Nuremberg food tours: three things worth eating, and whether you need help finding them
What you can find without any help at all
Bratwurst. Nuremberg's are finger-sized, grilled over beechwood, and protected by EU origin rules. The traditional order is Drei im Weggla — three in a bread roll, from a serving hatch, for around EUR 3. There are several long-established grill houses in the old town and they are on every map. The bratwurst page covers what to order and where.
Lebkuchen. Sold everywhere, made here since the fourteenth century. The grade you want is Elisenlebkuchen, which is legally required to be mostly nuts and almost no flour. Any of the old bakeries will sell it to you across a counter. See Lebkuchen.
Both of those are a five-minute errand, not a tour.
The part that is genuinely hard on your own
Nuremberg's beer is the exception, and it is the reason to consider a tour at all.
The city brewed a dark amber Rotbier for centuries — a style that all but died out and has been revived by a small number of breweries here. It is not what a visitor orders by default and it is not what most bars pour. Meanwhile the sandstone cellars under the old town, which is where the beer was stored before refrigeration, are locked; the brewery that sits above them runs the tours that go down.
So a red beer tour is not a convenience purchase in the way a bratwurst tour would be. It gets you a style you would probably never order, in cellars you cannot otherwise enter, with the reason the two are connected. That is a real thing to buy.
Red Beer TourNuremberg: The Red Beer Tour
700 years of brewingNuremberg: Guided tour – 700 years of brewing tradition of Nuremberg red beer
Red beer + Blaue Zipfel"Rotes Bier" and "Blaue Zipfel". A historical-culinary walk
Private, beer tastingNuremberg: Private 1.5-Hour Tour with Beer Tasting
Order Rotbier once even if you take no tour at all. It is the local style, it is on tap in a handful of places in the old town, and it is the single most Nuremberg thing you can drink.
Full food tours
Worth it if you want the walking and the eating combined, or if you would rather someone else read the menus. The full-meal tours are effectively dinner with a history lesson and price accordingly.
Full mealNuremberg Old Town Food Tour with Full Meal & Local Drinks
Highlights + tastingsNuremberg: City Highlights and Culinary Tour with Tastings
Premium tastingsNuremberg: Signature Gastronomy Tour with Premium Tastings
Puzzle + foodSecrets of Nuremberg’s Old Town: Puzzle Tour with Culinary Delights
Cooking and museums
The bratwurst cooking class is the outlier in the catalogue: a genuine workshop rather than a walk, and the only way to see how the sausage is actually made.
Cooking classNuremberg: Cooking class & bratwurst workshop – from the pig to a 5-course menu
Bratwurst museumNuremberg: Bratwurst tour with admission to the Bratwurst Museum
Cafe tour + coffeeNuremberg: Guided Café Tour with Food Samples & Coffee
Cafe tourNuremberg: Guided Café Tour with Food Samples
| Most NurembergNuremberg: The Red Beer Tour | Nuremberg Old Town Food Tour with Full Meal & Local Drinks | Nuremberg: Cooking class & bratwurst workshop – from the pig to a 5-course menu | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | from EUR 18 | from EUR 93 | from EUR 152 |
| Length | About 2 hours | About 3.5 hours | Half a day |
| Could you self-guide? | Not the cellars | Yes, mostly | No |
| Counts as a meal | No | Yes | Yes |
| Best for | Beer drinkers | First evening | A rainy day |
| Book this → | View → | View → |
See also what to eat in Nuremberg for the dishes themselves, without any booking involved.
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Frequently asked questions
What food is Nuremberg famous for?
Three things. Nuremberg bratwurst, which are finger-sized, grilled over beechwood and protected by EU origin rules; Lebkuchen, a spiced honey cake made in the city since the fourteenth century; and Rotbier, a dark amber red beer that is a Franconian style you will rarely find elsewhere.
How much is a bratwurst in Nuremberg?
Around EUR 3 for Drei im Weggla, which is three sausages in a bread roll bought from a serving hatch. A sit-down plate of six or eight with sauerkraut in one of the old grill houses runs closer to EUR 12.
Are Nuremberg food tours worth it?
The bratwurst and Lebkuchen are cheap and easy to find alone, so a tour is not necessary for those. The beer is different: Nuremberg red beer is a revived local style most visitors would never order, and the sandstone cellars it was aged in are locked and reachable only on a tour. That is where the money is best spent.
What is Nuremberg red beer?
Rotbier is a dark amber Franconian lager that was Nuremberg's dominant style for centuries and then nearly vanished. A small number of city breweries have revived it. It is maltier and less hop-forward than a Munich helles and it is the most distinctively local thing to drink here.
Can vegetarians do a Nuremberg food tour?
Usually, but ask before booking rather than on the day. The city's specialities are sausage-led and several tours are built around them, so operators need notice to substitute properly rather than leaving someone with a pretzel.