The 5 International Restaurant St Pauli You Can’t Miss in Hamburg
“International restaurant” near St. Pauli turns out to be a wider net than the district’s own
borders. Search the harbour-facing stretch of Hamburg for it and the highest-rated results spill
north into St. Georg’s café-and-kneipe streets around the Hauptbahnhof and into the Altstadt’s
shopping core, as well as landing squarely on the Landungsbrücken waterfront itself. We pulled every
result Google returns for that search, weighted rating against review count so a 4.4 from nine
thousand voices counts for more than a 4.9 from thirty, and kept the five that came out ahead. Between
them they cover a football-kneipe-turned-Gaststätte, a hundred-year-old maritime dining room stuffed
with genuine ship salvage, a TV chef’s fish-and-chips counter, a floating Fischbrötchen stand at the
harbour’s edge, and a hotel whose three restaurants look straight down the Elbe.
Frau Möller, St. Georg
The most-reviewed name on this list after Brücke 10, and the most unpretentious: Frau Möller calls itself a Gaststätte und Fußballkneipe — a neighbourhood
restaurant and football pub in one — on Lange Reihe in the heart of St. Georg. It runs a full
breakfast service from 8:00 AM, a proper kitchen from 11:00 AM, and a weekly specials board, but the
thing it actually built its name on is showing football, which is why TripAdvisor handed it a
Certificate of Excellence back in 2018. Open daily from 8:00 AM, Monday through Thursday to 3:00 AM,
Friday and Saturday to 4:00 AM, Sunday to 2:00 AM. 4.5★ from 9,650 reviews.
Schifferbörse Hamburg, St. Georg
The history goes back to 13th-century Hamburg, when ship captains negotiated freight rates at the
harbour, sealed the contract at City Hall, and then toasted the deal over wine at a tavern —
Schifferbörse has run that same toasting tradition at Kirchenallee for over
a hundred years now. The dining room is decorated entirely in genuine nautical salvage, some pieces
over 350 years old and originally sourced by Hamburg film studios for television productions, which
is the kind of detail that explains why regulars keep calling the atmosphere a magnet on its own. The
kitchen serves classic Northern German dishes built around what’s in season — asparagus, wild
mushrooms — rather than a fixed card. Open daily, 12:30 to 10:30 PM. 4.5★ from 5,514
reviews.
Ahoi Steffen Henssler, Altstadt
The one restaurant on this list built by a name most Germans already know: Steffen Henssler is a
Hamburg TV chef, and Ahoi on Spitalerstraße, near the Hauptbahnhof, is his
casual seafood concept rather than his fine-dining one. It runs two ways at once — a quick-service
fish-and-chips counter for a grab-and-go order, and a full sit-down menu behind it that stretches past
seafood into a teriyaki beef burger, schnitzel, and churros for dessert. It’s dog-friendly, which fits
the relaxed, high-turnover feel of a spot built for a lunch break rather than an occasion. Open daily,
noon to 10:00 PM. 4.4★ from 9,106 reviews.
Brücke 10, St. Pauli-Landungsbrücken
The most-reviewed name on the whole list, and the only one actually inside St. Pauli itself: Brücke 10 is a fish-sandwich stand built on a floating pontoon at the
outermost Landungsbrücken, close enough to the water that one reviewer put it as “you can’t get closer
to the Elbe without floating on it.” A local artist, Victor Klassen, fitted out the stand for free
because he rated the Fischbrötchen the best in the city, and the kitchen’s own philosophy is
deliberately plain — no lettuce, no cucumber, no tomato, just a crispy roll and fresh fish, alongside
Brathering and smoked mackerel. A thirty-person, multilingual crew runs it, which matters on a stretch
of harbour this popular with visitors. Open daily from 10:00 AM (9:00 AM on Sundays) to 10:00 PM.
4.5★ from 10,662 reviews.
