Hamburg insider tip veddler fish restaurant, the destination is on the go

I had asked my friend, who was born in Hamburg, to eat real classic fish. And she showed me an absolute insider tip, the Veddeler Fischgaststätte. There was fresh fried fish in a rustic pub atmosphere.

A real insider tip

A friend of mine is a native of Hamburg and has lived in the Hanseatic city all her life. She knows the city very well and loves to show her visit “her city”. I asked her to go to a typical fish restaurant with me. And she was very happy to comply with the request.

"You know such classic pubs, don’t you?" She began her introduction. But I wanted some real food and not in a pub … I thought, I was admittedly hungry …

She explained that we are on an island in the Elbe have to, which can only be reached via one of the busy bridges. For me, as a southern Baden woman who already sees the Rhine near Basel as a large river, it is almost unimaginable that entire industrial areas are housed on islands in the Elbe in Hamburg.

So we drove about the bridge and were surrounded by numerous trucks with containers and a traffic like in the dovecote (weekdays around noon). The buildings around are rather ugly industrial buildings and especially warehouses and freight forwarders.

In the middle is the stage theater where the Lion King is currently being performed. The area around the theater and the parking lot is well-kept and pretty, but just a street corner away is slightly dilapidated industrial buildings marked by the harsh weather. Port area …

We drove past the entrance to the Cruise Center, the landing stage for the large cruise ships, an area with a huge fenced parking lot. But then again port area and lots of trucks. Many bridges and underpasses and a traffic routing that made me lose my bearings for a long time. Then we stopped in a cobblestone parking lot, next door probably a company parking lot, at least there were a lot of white vans of the same type. But I couldn’t make out a restaurant here.

"What’s wrong you got lost" I asked my chauffeur but she said "no we are there!".

Here? At the corner of the parking lot there was a small building, easy to get down and unadorned with an Astra beer advertisement over the door. I thought "what kind of a dive bar is that?" Because my impression was that there is no house in just a bar but certainly not a restaurant. But my companion was absolutely certain that we are right here. I’ve been to a lot of great places with her and I trust her. I wouldn’t have gone in there with any stranger.

The building of the Veddeler Fischgaststätte is not easy to find

Behind an old-fashioned draft curtain, you are immediately in the middle of the dining room, which is not really big but full of people. People of all ages and strata of the population crowd around simple wooden tables. You sit on very simple, slightly out-of-date wooden chairs and there is a buzz of voices in the room, but a relaxed and sociable atmosphere.

The dining room is wonderfully old-fashioned, curtains hang on the windows that look as if they were from the 1960s. Since then, time seems to have stood still. After the terrible storm surge disaster in 1962 when this area was flooded, the restaurant was restored as it was before.

We sit down at the first table where there are people who nod us friendly. An elderly couple is just getting their food that the waitress in the white coat comments with "and here two little ones". These two “small portions” of fried fish with potato salad just barely fit on the plates .

The menu is on the table and the menu doesn’t even fill half a page. There is baked fish in "large", "small" and "baby" with either potato salad or fries, frying or plaice … then it has it.

two small fish "small portion"

Almost everyone here is fried fish, and you eat it with two forks! The service is friendly and quick and scurries back and forth between the tables, which I wonder how it keeps track. Because it’s like a dovecote. Every minute, she distributes plates of freshly prepared fried fish and takes new orders. To pay, you have to go to the counter and pay the boss there. This makes it faster and the waitress has more time to distribute new portions.

Because nobody comes in here to sit longer after eating. There is coffee in the menu (€ 1.80) but in the full dining room I couldn’t see anyone drinking coffee. The experienced guest comes in, orders, eats his fish, gets up and pays.

And there are almost only experienced guests here, locals and workers, chatting with each other at the tables. And they know what is good and inexpensive. My portion cost 11.30 and was soooo delicious!

If you want to experience something really authentic and want to eat hearty and tasty, the Veddeler Fischgaststätte is a good tip.

The Veddeler fish restaurant is difficult to find

The address is Tunnelstraße 70, 20539 Hamburg

It is best to enter it in Google Maps and use it to navigate because most sat navs do not find the current route correctly because a lot is being built in the area and the road layout has changed several times in the past few months.

And you pass it very easily because you simply overlook it. If you are at a roundabout that passes through two neighboring bridges, since you are actually in sight …

There is enough parking space. Not suitable for wheelchairs or strollers because it is simply too narrow.

The oldest fish restaurant in Hamburg

The Veddeler Fischgaststätte is the oldest fish restaurant in Hamburg, because it has been operated at this location since 1932 and it has long had cult status. The restaurant even advertises that they have "Hamburg’s little menu".