Café Frischhut

Straight from the fryer, dusted with sugar

Fried dough is the whole argument at Café Frischhut. The Schmalznudel, the Bavarian pastry also called Auszogne, comes out of hot fat in front of the counter, crisp and golden at the rim, fluffy through the middle, and finished with powdered sugar. The pastry has taken over the name of the house: Munich shorthand for the place is simply Schmalznudel. Baking on the site goes back to 1905 and the Frischhut family has run it since 1973, which explains a lineup that has barely moved in decades. This is traditional Bavarian baking rather than a modern patisserie. There is no croissant case, no sourdough programme and no rotating viennoiserie. Beside the Schmalznudel sit Krapfen, Striezel and Rohrnudeln, five items in total plus coffee, and the repetition is the craft.

A rustic room a step from the Viktualienmarkt

Position does a lot of work here. The café sits just off the Viktualienmarkt, so market traders, students, office workers and visitors all end up in the same small room, or at the tables outside and in the back courtyard. Inside is rustic and wooden, warm in tone, and worn in the way a Munich institution should be. There are two ways through it. Pastry can be bought at the window and carried away, or taken at a table with service out front, indoors and in the garden. A queue at the takeaway window is part of the rhythm and it moves fast, because there is very little to decide. The mood is active rather than hushed: hot pastry, coffee, visible handwork at the fryer, and a steady turnover of people.

Order the Schmalznudel first, then work down the list

Start with the Schmalznudel. It is made from yeast dough, fried in front of guests and served hot enough that watching it made becomes part of eating it. After that the choices are quick. Rohrnudeln are brioche-like buns with a lightly sugared exterior, one version plain and one built around a whole soft stewed plum. Krapfen come filled with apricot jam. The Striezel, also written Stritzerl, is the stick-shaped traditional option that rounds out the counter. Coffee is the only drink worth planning around, and it is there to sit beside the sugar rather than compete with it. Two people can cover most of the range in a single visit, which is the sensible approach: order one of everything, split it at the table, and see why one fried pastry has kept the same corner busy for a century.