You can eat very well at the Oktoberfest - if you know what to order.

Culinary-wise, the Oktoberfest is not only known for the Oktoberfest beer, but you can also eat well there. Both despite but also because of the huge amounts of food that are served there. Despite this, as it obviously is a challenge to serve thousands at the same time and, because of this as grilled meat that needs hours of preparation is always available in the desired state.

Preferred as a whole

In general, it’s a good idea to stick with meat that is grilled as a whole, i.e. chicken, ducks, geese, veal, ox, pork, and veal knuckles, as regular restaurants are usually not able to offer those at an excellent quality due to how much time they need on the grill. The most popular of those dishes is grilled chicken.

Pork sausages with Sauerkraut (Schweinswürstl) are also a very classic and rather cheap option, however, you’ll get good quality Schweinswürstl practically everywhere while you probably aren’t offered grilled Oxen on a daily basis.

Cold dishes (Brotzeit)

Actually, the famous Oktoberfest chicken isn’t the most traditional fare there is. In the first decades of Oktoberfest history, when you didn’t visit the Oktoberfest to dine but simply ate there because you were already there, people would primarily eat bread and cheese. Still today, simple cold dishes, the so-called Brotzeiten (“Bread times”) are still very popular – be it as starters or entrees.

Popular cold dishes are headcheese (Presssack), sausages, salted radish (Radi), pickles (Essiggurken), sausage salad (Wurstsalat), cold pork roast, and spread cheese (Obazda/Obatzter). All tents offer mixed platters of cold dishes (Brotzeitbrettl). Some of them even include chicken or duck. Cheaper offerings are often dominated by radish.