Two Unique Restaurants in Bamberg, Germany

Bamberg is a town located in the north of Bavaria, Germany. It can be covered on a day trip from Munich or Nuremberg (2.5 or 1.0 hours by train respectively). A large part of Bamberg has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993. The pictures of this quaint little town proved irresistible and we made a visit to the town during our recent trip to Germany. We made the most of our day trip by stopping by two unique restaurants in Bamberg – the smoked beer brewery Schlenkerla and Eckerts restaurant.

Schlenkerla

Schlenkerla is situated in the centre of Bamberg. It is in one of the houses along one of the narrow lanes just beside the Bamberg cathedral. Schlenkerla is best known for their smoked beer which has the smell and taste of bacon. With a history dating back to 1405, it is now run by the 6th generation of the Trum family.

According to the Schlenkeria website the smoky flavor is achieved by exposing the malt to the intense, aromatic smoke of burning beech-wood logs at the Schlenkerla-maltings. There is also an amusing story behind the name of the brewery. This is what the website tells us: “Its roots lie within the Frankish vernacular, in which “schlenkern” is an expression for walking not straight – just like a drunken person does. Allegedly one of the former brewers had a funny way of walking due to an accident, or maybe due to the beer, and so he was called the “Schlenkerla” – the little dangler”.

The Schlenkeria tavern looked very much like what we would expect a historic German tradition to be. The atmosphere was serious with lots of dark, heavy wood. The walls are lined with paintings and hunting trophies.

Schlenkeria Smoked Beer and Food

Being the first of two unique restaurants in Bamberg that we were planning to have meals in that day, we made it a point to eat as light as possible, to leave space for the second restaurant. Our main focus at Schlenkeria was the smoke beer, but it turned out that the food choices were quite tempting as well.

The Schlenkeria smoked beer looked like a pint of Guinness. But that was where the similarity ends. We could smell the smokiness of the beer. Curiously, it did have a meaty bacon taste as well. It might even be a bit savoury. The thought of a bacon tasting beer may be off-putting but it is quite delicious in real life. At only 3 euros it was great value for money as well.

We had two dishes to go with our beer. Bamberg style onion in smoked beer sauce (8.90 euros) and traditional Bamberg style sausages with sauerkraut and bread (5.50 euros). Both were great and somehow the pairing of sausages and beer seem to go so well. We were also pleasantly surprised by the reasonable prices of the food and smoked beer. Given that it is such a famous restaurant and beer, drawing a lot of tourists and locals, it was nice to find friendly service and reasonable prices here.

Smoked Beer Brewery Schlenkerla
Dominikanerstrasse 6 – 96049 Bamberg
Germany

Eckerts Restaurant

Bamberg is a river town. Part of its charm lies in the way the river weaves its way into the town. Some old buildings are built right to the edge of the water. The Eckerts restaurant is located in one such building. Their website describes it as follows: “Our restaurant Eckerts is anchored like a ship in the middle of the river Regnitz”. Part of the building looks old but there are some modern features like the sculpture out in front and its interior.

Our appetites were not as robust by the time we had our second lunch. We had beer with some Nuremberg sausages and coffee at Eckerts. The food at Eckerts was not bad but the atmosphere was not as unique. I think its exterior was more attractive than the interior. The two historic restaurants in Bamberg were some of the many beautiful buildings we saw at Bamberg.

Soon it was time to make our way to the train station and head to Nuremberg. The station is within walking distance from the town centre. A brisk straight walk takes 20 minutes. A long meandering walk, stopping by shops and nice places takes about 50 minutes.