Top 5 Neighborhoods for Dining
Dining in Hamburg
The Fischmarkt in Altona runs every Sunday morning from 5am to 9:30am and is part market, part social event. Fresh fish, smoked eel, and Fischbrötchen (fish rolls) are sold alongside fruit, flowers, and clothing in the market hall and along the waterfront. Brücke 10 at the Landungsbrücken serves some of the city's best Fischbrötchen -- the Bismarck herring roll is the one to order.
The Schanzenviertel -- known locally as die Schanze -- is Hamburg's most exciting food neighborhood. Schulterblatt and the side streets running off it have everything from Vietnamese pho restaurants to Italian wine bars to upscale German cooking. Bullerei in the Sternschanze area, run by TV chef Tim Mälzer, occupies a converted cattle market and serves robust European cooking. For something smaller, Nil on Neuer Pferdemarkt does creative modern German food in a relaxed setting.
Ottensen in Altona has a village feel with an excellent concentration of restaurants. Spritzenplatz is the neighborhood's social center, and the streets around it have independent restaurants that change frequently as the area evolves. Zum Alten Lotsenhaus near the Elbe is traditional and charming.
For international food, the streets around Steindamm near Hauptbahnhof offer Turkish, Afghan, and Iranian restaurants at low prices. The Karolinenviertel, a small neighborhood between the Schanze and St. Pauli, has developed a food scene that mixes street food with more ambitious cooking.
Seasonal highlight: Grünkohl (kale) season from November through February is a Hamburg institution -- the hearty stew with sausages and potatoes appears on menus everywhere and is traditionally eaten after a Kohlfahrt, a group walk through the countryside.