Oktoberfest beer and pork knuckles

As was the case when I went to Munich, I tried pork knuckle when I was in Berlin.

Actually this time it wasn’t a must-try any more…but when I mentioned that I liked Augustiner beer and would look for it, my friend told me that there was an Augustiner restaurant in Berlin. (There was also one in Potsdam, as I discovered later) So we went there one day after work.

Since it was Oktoberfest season, the restaurant was fully booked for at evening. The waiter even told us, “It’s Friday, it's Oktoberfest, and we’re too famous.” Even though it’s an arrogant phrase, I wouldn’t argue with that…

He went so far as to tell us that there were other restaurants nearby; for example Erdinger, which we had passed on our way there, and Maximilians.

We had seen Erdinger tables earlier (the restaurant is across the street).

The tables were just beside (or in front of?) the Französischer Dom.

Actually there were these three buildings in a row, and I snapped these photos without knowing what the buildings were:

Deutscher Dom

The concert house in the middle, and Französischer Dom

Looking back at my old Berlin post, I realize that I had visited them before as a tourist (this trip, I was not planning any touristy stuff in Berlin itself). No prizes for guessing which German name corresponds to the “German” and “French” Doms.

We decided to go to Maximilians because my friend had tried Erdinger before (at least I think that was the reason…I may have remembered wrongly :P )

Big guy welcoming us to the restaurant. Haha.

This restaurant serves Hacker-Pschorr beer, which is one of the six big breweries of Munich (you can see it on the coaster in my old post about the beer tour).

A book of Oktoberfest beers for us to choose from. We both chose this one, the basic Oktoberfest special.

It seems that they specially brew different beers for Oktoberfest, that are not available during other times of the year. I had no idea until my friend told me.

My half-litre glass of beer.

Taking a photo with my friend’s one-litre glass. The logo is on the opposite side of the handle, so we cannot see it here.

Our pork knuckle

From a different angle, so that we can see the sauce.

The pork knuckle’s skin was unfortunately not that crispy…it was quite hard. The sauerkraut was not bad, not too sour, and the little pieces of meat in it gave it a nice taste. The dumplings were…meh. Nothing special. Being quite small eaters, we couldn’t finish the dish, not even after we decided to give up on the dumplings and focus on the meat.

As for the beer, it was quite good. I think Augustiner is still smoother, but this is one that I could enjoy.

So that was it for Maximilians…but wait! Didn’t I mention that I was going to drink Augustiner?

That was the main target…and still was. In fact, before we left Augustiner, we asked the waiter to make us a reservation. He actually kept telling us it was fully booked, probably because we didn’t speak German and he expected we were tourists who were only there for a day or two. But we kept asking when was the first date there was a spot for us (It was only our first week there…we had three more weeks in which we could reserve, including weekdays if necessary. Was it really booked up for so long?). So we made our reservation and went there another day. 

(Actually later we found out that we could make a reservation through their website, or even through Google Maps. The website seems to be only in German, but the reservation widget is available in multiple languages)

In case you are interested, here is Augustiner, and you can see the other two restaurants just nearby. We arrived at U-Hausvogteiplatz, and after eating at Maximilians, we left from U-Stadtmitte.

The famous Augustiner

The menu. It seems that I started taking a photo of the last page and moved back to the front. I guess that’s normal…that is after all the most important page. :P

I opted for the first beer, which I expected (and I think I was correct) to be the one that I had before, while my friend took an Oktoberfest special which was on a separate menu card. Somehow I didn’t take a photo of that seasonal beer list.

Mine on the left, Oktoberfest beer in a special glass on the right. This time he took half a litre, so that he could try another kind later if he wished.

The pork knuckle. The presentation is not as nice as Maximilians'.

We managed to finish more of this one. The skin was also crispier, though not all parts were crispy.

And then there was the opening of a new barrel of beer… turns out that it is quite an important occasion. My friend said something about the beer being more fragrant when it is from a newly-opened barrel. I doubt that I would be able to taste the difference… :P 

There is a bell being tinkled when it is time to open a new barrel, and then people actually move up to watch. We had heard the bell in Maximilians as well, but at that time we were seated too far away to see anything. Here we could see quite clearly what was going on.

You can see that people are clapping as the new barrel is being opened.

A glass of beer on the newly-opened barrel... I dunno how that works because to me, that is too much foam. :P

So how was the beer? As good as I remember. :D

I even thought of going back one day just for the beer (maybe we could have ordered a smaller dish, like just a snack). But that turned out to be unnecessary, because my friend discovered Augustiner beer in supermarkets.

If not mistaken, it costs around €1.90 per bottle.

There are so many different types of beers in the supermarkets, and some are from the big six (those top six breweries I mentioned), and some are even Oktoberfest beers. And I’ve got to say that even though I love the taste of Augustiner, the bottle itself is the ugliest. I mentioned this to my friend and he agreed…he said that he just suddenly noticed that it was Augustiner. And guess what - after knowing what the bottle looked like, we started noticing that many food shops sell this beer (it’s in their beer fridges), and lots of people actually drink it sitting in parks or beside rivers.

And to drink it in my room, since our hotel room doesn’t come with a fridge, I asked for ice at the bar downstairs, and made my own ice bath for my beer. :P