Open any Munich guidebook and you will be encouraged to visit the Hofbrauhaus to experience the beer hall culture but should it be on your top five things to do list?
We headed into the cavernous beer hall, ears assaulted by the noise generated by the hundreds of customers punctuated infrequently by the oompah band blaring their music into the din. We retreated to the beer garden and found a table in the relative quiet and pondered the menu. Ordering proved painful, a distracted waiter who seemed to understand English and German no better than I speak German and led to a couple of errors with our meal order. He rectified the mistakes without any fuss but it did reduce our enjoyment of the meal.
We enjoyed the food (we love German food) but it did not reach any great culinary heights and I certainly would not recommend the Hofbrauhaus for the food. The beer is plentiful, wonderful and served in pitchers cunningly disguised as a beer mug and this is what most patrons are here to enjoy. For a ruckus night of fun with friends, new or old, the Hofbrauhaus is party central, grab a pretzel, ‘ein mass’ (a litre of beer) and hang-on for a rollicking ride through German inspired fun.
The Hofbrauhaus is famous and like many tourist meccas you meet more tourists than locals there but it certainly lives up to its party hype. For us, we would rather find a less travelled beer hall, meet the locals and save our eardrums. If you do visit, eat elsewhere first and be ready for enjoy your beer and party hard at the Hofbrauhaus. It is a fun experience but I’m not sure it is the quintessential Munich experience.