Empire Riverside Hotel, St. Pauli
Google files this one as a hotel rather than a restaurant, and that’s the honest description —
Empire Riverside is a David Chipperfield-designed tower on
Bernhard-Nocht-Straße, a short walk from the Reeperbahn, that happens to hold three separate dining
venues worth knowing about even if you’re not staying there: waterkant, a fish restaurant with an open
show kitchen; DAVID’S, styled as Hanseatic-elegant with a fireplace lounge; and 20up, the skyline bar
the hotel itself calls Hamburg’s most popular, built entirely around its harbour panorama. The hotel
runs around the clock, 24 hours every day of the week — individual restaurant hours are set
separately and worth checking before a visit. 4.6★ from 8,499 reviews.
All five, on the map
The interactive map has these five marked and numbered, spanning the
walk from Bernhard-Nocht-Straße at the harbour up to Lange Reihe near the Hauptbahnhof, with a button
that hands the walking-and-transit route between them straight to Google Maps on your phone.
Getting the most out of a St. Pauli restaurant crawl
These five run from the Landungsbrücken waterfront to St. Georg, which is a longer walk than it
looks on a map and genuinely faster by U-Bahn or the harbour ferries that stop right by Brücke 10. If
you’re visiting rather than living here, a local eSIM from Airalo
means transit apps and maps work the moment you land, and a booked transfer from Welcome Pickups takes the guesswork out of getting from Hamburg
Airport into the city before the first reservation. Paying in euros without a foreign transaction fee
across five different restaurant bills adds up over one evening — a Wise
card is the simplest fix for that. St. Pauli is also one of the more common Hamburg neighbourhoods for
a longer stay rather than a single visit, given how much nightlife and harbour life sits on its
doorstep, and HousingAnywhere covers mid- and long-term
rentals in the area for anyone here for more than a weekend.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the best international restaurant near St. Pauli?
By rating weighted against review volume, Empire Riverside Hotel’s dining venues come out on top at
4.6★ from 8,499 reviews, with Frau Möller and Brücke 10 both close behind at 4.5★. “Best”
depends heavily on what you want: Brücke 10 for a harbourside Fischbrötchen, Empire Riverside for a
view-driven dinner, Frau Möller for a casual football-pub evening.
Which of these is actually inside St. Pauli?
Only two: Brücke 10, on the St. Pauli-Landungsbrücken themselves, and Empire Riverside Hotel, on
Bernhard-Nocht-Straße near the Reeperbahn. Frau Möller and Schifferbörse Hamburg sit in neighbouring
St. Georg, and Ahoi Steffen Henssler is in the Altstadt near the Hauptbahnhof — all close enough to
fold into the same day out, but not technically in the district.
Is Empire Riverside Hotel’s restaurant open to non-guests?
The hotel doesn’t publish that restriction on its own site, and hotel restaurants of this kind
typically welcome outside diners — but confirm directly before making the trip, since the JSON data
behind this page covers the hotel’s overall rating and hours, not each individual restaurant’s own
booking policy.
Is Frau Möller busy on football match days?
Very likely, given it markets itself explicitly as a Fußballkneipe built around screening matches —
if a quiet meal is the goal, checking the fixture list before booking is worth the two minutes.
Which of these has the best harbour view?
Empire Riverside’s 20up skyline bar and waterkant restaurant are both built specifically around
their Elbe panorama from the hotel tower; Brücke 10 gets closer to the water itself, sitting on a
pontoon at the Landungsbrücken rather than above it.
- 1. Frau Möller — Lange Reihe 96, 20099 Hamburg
- 2. Schifferbörse Hamburg — Kirchenallee 46, 20099 Hamburg
- 3. Ahoi Steffen Henssler Hamburg — Spitalerstraße 12, 20095 Hamburg
- 4. Brücke 10 — St. Pauli-Landungsbrücken 10, 20359 Hamburg
- 5. Empire Riverside Hotel Hamburg — Bernhard-Nocht-Straße 97, 20359 Hamburg
