Gallery

Augustiner Großgaststätte

Augustiner Großgaststätte is smack in the middle of the pedestrian corridor, just past the Karls Tor on Neuhauser Strasse, very near the Frauenkirche. It's really two beerhalls in one: a restaurant portion with a little more shine on the silverware and the blue-collar beerhall section, where spilling one's suds occasionally is seen as an art not a vice. And of course, the beer is Augustiner, the best in Munich.

 

Augustiner Keller

"Tighter than salt on a pretzel", these beer drinkers are joined together in one of Munich's largest beer gardens, Augustiner Keller, near the Hauptbahnhof main train station. Seating for 5,000 seems hardly enough and this is a place best visited early, before the after-work crowd arrives. Once you find a place, though, it's yours for the evening if you choose. This is another top-rated Munich beer garden.

 

Hirschgarten

The Hirschgarten is the largest beer garden in the world, with seating for 8,000. Hirsch means deer, and there are more than a few to be seen here, albeit behind wire enclosures. This an Augustinerbräu wirtshaus, which makes it all that more inviting. It's a wonderful place to while away an afternoon, with plenty of serve-yourself seating where you can bring your own picnic and spread a tablecloth if you want. The one requirement is that you not bring your own beverages and instead walk up to the kruge schrank, select and wash out your own liter stein and then take it around to the Ausschank for a fill-up of Munich's favorite beer. The Hirschgarten is also a top-rated beer garden in the BDG2M, and always has been in each previous edition.