In 1812 King Maximilian I told Munich’s brewers they could sell beer out of their cellars but not food. The brewers obeyed. The city worked around it by turning up with lunch in a basket, and two centuries later the workaround is the law: in a traditional beer garden you may spread your own bread, cheese and radishes on the bench, so long as you buy a drink from the house.
One rule about the rule. It applies on the plain wooden benches in the self-service section, never at the tables with cloths on them, where a waiter takes the order and the kitchen expects to feed you. Take a picnic to the wrong side and you will be moved.
Munich has around 180 gardens to choose between. Beer arrives by the litre, in a glass called a Mass, and the ten below are the ones we would send you to. Prosit.
Königlicher Hirschgarten
Start with the largest beer garden in the world. 8,000 seats, laid out in 1791 inside a Wittelsbach hunting ground, and a herd of 30 deer still grazing at the far end of it. The scale is the point. On a Saturday in July you will find a bench here without walking the perimeter twice, and everywhere else in this list you might not. The kitchen runs until ten at night.
Königlicher Hirschgarten: Hirschgarten 1, 80639 München, Tel. +49 89 17999119, hirschgarten.de
Chinesischer Turm
The pagoda went up in 1790, burned in 1944 and was rebuilt to the original drawings in 1952. The Haberl family have run the garden beneath it since 1974. At 7,000 seats it is the second largest garden in the city and comfortably the loudest, with a brass band playing in the tower. It is touristy and we would still send you, once, for the sight of it. The beer is Hofbräu.
Chinesischer Turm: Englischer Garten 3, 80538 München, Tel. +49 89 38387319, chinaturm.de
Augustiner Keller
5,000 seats, and the Edelstoff comes out of a wooden barrel rather than a steel line. A Münchner will tell you at length what that does to the taste. The cellar was dug in 1824 to store beer and took its present name in 1880; the brewery behind it has been going since 1328. Drink one beer in this city and want it to taste of the place, and this is where you drink it.
Augustiner Keller: Arnulfstrasse 52, 80335 München, Tel. +49 89 594393, augustinerkeller.de
Related: Traditional Bavarian restaurants in Munich
Paulaner am Nockherberg
3,000 seats above the Isar, and beer brewed on the premises. Paulaner began as a monastery in 1634 and opened its Salvator cellar to the public in 1780. The Salvator is a doppelbock the monks brewed to drink through Lent when they were not allowed to eat, and it is still the house pour. It is stronger than it tastes. Plan the rest of the afternoon accordingly.
Paulaner am Nockherberg: Am Nockherberg, 81541 München, Tel. +49 89 4599130, paulaner-nockherberg.com
Seehaus
2,500 seats on the Kleinhesseloher lake in the middle of the Englischer Garten, with rowing boats going past the terrace and Paulaner on the taps. Order the Steckerlfisch: a whole fish grilled over charcoal on a stick, salted hard, eaten with your hands. It is the dish the gardens do better than any restaurant in town.
LUXOS Recommends: the Steckerlfisch, grilled on a stick
Seehaus: Kleinhesselohe 3, 80802 München, Tel. +49 89 3816130, kuffler.de
Aumeister
The same park, the far northern end, and a completely different crowd. 2,500 seats under chestnuts, Hofbräu in the glass, and roughly forty-five minutes on foot from the centre. That walk is the filter. Everyone sitting here either cycled or meant to come, and the room sounds German rather than international as a result.
Aumeister: Sondermeierstrasse 1, 80939 München, Tel. +49 89 18931420, aumeister.de
Waldwirtschaft
2,000 seats on a wooded slope above the Isar at Pullach, south of the city, pouring Spaten. Live jazz, swing and Dixieland play every day through the summer from five in the afternoon. Build the evening around that. It shuts on Mondays and Tuesdays, so check the day before you make the trip out.
Waldwirtschaft: Georg-Kalb-Strasse 3, 82049 Pullach bei München, Tel. +49 89 74994030, waldwirtschaft.de
Related: 10 things you need to know about Munich
Augustiner Gutshof Menterschwaige
The one change on this list since we last wrote it. The old Menterschwaige is now run by Augustiner, pours Augustiner beer, and answers on a new telephone number and a new address online. The setting has not changed: a listed former royal estate on the Isar in Harlaching, far enough out that it feels like a day in the country rather than an hour in a park.
Augustiner Gutshof Menterschwaige: Menterschwaigstrasse 4, 81545 München, Tel. +49 89 24881180, augustinermenterschwaige.de
Löwenbräukeller
Opened on 14 June 1883 on the brewery’s own ground at Stiglmaierplatz, with a hall that takes 2,300. Come for the barbecue stand rather than the menu: smoked ribs, and Hendl, the roast chicken Munich eats with its fingers. Central, in a way that most of the good gardens are not.
LUXOS Recommends: the Hendl from the barbecue stand
Löwenbräukeller: Nymphenburger Strasse 2, 80335 München, Tel. +49 89 998209185, loewenbraeukeller.com
ParkCafé
1,500 seats in the old botanical garden, Hofbräu on tap, and a listed 1930s building behind it. This is the garden that keeps going. Thursday, Friday and Saturday it runs until one in the morning, with a bar and a crowd that arrives long after the families have gone home. Fold it into an evening rather than an afternoon.
ParkCafé: Sophienstrasse 7, 80333 München, Tel. +49 89 51617980, parkcafe089.de
Related: The best bars in Munich
One last piece of advice, and it decides your afternoon. Buy the beer first, then unpack. Munich reads a table with food on it and no glass as a table that has not paid, and getting the order right is most of the etiquette. After that it is a bench, a chestnut tree and several hours you did not plan on.