Thanks to the famous oxen and traditional music, in the afternoon, the tent of the Spaten brewery is one of the most popular. The contemporary evenings are rather slow.
The first oxen grill was built by Johann Rössler for the Oktoberfest 1881. The steam-powered grill was so popular, that he could even charge an entrance fee for it. Over the following decades, the grill became larger and turned into a large beer tent, which was acquired by the Spaten brewery in 1980, when the well-known Haberl family took it over.
Back then, the tent became its very unusual curved façade, which is contrary to the very common, traditional interior with white and blue cloths, large wreaths and Trachtler figures at the posts. The Haberls like their beer tent design to such an extent that they have been trying to register it as a three-dimensional trademark since 2010.
The Ochsenbraterei is not only known for its culinary treats, but also for the acoustic brass music played during the afternoons. In fact, the Ochsenbraterei was the first Oktoberfest tent to offer music during lunchtime. Maybe not least, therefore, it’s one of the few tents, which are already crowded at noon. In the evening, however, it's easier to find seats here than in other tents.
Around 100 oxen are grilled each year. Each of them is a true child of Munich, as they are exclusively reared at the municipal farm, Gut Karlshof. However, one of the most famous dishes is actually street food: the legendary Ochsensemmel (ox sandwich), introduced in 1983. The dedicated entrance next to Fischer-Vroni (Ochsensemmeleingang) is also the one that stay open the longest.
A new Ochsenbraterei building was introduced in 2017. The new tent adopts the most significant design elements of its predecessor, though.
Reservations 2024
Ochsenbraterei started accepting reservation requests in its reservation form on February 21st, only including irrelevant time slots. Last year, an extraordinary number of evening reservations for all days became available starting in August, probably as it's looking for a new audience to appreciate the transformation into a disco tent.
On March 28, they added weekends to the reservation form, in May and late July even several evenings. Unfortunately, the tent has become known to collect a big number of reservation requests to then filter out the majory by criteria that are unknown to us. Rejection can even be sent while collecting additional reservation requests at the same time. Last-minute reservations are offered as well.