German cuisine

There's nothing better than a good Schnitzel or Sauerbraten. But you can skip ALL the traditional German food if you wish (long as you don't mind shortchanging your cultural experience.) The existence of traditional food and restaurants that serve it does not mean an absence or even a shortage of other cuisines. All you need to do is check out the restaurant selections on Tripadvisor for whatever German city you'll be visiting - there you'll surely find whatever it is you prefer.

"Most" restaurants do not translate their menus into English. Restaurants in places of heavy tourism normally do.

Germany is a rather large country, with regional differences in traditional cuisine. Whether or not you will find English menus depends in part on the city or town, and in part on whether or not you are going to touristy restaurants. If you are that concerned, get a menu decoder to bring with you. By the way, blood sausage is blutwurst in German.

Even in the most traditional Bavarian restaurants you'll be able to find other offerings on the menu. I lived in Bavaria for over 3 years without eating horse meat or blood sausage. Or you can look for an Italian restaurant - even the small towns are likely to have one. Larger cities will have all different types of cuisines to choose from - French, Chinese, Middle Eastern - you name it. . As a last resort, you can head for the nearest KFC or golden arches.

I love German food in all its porky goodness. Mention bacon on a stick (paprika seasoned bacon wrapped around a skewer and barbecued) to my husband and he’s lost in rhapsody for a good half hour. But yes, it can be a bit heavy. And the portions are large. Just avoid Eisbein (pig’s knuckle) and Blutwurst (the dreaded blood sausage).

But many Germans are vegetarians now, so there should be some non-pork items on every menu. Every restaurant offers a Salatteller (main course salad). There are Italian restaurants in every town if you need a break.

Will you be near Lake Constance? They have fantastic fish and some great Swiss restaurants that serve things beyond pig-on-a-plate. There are lots of culinary choices.

Not so sure about English menus but someone around you will probably speak English. Or make a list using Google Translate before you go.

I hope you have a wonderful trip (and try traditional German food at least once.)

Also, will most menus have English descriptions?

Depends.

We did two weeks of bicycle touring in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (north east Germany). English wasn't common and we were dependent on our German speaking tour companions.

We spend 10 days in Obserweisenthal (Saxony near the Czech border). Our hotel dinners were buffett style and we could figure out the menu at the Italian restaurant. And cafes typically displayed the pastries.

I'm wouldn't particularly want to eat any of the things you mention except for duck, and I had no issues at all in Germany--except when I ordered a salad. Perhaps it was just the places I patronized, but I've never seen salads served with so much dressing. After the first incident, I learned to order the dressing on the side. Still a large quantity, but resting harmlessly in a cup.

Berlin has had foreign workers for a very long time, so in the medium and larger cities, you're likely to have lots of ethnic-food options in addition to the places serving local dishes.

Two words for you: "Doner Kabab". Turkish food is very common in German cities because a lot of Turks made Germany their home since they came as guest workers (initially they were sent back home, but then they stayed). A lot of other ethnic foods will be available too. I don't eat meat and did just fine in Germany, believe it or not.

You can learn German foods right now with the help of a thin phrasebook or the internet. By the time you go, you'll know what not to order even with no English menu in sight.

Marling Menu Master for Germany is a thin booklet with great advice for understanding menus in Germany. It is available from Amazon and is a very good guide to German food. Depending on how much you are in a tourist area, restaurants might or might not have menus with English translations. Even if they do provide an English translation, I generally avoid reading them, preferring instead to "do it myself". How many times have I gone into a restaurant with my partner and started to translate the menu for her, only to find that the English translation was show in smaller print under the German description, and I was right?

You don't say which cities you will be visiting. Big cities have lots of tourists as well as trade fairs so their menus may often have English translations.
About 20% of Germans are either vegetarian or vegan, so be prepared to have many lighter options to eat. If you are here during May, it is Spargel season with tons of white asparagus on every menu.

What guide books are you reading? I have never seen horse meat on a German menu.
Don't knock boiled beef until you have tried it. It is just like having pot roast.
Duck is to be found in fine dining establishments, so not sure why this is scary to you?

