A trend that doesn’t catch on?

Vegan and vegetarian dishes are still the exception at the Oktoberfest. Host Christian Schottenhamel sees little potential in vegan cuisine. However, other stallholders report increasing demand.

Munich – The Oktoberfest: It’s chicken, ox and pork knuckle – that’s the tradition. But: There are now also many vegetarian and vegan alternatives. How do they arrive? We asked and received a wide range of answers.

In the festival tents, the vegan business is usually slow. “More and more innkeepers are offering dishes without eggs, milk and meat – but they are often stuck with them,” says their spokesman Christian Schottenhamel. “In my tent, vegetarian main dishes only make up 7.7 percent.” Most of them are Kässpatzn. If you take that away, the proportion of vegetarian main dishes falls to 2.9 percent.” Also: No pig eats vegan.

At Oktoberfest people want “a beer and a chicken”

Schottenhamel only has one vegan dish on the menu: the vegetable goulash. “We sold 1,045 portions of this last year. That’s 0.4 percent of the main dishes.” For him, that’s a meager result: “It’s constantly said that vegan is the hype and the trend – which we also notice in the restaurants during the year.” But that’s not true at the Oktoberfest. People want a beer and a chicken.”

He is not an isolated case: “In the other tents it is like mine, I know that from the conversations with colleagues.” According to the spokeswoman, in the Ochsenbraterei the four vegan dishes only make up four percent of the food sold.

Oktoberfest vegan: More and more people want meat-free meatloaf or vegetable schnitzel

Schottenhamel says: “Offering more vegan dishes is simply not worth it.” After all: “Nevertheless, we are keeping the vegetable goulash on the menu. I support this because otherwise vegans wouldn’t go to the Oktoberfest at all. Everyone should feel good.” Schottenhamel prefers to concentrate on regional and organic dishes. “This is more appreciated by the guests. The organic share is already more than 50 percent.”

A different picture emerges elsewhere – stand owners in particular are registering more and more die-hard vegan fans. Gerlinde Obermayr from “Obermayr’s Wurstbraterei” observed “an increasing demand for vegan dishes, an incredible number of people are exploring them.” Our vegan daily specials change, we currently serve vegetable schnitzel with vegan fries and vegan mayo or ketchup.”

And Manuela Steindl (“Steindl Feinkost”) reports: “We have been offering vegan meat loaf at the Oktoberfest since 2023 – and it is well received!” It is made from pea protein. The meat-free substitute products are getting better and better, as our sales figures show.”