Jan Hartwig recreates modern European masterpieces with international flair. Take their version of a Radler, a palette cleanser of yuza granita with Bavarian beer. Note that this premiere experience has limited capacity as the restaurant is only open for dinner Tuesday through Saturday with two tasting menus. Reservations are required.

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Best Restaurant for a Sausage: Bratwurst-Glöckl am Dom

Always full of happy diners, this classic Wirtshaus near Marienplatz provides much the same experience as it always has. The old-world interior is cozy wood paneling and colorful stained glass windows letting light into the bustling interior. Outside, overflowing tables provide the cheerful soundtrack of forks and knives and enjoyable eating.

The menu comes in a cacophony of languages, but the star sausage is originally from the city's Bavarian neighbor, Nuremberg. Finger-sized Nürnberg Rostbratwurst is roasted on an open beech fire and served on a platter of six or eight. There are also a variety of other beloved sausages on the menu and mountains of sides and customary desserts like Kaiserschmarrn.

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Best Restaurant in Neuhausen: Restaurant & Weinhandel Broeding

The outer district of Neuhausen is actually Munich's most populated district. People often visit regal Nymphenburg Palace, but local institution Broeding also draws its fair share of visitors.

Every evening the pristine dining room presents a different three-, five-, or six-course menu with a wonderful selection of primarily Austrian wines. The food is light and surprising, and it is obvious that everything is made from scratch with love. Seating is limited, and reservations are recommended.

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Best Restaurant for Organic Bavarian Food: Fraunhofer

Fraunhofer Wirtshaus, located in Isarvorstadt, is a traditional Bavarian restaurant inn that opened in 1874 and is now a listed building. It serves top-quality,organically sourced Bavarian specialties. Hearty favorites like pork knuckle, Obatzda, and spätzle are at their absolute freshest. The menu has also followed the times ad provides a healthy selection of vegetarian dishes.

The small restaurant itself is a destination, complete with a small theatre at the back. They feature "modern" Volksmusik (folk music) of the '70s and '80s. It is also old-fashioned in another way you will commonly find in Germany—it is cash only.

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Best Vegetarian Restaurant: Prinz Myshkin

It's not all meaty goodness for good Bavarian dining.Prinz Myshkin is placed within a former brewery, but its architecture only nods to its former life of suds and sausage. Today's restaurant decor as pristine as its menu, with whitewashed walls and colorful, globally inspired dishes. The restaurant proudly declares itself the original vegetarian & vegan restaurant in Munich. It serves up delightful fare for lunch and dinner like intense curries, inventive pasta, and stomach-satisfying bowls.

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Best Restaurant for Classic Italian: Brenner

Once the stables of Munich’s royal residence, this well-located Italian restaurant is now a favorite spot of the pre-theatre crowd. Located off Maximilianstrasse, its austere furnishings consist of a vaulted ceiling, many pillars, and a capacity for 450. When the weather is agreeable, diners should sit on the terrace that faces the Bavarian state opera.

Inside, it is a bustling—if slightly noisy—atmosphere. There is a bar, pasta, and grill section with plenty of Mediterranean flavors. Try the homemade linguine with meat or fish grilled over an open fire.

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Best Restaurant for Bavarian Pub Culture: Wirtshaus Maximilian

Wirtshauskultur roughly translates to Bavarian pub culture, and Maximilian provides this and so much more. It offers the feeling of Gemütlichkeit without the kitsch, or "Echt bayrische Atmosphäre" (real Bavarian atmosphere) as they say.

Expect to find an impressive amount of German beers as well as a variety of schnapps and liqueurs. To eat, there is everything you'd want from a Südtiroler Küche like Wurst and Wiener Schnitzel from local sources. Pull up a heavy wooden chair to one of the long tables and dig in.

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Best Restaurant to Eat Pork Knuckle: Haxnbauer im Scholastikahaus

This beloved Munich establishment is on the tourist path and in many guidebooks. A top Bavarian must-eat, Schweinshaxen (pork knuckle), is the star attraction at Haxnbauer. Juicy hunks of meat spinning in the windows also draw in hungry diners off the street, lucking into one of the best meals of their trip.

The food and experience at Haxnbauer are even too good for locals to resist as you will see Münchners eating here as well, pulling off their personalized mugs from the wall and joining their usual Stammtische for a discussion on the weather, their current ailments, or what they are planning to eat today.

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Best Mexican Food: Blitz

Tasty Mexican food—or even Tex-Mex—used to be impossible to find within Germany. Luckily, that is changing.

Blitz brings the color into the Munich dining scene with its playful Day of the Dead design and a surprising all-vegetarian menu. You can find real spice as well as quality ingredients in itsfajita, tacos, and burritos. Dishes are often topped with a bit of extra flair in the form of extras like hibiscus blossom or banana ketchup.

If dinner out is just the beginning of your fiesta, continue to the Blitz techno club for a phenomenal sound system and all-night dancing.

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Best Family-Friendly Restauarant: Preysinggarten

Tucked away in this stately building from 1893 is Preysinggarten. Laid-back and comfortable, the cuisine is bright and fresh, flavored with elements of the Mediterranean. Check out the daily specials on the blackboard with frequent vegetarian or vegan options and enjoy the uniquely unrushed and friendly service. As a neighborhood place, everyone is welcome here—even the smallest travelers. The courtyard is the perfect place to let the kids run as the adults eat or take advantage of the playground set-up in the back. Whether you are enjoying a lazy Sunday brunch, weekday lunch, or casual evening meal, Preysinggarten is sure to fit the bill.