Regional specialties abound. In Frankfurt it is Green Sauce. Sort of like sour cream and chives on baked potatoes, but with more herbs and way tastier. Served on boiled potatoes with a hard boiled egg, or on a schnitzel (Frankfurt schnitzel), on pike fish, or on that dreaded boiled beef you are afraid of.

Be aware that sometimes menu translations can be a bit off. Meat loaf is often seen on German menus but it has nothing to do with American style meat loaf. Limonade is sprite and not Lemonade. Spare ribs are not usually barbecued ribs and will often be listed as Spear rips.

There are 100's of different kind of sausages in Germany, so perhaps you will find some you like. We have fantastic cheeses and breads, all kinds of mushrooms, delicious fresh fruits and vegetables.

Salads pretty much always come with a house dressing, they don't ask you what kind you want.

Try the Flammkuchen, a thin crispy bread that looks like a pizza but has creme fraiche and various other ingredients on it. My favorite is mango, spinach and mushroom, but others like onion and bacon or perhaps salmon.

Italian, Greek and Asian restaurants abound in Germany. None will provide as succulent a meal as a great schweinshaxe. I feel bloated, but not nauseous, just thinking about it.

Horse meat is good, especially if your dog is travelling with you. Don't worry if the menu is not in English, it is a good sign: you will be in Germany, and German is the language in Germany.

I've been to Germany many, many times and never had to eat the food items you listed in your question. Those may be traditional German foods but they aren't the only ones. I hope you will try some of the "tamer" and more familiar foods, they are delish. If nothing appeals to you on a menu, order a salad and French fries.

I've had all those you listed except the horse meat. Pork knuckle is a Berlin specialty...Eisbein. There are restaurants with the English menus I've seen, and there are those with only German menus in Berlin, depends on where you go.

I don't think I've seen blood sausage (Blutwurst) on a menu or must have missed it. You can order that in France too. The Pension I stay at in Berlin serves blood sausage slices as part of its breakfast buffet.

Thank you all very much. We will be in Munich, and the Rhine area. I can't imagine we will have to resort to KFC!

My husband and I are not what I would call picky eaters, and my grandfather was German, so I enjoy sauerkraut, schnitzel, red cabbage, Oktoberfest sausage etc..., and I DO like to try new foods when I travel. It just seemed that it would be pork for breakfast,lunch and dinner, and not prepared in a way that my Canadian palate is accustomed to. I will definately check out Trip Advisor, but feel better already.

Thanks again.

What is it about horse meat? I like horse meat. Very lean and tender, I can recommend it. Meat tends to be mostly pork. Nearly every restaurant will have a veggie option, often two.
You just need a few basic German menu items. Many of the dishes will have specific names, you can't translate them, you either need to know the name, or you need a whole paragraph of explanation.

Vorspeissen = starters
Hauptgericht = Main Course. This section of the menu is often divided by types of meat.
Schwein = Pork (easy to remember), Rind = beef, Hahnchen = chicken, Ente = Duck, Pferde = horse, Lamm = (guess!), Fisch = (just as easy)

"We will be in Munich, and the Rhine area... It just seemed that it would be pork for breakfast,lunch and dinner..."

One good reason for travel is to shed the myths and misconceptions that our imaginations otherwise create. Your meal nightmares should vanish quickly. Many hotels that offer breakfast have a buffet selection that will probably impress you as varied and tasty:

Munich hotel breakfast
St. Goar hotel breakfast

They have sausage haha :)) Currywurst if you're wondering :)) I have to say German cuisine is a bit disappointing for tourist.

Thank you all very much. We will be in Munich, and the Rhine area. I can't imagine we will have to resort to KFC!

.. but you'd miss the Dirty Louisiana!

Thanks Nigel

In regards to breakfast be it in a Pension, small hotel or larger hotel chains, they now all offer breakfast buffets, where if you want the traditional German breakfast, (which is what I get almost exclusively), or if you want corn flakes, cantaloupe, fruit cocktail, bananas, scrambled eggs, etc, etc. they are also available, not so 30-45 years ago when the small hotels/Pensionen only offered the traditional German breakfast, day in and day out.

