The Jellyfish is a restaurant which is specialised in seafood. They have few, daily fresh created dishes focused on seafood but there is at least one vegetarian dish and one meat dish as well. The service is really nice and willing to give you plenty of information about the ingredients and their supplier.

I like their interior-atmosphere a lot. It is kind of a rustic-mediterranean style: they use white and light-blue colours and their tables are created of driftwood, which gives the room a warm look. And there is this tiny and lacy jellyfish which appears here and there.

We spent a nice evening there together with two friends. And we were all delighted by our choice. I had a seafood-soup and afterwards angler-fish with pea-puree. Really good, as you can see on this picture.

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Jellyfish | Restaurants (Seafood) | Main dish € 15.00
Weidenallee 12 | Schanze | +49404105414
Tue – Fri 12:00 – 15:00 & 18:00 – 22:00, Sat – Mon 18:00 – 22:00

Between Schanze and Grindel you’ll find a very beautiful old building that once was a hospital. Nowadays, there is a very beautiful café, the Hadley’s, located in the former emergency room area. Don’t worry, there is nothing left, that might remind you of a hospital. During the daytime the Hadley’s is a café with a fantastic breakfast and delicious cake.

In the evening it turns into a bar. They offer a great selection of wines. On every first Monday in a month you can go to “Monday meets Jazz”, a live Jazz night. You can check their homepage for their current program.

Another really nice offer is their “Abendbrot”. You can have the typical German supper with bread, cheese etc. together with some friends. We spent a beautiful birthday-party there, with many friends on a long table, covered with dozens of good things.

In summer you can enjoy the great outdoor seats in the garden. You’re sitting in the backyard, very green and calm. Just beautiful.

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Hadley’s | Bars, Coffee & tea, Music, Snacks, Restaurants (Mixed) | Breakfast from € 10.00
Beim Schlump 84a | Grindelviertel | +49404505075
Mon – Sat from 10:00 – open end, Sun from 11:00 – open end

The Krug is located in St Pauli, Paul-Roosen-Straße. You’ll get some really good south German food there, reaching from simple things like German “Abendbrot” or sausage salad to simple but good pasta to pig-ling with pumpkin-potatoe-puree for example. And they have a great selection of wine. Last time we went there with friends and tried several bottles of red wine which were all amazing. The service was really good, she could tell us a lot about the wine. 

I like the simple interior with lots of wood and the bar with its open kitchen behind. Every time we went there, there was one cook, who was doing his job there all alone (which could be the reason for waiting for the food a little while). Before you go there you should definitely make a reservation as it is always very crowded. 

Details about this spot (Show on map)
KRUG Weinstubezi | Restaurants (German) | Main dish € 14.00
Paul-Roosen-Straße 35 | Sankt Pauli | +4915114075934
Mon – Sat from 18:00

As I LOVE everything about cooking, food and eating (I read cookbooks like other people read novels) this place is one of my favorite spots.

The Kochkontor is a mixture of bookstore and restaurant. They sell cookbooks of all shades, from different countries, about different topics – everything your culinary heart could wish for.

Included in this shop is a big open-space kitchen and a few tables. Every day they select one of their incredible plenty of books and cook one or two dishes for lunch. You should go there early as there are only a few tables for many potential guests. If you liked your dish you may just buy the appropriate book or any other book that caught your eye.

If you have the possibility and you speak German you can also participate in one of their cooking classes. I haven’t done this yet, but it’s definitely on my agenda. I would probably choose „Classique – French cuisine”. Have a look at the dates on their homepage. Many classes are booked out long before.

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Kochkontor | Coffee & tea, Shopping, Snacks, Restaurants | Lunch dish € 8.00
Karolinenstraße 27 | Karoviertel | +494043216036
Mon – Fri 10:00 – 19:00, Sat 10:00 – 17:00

Mooi means beautiful in Dutch and that is a perfect description for this restaurant. Mooi is a very charming small place in a backyard in the Karolinenstraße / Karoviertel. They offer very good food, high quality and kind of extravagant. It’s not cheap, especially in the evening, but it is worth its prices.

Don’t worry, it is not that kind of snobby or affected place. The atmosphere is very warm, cosy and down-to-earth, the interior is simple but elegant. That’s what I like so much, to have really upper-class food in a pleasant atmosphere with nice guests and a lovely service.

Mooi offers seasonal ingredients now in winter for example winterly salads with hazelnut and avocado, roast goose with walnut-cream and marzipan-quark-dumplings. Furthermore they provide really creative and fine aperitives such as cremont with ginger.

During the week they are only open for lunch, on Friday and Saturday you can have dinner there. You should book a table when you go there in the evening.

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Mooi | Restaurants (Intern.) | Main dish € 18.00
Karolinenstraße 7, Backyard | Karoviertel | +494043190066
Mon 12:00 – 15:00, Tue – Fri 12:00 – 15:00 & 18:00 – 23:00
Sat 18:00 – 23:00, Sun 11:00 – 16:00

The Brachmanns is a combination of a restaurant with a small gallery in the basement and a nice bar. Some of our friends used to celebrate their birthdays there, as there is a room you can rent for a party after the dinner. The Brachmanns is located in central St. Pauli so it is a good starting point for a night out anyway.

