Delicious Bavarian Food – 6 traditional dishes to try in Germany

If you like hearty home-style meals and plenty of meat, then Bavaria in Southern Germany is your kind of place. I visited this region of Germany on a short trip to see the Oberammergau Passion Play and got a taste of the delicious Bavarian food you can expect when you eat out in a typical Gasthaus or Biergarten.

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1. Roast meat and dumplings in Bavaria

Meat, especially veal, pork and sausages feature prominently on every menu in Germany and you’ll find plenty of traditional Bavarian dishes of roast meat on the menu typically served with potato dumplings and salad or vegetables. I did find that practically everything came with lots of sauce or gravy, so if you prefer your sauce served separately, you can mention this when you order.

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2. Wiener Schnitzel

Another very typical dish is the Wiener Schnitzel, a thin fillet of veal that’s coated with breadcrumbs and fried, served with a wedge of lemon and any chicken dishes would often be served with a wine or mushroom sauce.

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3. Try the river fish – trout, pike or salmon

When it comes to fish, the river fishes, such as salmon, trout or pike are often served with a herby cream sauce and rice. After I’d had a few servings of traditional Bavarian food with slices of meat swimming in gravy I decided that the fish was a more reliable choice if you prefer something lighter.

Read more from this trip: Bavarian Lake swimming in the Badesee near Altötting

4. Try the salads in Bavaria

I did enjoy the mixed salads, which in Germany seem to be more of a compilation of other salads, unlike the UK where you’ll get an uninspiring mixture of lettuce, tomato and cucumber. You might find that within one bowl you get a small serving of any of the following; sliced peeled cucumber in a vinegar dressing, mixed salad leaves, creamy potato salad, grated carrots and sliced red onions.

Read more food articles: Where and what to eat in Munich

5. Potato pockets with soft cheese

One of my favourite lunchtime meals was a large plate of this mixed salad topped with deep fried potato pockets filled with soft cheese – as there was so much colourful salad to work though I didn’t feel so guilty about eating those crispy deep fried potato croquettes.

6. Buy some seasonal fruit from the market

When it comes to fruit and desert, cherries are the undisputed fruit of Bavaria although you’ll also find red and black currants, raspberries and strawberries in season. We bought a large punnet of raspberries in the market at Altötting for a picnic lunch before our cycle ride to the badesee, but the dark, glossy cherries looked the most beautiful.

Look out for other tasty Bavarian specialties in the market

If I’m honest, I found that when eating from restaurant set menus, the dishes all start to look a bit the same, but I think that we were hampered by a limited knowledge of German so we possibly missed some of the more unusual dishes. I found that when we shopped from a farmer’s market for our picnic, we were able to point out some more interesting things including small fried potato rosti cakes, a soft cheese flavoured with paprika and some little savoury pastries.

Of course, all of this hearty Bavarian fare should be washed down by a large beer, served by a waitress wearing the traditional dirndl and seated in a pretty biergarten with a view of the Alps in the distance. Prost!

Explore more of the region on this day-trip to the splendid castles of Neuschwanstein and Linderhof, lunch in Hohenschwangau, and through the little town of Oberammergau

More articles about our visit to Altötting from this trip to Bavaria

A pilgrimage to see the Black Madonna at Altötting in Germany
Hotels in Altötting – Review of Hotel Zur Post
Bavarian Lake swimming in the Badesee near Altötting

This trip to Bavaria also included a visit to the Oberammergau Passion Play

More articles about Oberammergau and the Passion Play

Tips for seeing the Oberammergau Passion Play
Painted houses and wood carving at Oberammergau – in Bavaria, Germany
An introduction to the Oberammergau Passion Play
Podcast: The Oberammergau Passion Play and visit to Altotting

Altötting – Visitor Resources

More information to plan your trip is available on the Altötting official tourism website

Hotels in Altötting: We stayed at Hotel Zur Post, a pleasant and traditional family run hotel right on the main square. Check prices and book for Hotel Zur Post and other Hotels in Altötting

Visit the Jerusalem Panorama in Altötting website

Oberammergau Passion Play – Visitor Resources

To plan your visit to Oberammergau check out the official Oberammergau Passion Play Passionsspiele website.

You can also get ideas for visiting Germany on the Germany Travel official tourism website and on the Bavaria tourism website.

Our 5 day tour to the Oberammergau Passion Play and other places in the region was booked with Pax Travel. They organise holidays to this and many other pilgrimage destinations.

Looking for a guide to the Oberammergau passion play? We recommend The Pilgrim’s Guide to Oberammergau. If you need a guidebook for visiting Germany we recommend the DK Eyewitness Germany Travel Guide or the Lonely Planet Germany Travel Guide.

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This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com

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