Image by Louise Kunth

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

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Hamburg

Image by Louise Kunth

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

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Hamburg

Image by Louise Kunth

Café Panter is definitely my favorite café in the Marktstraße. It is a very relaxed place with good music and friendly service. 

You need to order at the bar where you get all usual coffee specialties and some snacks like salads, pasta, sandwiches or cake. Their food is not cheap but they use only organic ingredients. I once had a very tasty tomato-buffalo-mozzarella-salad with basil. Their pasta is simple and good as well. I warmly recommend you try their chocolate-brownies. They are so delicious, tasty, juicy! You’ve gotta try them if you like chocolate as much as I do.

We often go there for a coffee during day times or for an aperitive in the early evening as they are not open that long in the evening. Thus it is perfect for a break from your shopping tour through the Marktstraße.

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Café Panter | Bars, Coffee & tea, Relaxing, Snacks | Coffee € 2.50
Marktstraße 3 | Karoviertel | +4940436218
Mon – Sat 10:00 – 22:00, Sun 12:00 – 22:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Hamburg

Image by Andreas Linzner

This shop is first and foremost one thing: made out of colourful vintage terry towels! The designer Andreas Linzner uses the patterned 50s-80s fabric for one-of-a-kind cuddly pets. In the bright, fluffy shop you find yourself surrounded by donkeys, monkeys, giraffes, bunnies, pigs, cats, dogs, mice and not to forget the classical cuddle bears.

And if you want to see your favourite towel being reincarnated as your personal terry pet, just ask for this service. There is nothing Andreas Linzner can´t make out of a towel!

Children will love them. But if you get one for yourself to cuddle with, noone can laugh about it, because these toy animals most certainly are a piece of art!

Look at this cute video to have a first impression: www.altonatv.de

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Andreas Linzner | Shopping | From € 40.00
Marktstr. 6 | Karoviertel | +4940433435
Mon – Fri 13:00 – 19:00, Sat 11:00 – 17:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Hamburg

Image by Ina Kurz

If you wanna have an original souvenir from Hamburg, you need to visit Maegde und Knechte. Ina Kurz founded the shop on the idea to put poetry not into books but on textiles or other materials. On all kind of daily accessories she prints funny, witty German proverbs that give things a special meaning:

wash bags with “BLEIB SAUBER” (stay clean), pillowcases with “HIER IST MANCHMAL ZU HAUSE SEIN” (here there is home once in a while) or glasses with ICH WILL AB JETZT DIE GLÜCKLICHSTE ZEIT MEINES LEBENS HABEN (from now on I wanna have the happiest time of my life)

Certainly you will get a kind of translation in the shop; although the double meaning is not easily transferred into other languages. But maybe as a non-native speaker, these German pearls of wisdom seem to you like fortune cookies: not catching the exact meaning adds even to the charm of it.

And for sure you will have a unique memory of Germany and can show off with your language skills every time your friends ask for the translation!

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Maegde und Knechte | Shopping
Feldstrasse 44 | Karoviertel | +49404302114
Mon – Fri 12:00 – 18:00, Sat 12:00 – 15:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Hamburg