German and European food in Palo Alto

Palo Alto's European restaurants lean French, Italian, Spanish and Greek. Each of those has its own guide on this site. This page covers the rest of the continent: the hearty cooking of Austria and Germany, the cheese breads and dumplings of Georgia and the chocolate of Switzerland. It is a short list, but every place on it is distinctive. You can eat Wiener schnitzel and Kaiserschmarrn off California Avenue, tear into a boat of Georgian cheese bread on University Avenue and drink a German lager in a Bavarian beer hall a short Caltrain ride north.

Each place here was confirmed in October 2026 through its own website or a verified page in our business directory. Menus change, so treat dishes as examples. For other European cuisines, see our guides to French food and Spanish food and tapas.

At a glance

Naschmarkt: Austrian cooking near California Avenue

Naschmarkt at 2323 Birch Street, around the corner from California Avenue, calls its food new Austrian cuisine: time-honored Austrian and German recipes reworked with local ingredients and modern technique. The name comes from the Naschmarkt, Vienna's largest open-air market.

The name has a backstory worth knowing. Naschmarkt began in Campbell in 2011 and that group opened the Palo Alto restaurant in 2022. The two have since gone separate ways. The Palo Alto website says it is independently owned and not affiliated with the Campbell restaurant. Its welcome note is signed by Remzi and the Naschmarkt family.

The dinner menu covers the Austrian classics. Wiener schnitzel comes as a breaded cutlet of pork, chicken or veal with lingonberry sauce and potato salad. Hungarian beef goulash arrives with herbed spätzle and sour cream. Pork knuckle confit and Rinderrouladen, beef rolled around a filling and braised, are named house dishes. A homemade pretzel with bacon and beer cheese sauce starts many meals. Desserts include Kaiserschmarrn, the torn and caramelized pancake, apple strudel and Sachertorte.

Lunch, served Tuesday to Saturday, is more casual: a sausage trio of bratwurst, paprikawurst and a sausage of the day with sauerkraut, a chicken schnitzel sandwich on a pretzel bun and spätzle with smoked chicken. The wine list leans Austrian, with Grüner Veltliner, Riesling and Blaufränkisch well represented. Dinner runs nightly, starting at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday. Book through OpenTable, linked from the Naschmarkt website. Private dining holds up to 75.

Bevri: Georgian food on University Avenue

Bevri at 335 University Avenue opened in 2018 and calls itself the Bay Area's first Georgian restaurant. Georgia sits in the Caucasus between Europe and Asia. Its food culture centers on the supra, a long feast of many shared dishes with toasts in between. Bevri means "a lot" in Georgian and the restaurant says you will see it in the portions and the wine list.

Start with khachapuri adjaruli, a boat of cheese bread baked in the wood-fired oven in the dining room and finished with butter and an egg. Tear off the crust and swirl it through the middle. Khinkali are hand-folded soup dumplings. Hold one by the twisted knob, bite a small hole, sip the broth, then eat the rest. Pkhali are spinach and beet spreads with walnuts and herbs. Chicken tapaka is pressed flat and pan-fried until the skin is crisp. Our dumplings and noodles guide compares khinkali with other soup dumplings in town.

A wall of Georgian wine stands behind the bar, with a focus on qvevri wines fermented in clay vessels, a method the restaurant says goes back about eight thousand years. Bevri is tip-free: no tip line, no service charge and no automatic gratuity. It is open every day from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. and points diners to a free garage directly behind the restaurant.

A Bavarian beer hall in Redwood City

Palo Alto has no German beer hall of its own, but Gourmet Haus Staudt at 2615 Broadway in Redwood City has been family owned since 1975. According to its website, Joe and Lucie Staudt started it as a flower shop. It grew into a Bavarian bierstube, a market and a bottle shop. The bar pours German and craft beers on a rotating list, with German food and daily specials. The market sells imported European groceries, from pickles and candy to deli meats. It takes reservations for large groups. It is not a brewery, but its German list is long.

Redwood City is a two-zone Caltrain fare from Palo Alto and the station is a walk from Broadway. Our Redwood City food guide covers the rest of downtown.

Swiss chocolate

SWEET55 at Town & Country Village is a Swiss chocolate maker founded by Ursula Schnyder, who grew up in Switzerland. Its chocolates are made in small batches in Half Moon Bay from Swiss grand cru chocolate with no preservatives. The logo shows the Eiger, the peak near where she grew up. Its website lists Good Food Awards in 2018 and 2019 and a sofi Award in 2021. The 2026 holiday collection, including an advent calendar, was posted in late October. The shop is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Saturday and until 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Läderach at Stanford Shopping Center is a family chocolatier founded in Glarus, Switzerland, in 1962. Its signature is FrischSchoggi, chocolate bark broken from large slabs and sold by weight at the counter. Pralines and truffles fill the rest of the case and the company says everything is made in Switzerland and flown in. Our chocolate and candy guide covers the other chocolate shops in town.

A short Central European menu glossary

• Wiener schnitzel. Strictly a breaded veal cutlet. Pork or chicken versions are often called schnitzel Wiener Art.
• Spätzle. Small, soft egg noodles, served with goulash or baked with cheese.
• Rinderrouladen. Thin beef rolled around bacon, onion and pickle, then braised in gravy.
• Kaiserschmarrn. A thick pancake torn into pieces, caramelized and dusted with sugar, often with fruit compote.
• Sachertorte. Vienna's dense chocolate cake with a thin layer of apricot jam.
• Khachapuri. Georgian cheese bread. The adjaruli version is boat-shaped with an egg in the middle.
• Qvevri wine. Georgian wine fermented and aged in buried clay vessels, often amber in color.

Tips and seasons

Central European food suits cold, wet evenings. Book Naschmarkt ahead for Friday and Saturday dinner in winter. On Sundays the California Avenue farmers market runs nearby, so an early dinner pairs well with a morning at the stalls. Our California Avenue guide covers parking.

Bevri recommends reservations on weekends and its tip-free policy makes bill-splitting easy for groups. If your trip lines up with February, the Stanford Viennese Ball is a formal night of waltzing, held on February 19, 2027 at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis. Out-of-town guests can compare hotels near California Avenue and walk to Naschmarkt.

Frequently asked questions