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Eating Out in Germany with Your Pet
Café, restaurant and biergarten culture around dogs, the legal reality behind it, and the genuinely strong access right assistance dogs now have under German law.
- No statutory law bans dogs from restaurants or cafés — a venue that refuses one relies on its own Hausrecht.
- Since the Teilhabestärkungsgesetz, §12e BGG gives assistance dogs a binding access right even against private businesses, not just public ones.
- Biergartens and outdoor seating are the simplest, least-questioned way to bring a dog along.
Guides in this topic
3 guides · updated October 2026
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Dog-Friendly Cafés & Restaurants
No statutory ban on dogs in German restaurants or cafés — whether a specific venue allows them comes down to the owner's own Hausrecht, within the limits EU food-hygiene law sets for anywhere food is openly displayed.
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Assistance Dogs & the BGG
A materially stronger right than an ordinary pet's: since a 2021 law change, German businesses — not just public authorities — can't refuse entry to a certified assistance dog, with real conditions attached.
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Biergarten & Outdoor Dining with a Dog
A biergarten table, gravel or grass underfoot, is usually the easiest place in all of Germany to settle in with a dog — outdoor seating sidesteps the kitchen-hygiene rule that governs indoor dining entirely.