One of the reasons one goes to Germany whether it's to the south, east, west, or going up north (Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein) is for the food.

One sure fast way of not being offered an English language menu is to go to towns and small places in eastern Germany, as alluded to above, where you'll (almost) always be given a German menu, just as it was in the '70s and mid-80s, in the west.

All the restaurants, small ones and a big larger, in the east always gave me a German menu, no English in the back pages, etc. Everything is written in the local language.

Conceptually, not everything can be translated anyway, (and should not be either ), such as meat loaf, as pointed out above, ie, the difference between the German version and the American, or dishes like "Leberkäse" or "Fleischsalat" etc.

First time I was told a menu item was "boiled beef" I found the concept appalling -- until I was encouraged to order it by my husband, whose Austrian-born mother had prepared it for him hundreds of times. Then I recognized it as a close cousin to MY mother's "pot roast."
I do hit my sausage quota fairly quickly, though. Salads are your friends!!

Was in Munich last fall and after 3 weeks of Romanian and Bulgarian food, I couldn't get enough of the good Bavarian food. At the Augustiner Brauhaus, I had an awesome roast duck. But they do a roast chicken, too. We sat at long tables next to a couple from Hamburg and had a lot of fun talking and getting to know each other.
We also ate at Servus Heidi and would recommend them, but get reservations. They have vegan options too. We had great German food there. Service was top notch!
We did see a Eataly near the large outdoor market area. So I would believe you will have some choices there.
I sort of know what you mean about only having German food when in Germany, but we are set to go to Portugal and Basque Country soon and I am looking forward to as much seafood as I can stomach. Living in the US midwest we are terribly void of great fresh seafood. That being said as we were in France last year for 4 weeks, while in Arles we found a fabulous hamburger restaurant and also ate 2 nights at a Vietnam restaurant. So while in large European cities, I think you can always find cuisines from everywhere (don't look for Mexican food in Europe for some reason....haha!)

I lived in Nürnberg from 1982 to 1985. I've visited once since I left. I frequented a Greek place a block from my apartment and a number of Italian places. Back then, both the Chinese and Mexican places left a lot to be desired, but I'm sure they are much better now.

My favorite German dishes were:

Nürnberger Bratwurst,

Schweine Schäufele mit knödel

and any number of schnitzels including Jägerschnitzel (hunter style) and Zigeunerschnitzel (gypsy style).

I absolutely fell in love with Gulaschsuppe and all the kinds of breads.

My drink of choice was a Spezi. Back then it was made by the bartender from Coke and Fanta. I even got used to no ice. Now it comes in bottles and cans.

You definitely are not limited to beer and pretzels.

If you see any of these things on a menu, take the plunge!

My late mother cooked pork chops to the consistency of shoe leather. The pork in Germany was a revelation.

Local food and dining customs are a large part of my cultural experience while traveling. I'm fortunate to be omnivorous and without dietary restrictions other than preferences. Enjoying a wurst and beer at a community outdoor fair with music and dancing is more enjoyable than a sit down fancy dinner with table cloths. Eat bold and enjoy. Travel is more than museums and stained glass windows.

The problem with English translation menus is that the dishes will not always be translated the same. We find it hard to order what we want from them. A menu master, like Lee mentioned, would be more consistent and useful. We ask for a German menu if they bring us an English one.

I love to eat fish in Germany when I am tired of typical German food. It is almost always available. Plus international restaurants are so common that it is sometimes hard to find German food.

German restaurants usually have a menu posted outside. You can take your time there to study the choices and not be rushed into a mistake.

We love to eat out in Germany. My wife accuses me of going there primarily for the food.

There is a restaurant in Berlin, at Savignyplatz, between Carmerstrasse and Knesebackstrasse, to be exact, where Mexican food is available In this area of Berlin-Charlottenburg you can find traditional German cuisine, Thai, French, Greek, Italian, Mandarin Chinese, Vietnamese, Austrian, Shanghai cooking, etc.