Hamburg Restaurants

  1. 'Ti Breizh

    Even if you don't like crepes, this simple Breton restaurant will have you thinking you do. Tuck into a thin, delicious savoury number folded into a perfect square.

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  2. Balutschi

    Out the back here, there's an over-the-top Arabian Nights -style grotto, where you remove your shoes and sit on carpets and low benches. At lunch, however, most customers seem to devour the very tasty Pakistani cuisine at tables in the plainer main room.

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  3. Bok

    What the famous Wagamama is to London, Bok is to the Schanzenviertel. A local mini-chain, it has at least four outlets, however, this one has the nicest ambience. The food is mild and aimed at German palates; duck makes a frequent appearance on the pan-Asian (Thai, Korean and Japanese) menu.

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  4. Café Koppel

    Set back from busy Lange Reihe, with a garden in summer, this largely veggie café is a refined oasis where you can hear the tinkling of spoons in coffee cups mid-morning on the mezzanine floor (although they're still playing the Buena Vista Social Club some evenings!). The menu includes great breakfasts, lots of salads, stews, jacket potatoes, curries and pasta.

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  5. Café Paris

    A classic in Hamburg's relatively sparsely-populated inner city, this bustling brasserie is an excellent mix of sophisticated interior and laidback atmosphere. The Art Deco touches are fairly subtle, apart from the ceiling, which erupts into spectacular maritime-and-industry themed murals.

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  7. Chilli Club

    This trendy noodle bar is tucked away in the industrial-looking HafenCity. Asian tapas, dim sum and sushi are also served within the restaurant's red-and-black interior. Main meals are served at dinner only.

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  8. Cox

    This upmarket French-style bistro was in the vanguard of the gentrification of sleazy St Georg, and some long-term residents find it a bit snobby. Even they will admit, though, that the changing menu is delicious. Dishes include things like red snapper with basil pesto and Provençale potato salad, or veal in balsamic jus with ratatouille and gnocchi.

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  9. Das Weisse Haus

    A converted fisherman's cottage, this White House is surprisingly cramped for its status as a culinary power player. Chef Tim Mälzer is Germany's answer to Jamie Oliver, so people book a month ahead to submit themselves to his and his team's 'surprise' dinners. The best seats among the artfully low-key rooms are in the front wintergarden. Book well ahead.

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  10. Deichgraf

    Deichgraf is one leading local restaurant that can acquaint you with dishes of eels. Adventurous gourmands might like to sample Aalsuppe (eel soup) spiced with dried fruit, ham, vegetables and herbs. Or perhaps you'd prefer Labskaus , a dish of boiled marinated beef put through the grinder with mashed potatoes and herring and served with a fried egg, red beets and pickles?

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  11. Die Bank

    Hamburg's most schmicki-micki (chichi) downtown eatery is about conspicuous consumption - of 'banker's platters' (prawns, crabs, more prawns and lobster) and 'Bourse toast' (salmon tartare, poached egg, potato purée and caviar). The bar's huge sepia photo of piles of coins had us thinking we'd stumbled back into the 1980s, but the marble columns, lofty ceiling and generally opulent surrounds do impress, and the place buzzes even on a Monday night.

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  13. Die Herren Simpel

    The sky-blue mural with huge white flowers has become this café's signature. Its tiny entrance opens into an unexpectedly spacious series of retro rooms, plus a small winter garden niche. The range of breakfasts, from the fishy Sylter (from Sylt) to the healthy Frucht (fruit), is fantastic, and there are also sandwiches and light meals on offer.

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  14. East

    This design hotel's euro-Asian restaurant is its most breathtaking feature. Huge fat white columns, slightly wavy and striated like trees, stretch from the basement floor to the high ceiling above the mezzanine Yakshi's bar. Private lounges are hidden in the white honeycomb wall.

