Marburg an der Lahn Restaurants

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Paprica focused its menu on hearty bakes: I had a leek and potato bake which for its low price of about 5 euros was surprisingly good. The place is popular, and judging by its 24 hour opening hours and the clean, graffiti strewn toilet, I'm guessing it caters more to students than tourists. One thing to note is that the outside tables, which appear to be on a pedestrianised streets, are actually part of a fairly busy road. Traffic drives pretty close to the tables, although slowly as it is a steep hill.

Favorite Dish: The bakes.

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Since ages, Bückingsgarten is the beer garden for Marburg’s residents and students. It is conveniently located near the castle at the last steps of the most prominent path to hike up, so it is a perfect location for everyone to fill up the system with a drink prior to the next visits. They have a huge beer garden with seats for approx. 200 people, surrounded by trees and parasols give shade in sunny weather. And in case it rains there is enough seating inside. I was here countless times during my 11 years of study and also made a brief stop in May 2008, when I came as a tourist, however, for coffee and cake only. These were ok, but of course they don’t match the high quality of Cafè Vetter’s cakes. Later, I have read that Bückingsgarten belongs to a small chain of hotels, Village Hotels in Marburg and Sarnau (6 km north of Marburg). This might explain why they have expanded their menu and offer more of a “haute cuisine” now. I can’t judge the quality of meals though (it was good when I studied in Marburg, but that’s now 20 years ago…).
Bückingsgarten has special arrangements (meals) for bus groups, so it might be very busy during the peak times in summer. It was full when I was up there in May (holiday weekend), but they found a little table in the back of the beer garden and served me with the same efficiency and friendlyness as they served the families.
Coffee, cake and apple juice was 7,50 €, quite reasonable in my opinion.
They open at 11 in the morning, daily, and close at 11 p.m.

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The "Venezia" is another Marburg institution. It has been in business for decades. Located in Neustadt next to the Wasserscheide, this is a popular place for people-watching. And their icecream is good!
Either sit down at a table on the premises and order some icecream, Italian coffee or whatever. The cheaper version is getting a takeaway icecream cone from the bar (75 cents per scoop in 2009) and sit on the stone steps of the Wasserscheide (see separate tip).

Favorite Dish: Their speciality is spaghetti ice - which has nothing to do with pasta, the icecream is pressed through narrow holes to create the form of thin noodles, then covered with "tomato" (i.e. strawberry) sauce and "grated cheese" (i.e. white chocolate splits). Any icecream parlour in Germany serves spaghetti ice, but usually it is made from plain vanilla icecream. Venezia is the only place I know that uses mixed icecream, so you get three or four different flavours. Recently they have created a special spaghetti ice menu with some ten different varieties.

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Café Vetter is a Marburg institution. They are famous for their enormous grand wonderful yummy cakes - the typical German Torte, house-made and in all varieties. Forget about any diet you might have been on if you go there, otherwise you'll spoil your and your company's fun. (Footnote: they also have icecream, sandwiches and small warm lunch dishes, in case you don't like big sweet cakes. If you want a drink and nothing else, this is also fine.)

Vetter is no Grandmas-only café. It is a place where people of all ages go, groups and singles: students, families, tourists, Marburg's originals, and of course also Grandma and her friends are just as welcome. The guests are a mixed crowd of all generations and styles. For fans of outdoor seating and views they have a terrace on the back side high above the Lahn valley. Inside you sit on old sofas and crackling chairs round little tables. The interior has a certain plushy shabbiness which adds a lot to the place's special flair, I really hope they won't renovate it too soon.

It is that kind of coffeehouse where some famous poet might be sitting in a corner with a pot of coffee and writing his newest masterpiece. At the next table you may find two students discussing their maths homework, then a young family with a baby resting from a shopping tour, three elderly ladies meeting for their weekly coffee and cake afternoon, a middle-aged couple on their weekend trip, a tourist writing postcards, an old man reading the newspaper while having a tea, or me putting down notes for my VT tips on Marburg over a bowl of cafe au lait (which is served there as a big bowl of hot milk and a small pot of coffee to pour into the milk)...

Did I mention that I really like that place?

Favorite Dish: Torte, of course...

Some practical hints: Selecting your cake works according to the good old-fashioned German Café system. You order drinks - coffee, tea, or whatever you like, check the menu - at the table from the waitress. Then you get up from your table, walk to the counter, look at the cakes on display and choose. If you want to know which is which and what is in them, ask. The counter person will happily explain. She will give you a little piece of paper with a number on it, put your cake on a plate, and a second piece of paper with the same number is placed onto the plate. You go back to your table and hand the number to your waitress. She will then deliver the plate with your cake. Complicated but elegant!

