Hofbräuhaus To End Munich :)

After spending some time at the hotel making phone calls home to wish our moms a happy mothers day, we headed out to try the world’s most famous beer hall, Hofbräuhaus, for our last meal in Munich.  We’re both in agreement that this was the best possible way to finish off our time in our first German city – the food was excellent, the beer was amazing (and back home, I never drink beer!), and the atmosphere was one of a kind.  It’s no wonder this place runs second only to Oktoberfest as a tourist icon of Munich!

In case you’re like me and haven’t heard of Hofbräuhaus until now, here’s a bit of info you may find interesting.  Hofbräuhaus began as a royal brewery back in 1589 and is still a state-owned brewery today.  There are now franchise stores all over the world, but from what I’ve heard, none are quite as good as the Hofbräuhausin Munich.  The restaurant/beer hall in Munich can seat up to 3500 people, and during busy travel seasons you will likely be cramped at one of the long wooden tables on a bench with other tourists as many of the tables are reserved for regular customers (which is one reason some people give this place bad reviews).  Lucky for us, this is the slow season for travel and we had a table to ourselves

Apart from the Münchner Weisse, which comes in a 0.5-litre glass, all beers are only served in 1 litre steins.  Following the waiter’s suggestion, Paul tried the Hofbräu Dark beer and I tried the Hofbräu Original.  Considering the stein was so big and heavy I had to use two hands to hold it up to drink from it, it was amazing that I managed to get through ¾ of it without passing out!  It was also amazing to see the waiters and waitresses (dressed in traditional Bavarian style clothing) carry up to ten steins at once while serving tables!  We were hugely impressed by the people around us who each had two or three steins, but I guess that’s normal for Munich where the residents average 350 litres of beer per year (compared to Canada where we only average about 80 litres)!  Of course, if you take into consideration the taste of Canadian beer, it’s no wonder we don’t drink much of it…
 
The food was surprisingly good – we expected that a place known for it’s beer would only serve mediocre food, but it was actually one of the better meals we’ve had on our trip!  We ordered four dishes (Paul got goulash and an order of meatballs, and I tried the HB sausage platter with a side order of mixed salad) because we thought each plate would be small since the prices were so cheap (between 3-7 euros), but the servings were rather large and we had more than enough food.  If we had to pick a favourite dish it would be the meatballs, but everything was very tasty.  We didn’t try their specialty, the Hofbräuhaus München’s Weißwurst, because we’re not fans of white sausage, but it’s supposedly the best thing on their food menu!

The only downside to being there during a not so busy time was the fact that no one sang along when the band (who are stationed in the middle of the hall all day) played what is normally a lively German drinking song, In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus… Even without this entertaining aspect, the atmosphere was lively and music was played throughout the evening, which added to our experience.  I would definitely advise anyone going to Munich to visit Hofbräuhaus, even if it’s sometimes cramped and hot – you won’t find another beer hall like it!