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  15. Eisenstein

    This hip international restaurant inside Altona's Zeisehallen is a postmodern symphony of stone, steel and wood wrapped around the brick chimney of an old ship propeller factory. The menu runs the gamut from homemade pasta to fish couscous.

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  16. Erikas Eck

    Traditional, wood-lined Erikas has been serving up red-eye specials since the golden oldies always on its radio were first-time hits. Fare includes schnitzels, herrings and Schweinebraten (roast pork) , and an array of breakfasts (the belegte Brötchen (sandwiches) plus accompaniments) from midnight.

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  17. Filmhauskneipe

    This relaxed café cum bistro wouldn't be out of place on Paris' left bank, with its arty clientele and simple but wholesome food.

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  19. Fischereihafen

    The hokey sea captain's uniform worn by the doorman is the only jarring note at this incredibly elegant, traditional restaurant. It's subtly maritime themed and serves Hamburg's best fish as well as some regional dishes to a mature, well-heeled clientele. Windows overlook the Elbe and a remarkable, new ship-shaped office building. Reservations are recommended.

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  20. Fleetschlösschen

    One of the cutest little cafés you ever saw, this former customs post overlooks a Speicherstadt canal and has a narrow, steel spiral staircase to the toilets. There's barely room for 20 inside, but its several outdoor seating areas are brilliant in sunny weather. Hamburg is into Kleinods (small treasures, in this case buildings) at the moment, and this one is the business.

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  21. Golden Cut

    Hamburg scenesters love this restaurant for three reasons. Firstly, the well-executed menu runs the gamut from carrot-coconut soup with baked black tiger prawns in tempura to French black pudding with truffles. Secondly, patrons can show off in the high-ceilinged room with its olive-green leather chairs and copper-plated leaf chandeliers. Thirdly, and most importantly, they can bypass the strict person on the door and walk straight into the exclusive adjoining club.

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  22. Hadley's

    It's hard to believe this warm, enveloping café was once an ER (emergency room). Through the door curtains, there's a subtle retro mix of olive-green, brown and sienna coloured fabric lampshades, but the most eye-catching feature is the sunken winter garden, where a buffet breakfast is laid out on Sundays.

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  23. Henssler & Henssler

    This smart-casual sushi bar doesn't really 'do' views; it's across the road from the water and has an opaque frontage. However, couples, businesspeople and young families all come here for the food, and seem perfectly content with the milieu of black wooden chairs, white tablecloths and concrete flooring.

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  25. Kantine im Schauspielhaus

    There's as much theatre in this cheap, bustling basement restaurant as there is on the stage in the theatre above, as waiters patrol between the tables calling out ready orders of cheap pasta, salad or meat, and thespians gossip between rehearsals.

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  26. Kumpir

    The best outlet of this jacket potato chain; near the Fritz Hotel.

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  27. La Vela

    Cruise and container ships glide by just outside the window of this buzzing, semiformal Italian restaurant. With such unusually close-up views, it keeps most other things simple: the red-brick interior is uncluttered and the menu is sparse, with about a dozen main choices. The only complicated thing is the enormous wine list.

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  28. Le Canard Nouveau

    Above the main Elbmeile strip, this swish contemporary place has a bird's-eye view of the river and imposing container port opposite - all from the curved glass frontage of its white modernist building. Chef Ali Güngörmüs prepares changing dishes such as lamb with a mustard crust and goat-cheese and fig tortellini, tuna with saffron potatoes and crispy capers, and Valrhona chocolate cake, while sated critics tip him as a contender for a Michelin star. Reserve for dinner; lunch tables are freer.

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  29. Literaturhaus Café

    This spectacular (if ever-so-slightly shabby) baroque cafe on the shore of the Outer Alster Lake is like a charming old Viennese coffee house - with golden walls, cherubs, marble columns, huge chandeliers and leafy garden views. Bistro fare of antipasto, risotto, tarts, salads and roasts is served. Its use as a cultural centre brings in a cool crowd, too.

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