Brachmanns Galeron’s kitchen is high quality plain fare with a Southern German touch. They have only a few dishes which are scheduled on the handwritten menu. You should definitely try the typical south german “Maultaschen” (pasta squares filled with meat and spinach) – tasty!

What I especially like is that they get their meat only from a traditional family-run Hamburg butcher. But you will get some very good vegetarian dishes their as well. I feel fine there because I like the atmosphere, the service, the clientèle and the warm interior.

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Brachmanns Galeron | Art & culture, Restaurants (German) | Main dish € 12.00
Hein-Hoyer-Straße 60 | Sankt Pauli | +494067305123
Wed – Mon 18:30 – 23:00

You should go to the Oberhafenkantine by foot because the walk is beautiful: You start at the Deichtorhallen (see article Deichtorhallen), walk over the Oberhafenbrücke and at the bridges’ end it is on the left side. The Oberhafenkantine is a very special place with a long history. And it looks very special, because of many storm tides and undercutting it is so crooked that I sometimes feel a bit queasy when I walk in! 

Since its opening in 1925 it was a place for dockworkers who got their coffee and their burger there. When landlady Anita died in 1997 (she worked there from 1925 to 1997!) the Oberhafenkantine was closed and then restored and reopened in 2006. It is a lovely place where you can enjoy some regional specialties. Everything is fresh and handmade. And in summer it is perfect when you sit outside next to the water and have some drinks. Next to the Oberhafenkantine is the Zollamt-Oberhafen a small off-gallery for contemporary art.  

By the way: The Oberhafenkantine marks the starting point of the Oberhafencity which is a huge area with epic free space and old warehouses directly at the Elbe. It is expected to develop within the next decades and is the antipole to the Hafencity. 

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Oberhafenkantine | Bars, Coffee & tea, Music, Snacks, Restaurants (Regional) | Main Dish € 12.00
Stockmeyerstraße 39 | City center
12:00 – 22:00 daily

Since we did our last project in Hamburgs Hafencity we were more or less forced to hang around there. Locals are really sceptical towards the Hafencity, because it is an very fast growing and expensive area, dozens of new buildings and quays were built within the last years. The Hafencity is blamed to be a very clean and cold place, with no heart and no life in it. Frankly spoken – it needs to grow, it needs people who live there, cafés, bars and more shops. But if you embark on this area, it is amazing – at least that is what I feel. 

The place I love most there is Heimat Küche und Bar. It is the gastronomic part of the Designhotel 25hours. They offer breakfast, lunch and dinner, often with DJ’s. And since it is one of few bars there it is often really crowded.

The food is based on local ingredients and simple but really good. Try fish’n chips, that’s awesome. The interior is inspired by the world of shipping, harbour and Hamburgs warehouse district in combination with some design classics. I would be happy to have their chairs round my dinner table. 

Details about this spot (Show on map)
HEIMAT Küche und Bar | Bars, Coffee & tea, Music, Restaurants (Local) | Main Dish € 15.00
Überseeallee 5 | City center
12:00 – 00:00 daily

The guys from the Krug (check the Krug Weinstubezi article) opened up a new space last summer: Oberstübchen. The Oberstübchen is located directly over the club Pudel Club (check the Golden Pudel Club article) in the Park Fiction (check the Parc Fiction article). 

You can sit on their awesome terrace now and enjoy the sun and free wifi. Inside it is very cozy, with lots of wooden furniture and with a fantastic view over the harbor. You can enjoy different dishes, from soups and salads, to pasta or coq au vin. On the weekends they offer really good breakfast. They have some cultural events in the evening as well, so you might want to check their facebookpage for that. 

Not much to say, it is a nice place, with good food and good wine. You should go there. 

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Oberstübchen | Art & culture, Bars, Restaurants (Intern.) | Main dish € 14.90
St. Pauli Fischmarkt 27 | Sankt Pauli | +4915112200488
Tue – Fri 18:00 – 00:00, Sat 11:00 – 01:00, Sun 11:00 – 19:00

The Klippkroog is a lovely café and restaurant which opened up not too long ago at Große Bergstraße in Altona. I became aware of this spot because some friends of ours hijacked the kitchen for two months last summer (everything legal, take a look at their homepage). They offer breakfast, lunch and dinner and pretty good coffee specialties. All their food is is made with regional and seasonal ingredients, it’s fresh and delicious. I love their interior, it is arranged with products from PLY, a great shop for retro industrial furniture. As the weather is just perfect at the moment you can enjoy their outdoor area.

Some background information: The große Bergstraße is a street which is in focus of Hamburgs political discussion because it is pretty much concerned by a gentrification process. Especially the fact that IKEA is going to open there, causes an ongoing storm of protests. Even if the Klipkroog is one of the new spots there I like it a lot. I would appreciate a mix of new and old. Lets see how it works. 

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Klippkroog | Bars, Coffee & tea, Restaurants (Regional) | Main dish € 9.90
Große Bergstraße 255 | Altona & Ottensen
Tue – Sat 08:00 – 00:00, Sun – Mon 09:00 – 18:00