Munich

Isarvorstadt / Glockenbachviertel

The bend of low 19th-century tenement streets between Sendlinger Tor and the Isar — Gärtnerplatz at its centre, the Glockenbach and Schlachthof quarters south of it. Munich's queer heart since the 1960s, its most self-consciously stylish eating-and-drinking district since the 2000s, and now one of its most expensive addresses. Everything is walkable, nothing is more than four storeys, and the whole thing empties out onto the river.

Who it's for: Second-time visitors who've done Marienplatz and want to see how Munich actually lives; food and drink travelers; LGBTQ+ travelers, for whom this is the city's home base; anyone who wants a dinner that isn't pork and dumplings and a bar that isn't a beer hall.

Things to know

  • This is a district for eating, drinking and walking, not for ticking off sights. The Deutsches Museum is the one big-ticket attraction and it belongs to the whole city, not just this quarter.
  • Restaurants here are small and reservation-driven in a way Munich's beer halls are not. For anything at the Gasthaus Waltz / Brasserie Colette end, book days ahead; for the small bars, arriving before 8pm is the reservation.
  • German closing days bite hard: Gasthaus Waltz is shut Tuesday and Wednesday, several kitchens close Monday, and Sunday is quiet on the food side outside brunch. Check before you walk.
  • Cash still matters. Chi Thu is cash-only, several Imbiss counters and small cafés are cash or Girocard, and 'we take cards' is not a safe assumption below about €20.
  • Gärtnerplatz in summer is a public living room, and sitting on the theatre steps has been banned — which is why the central lawn is shoulder-to-shoulder on warm evenings. It is a lovely scene and it is also very loud for the people who live above it; the city fields noise complaints every year.
  • The district is Munich's LGBTQ+ centre and reads that way on the street: rainbow flags, the CSD route, Deutsche Eiche, the Sub community centre. Christopher Street Day is usually the second weekend of July and takes over the quarter.
  • It is a 10-minute walk from Sendlinger Tor or Marienplatz, so you do not need transit to get here. U1/U2 Fraunhoferstraße and Müllerstraße put you in the middle of it; trams 17/18 run along the Isar side.
  • Nightlife here is bars, not clubs, and it winds down earlier than you'd expect for a district with this reputation — the late-night answer is Bergwolf's counter or the club floor at Bahnwärter Thiel in the Schlachthof quarter.