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On my last evening in Marburg in May I wanted to finish my sightseeing with a coffee at the market place and then go back to my hotel and have a salad. But while I was enjoying the evening sun in the outdoor seating of Lokal Central, I suddenly spotted a colleague and his wife, so decided to join them for dinner. Lokal Central’s menu is quite extensive, a mixture of German and international dishes, but expect the type of light meals rather than heavy and overloaded plates. They have a big variety of vegetarian meals as well. I chose one of the vegetrian dishes, fried egg plant, potatos, tomatos, mushrooms, feta cheese and sour cream. It was good for 7,90 €.
Lokal Central is open from 10 in the morning until 10 in the evening. Indoor seating as well.

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Marburg’s market place is the town’s heart and luckily it has an excellent café to enjoy coffee and cake and also brunch. Their cakes are divine (sorry, I forgot to take photos.., but look at their website, “Torten” on the left navigation menu) and their Latte Macchiato is excellent as well. They have enough seating outside, at least I always found a table. They won’t rush you to finsih your coffee. It is a lovely place to have an evening drink when the town hall is illuminated.
Latte Macchiato was 2,50 € (May 2008) and the cakes are between 2 and 3 €.
The café opens at 8:30 a.m. (10 a.m. on Sundays) and closes at 6:30 p.m., however it is open until midnight from June to August, but they will make sure that it is not too loud outside and might ask their guests to go inside in case they feel that they are disturbing the neighbours.

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Since ages, Café Vetter is the cult café of Marburg. It is very much popular with local residents and students and while I was studying here, I often brought my family and friends here. It is a perfect place for coffee, cakes of course and also a relaxed afternoon or morning. They have this kind of traditional coffeehouse furniture, these sofas and chairs where you can sink in and forget the day. They also have daily newspapers, so you will find many students here which have their morning coffee while they read the newspapers (still now in the times of internet availability of all newspapers).

Favorite Dish: The cakes are freshly made and very much delicious!! Usually they are made according to the season, so in summer time you can get all kinds of fruit cakes. In winter it is more of the thick cream cakes which have enough calories to make you round just from looking at them, not to mention what happens if you eat them. But isn’t this what cakes are for? Cafè Vetter has an old tradition, by now it is run by the fourth generation of the family, and they are all still devoted to do the very best when it comes to patisserie. Vetter has a lot of unique specialities, the most famous and best is certainly their Baumkuchen, a kind of layered cake. But they don’t sell these in summer or during hot weather! During my student days I ate this a lot, but of course never thought of taking a photo. But they are shown on their website.
They also have these delicious little gifts such as the Castle Bat (see my shopping tip) or Elisabeth Kugeln (Elisabeth balls/scoops/globes) and filled chocolates. Already in October they were prepared to make little Christmas gifts with decorated tin boxes for the chocolates.
Oh I should add that they have a wonderful terrace which is open in summer (see photo). When I was here in May 2008, I spent almost two hours sitting here, reading and having Latte Macchiato and cake.
Their prices are moderate: approx. 2,50 € per piece of cake, 2,80 € for Latte Macchiato and 3,90 for a can of tea (big selection of flavours).
Opening hours: Monday and Wednesday to Sunday: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Tuesday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Directions:
Cafè Vetter is located in Reitgasse (street). This street is leading to Rudolphsplatz (piazza), which is where the old university is located. From this piazza, walk uphill with the old university building to your left. It is on the right side, after 100 m. No parking outside the café!!

I wrote this tip in September 2006, but have exchanged photos and revamped the text (April 2009).

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Walking up and down in Marburg’s old town makes hungry and thirsty. So it is good to have an excellent café and/or ice cream shop located at the “strategic” points. Café Vetter is one of these at the entrance of the old town and for the north of the old town it is Café Klingelhöfer. Another plus: it is located in a very beautiful half-timbered house, so while you are queueing to order your ice cream you can admire every detail of the house. Some seats outside are available too, in case you want to stop for coffee or soft drinks, but it might be difficult to find empty seats in summer.

Favorite Dish: Ice cream… oh my theirs is delicious! I like it if more than the typical flavours are available and Café Klingelhöfer didn’t disappoint me. Their selection included Mozart (like the filled chocolate and I could taste the Mozart flavour), chocolate-chili, rhubarb and cider, each scoop 0,70 € (which is a reasonable price for Germany where scoop prices have gone up to 1 € in 2008). I chose Mozart, lemon and raspberry and loved every lick J . In addition to ice cream and cake, they offer some very sweet special gifts like Marburger Hexentürmchen (whitch tower), Altstadt Pflaster (old town cobbles, see shopping tip), Rosen der Elisabeth (roses of Elisabeth) and Schloßkugeln (castle scoops).

Directions:
Cafè Klingelhöfer is located in Wettergasse (street). This street is the one with connection to the market place (to the south) and to Elisabethkirche (to the north). Walk from there or take the elevator of the parking lot – No. 1 in my transport tip.No parking outside the café!!