What can you actually taste at the Disgusting Food Museum Berlin, and is it worth going?
The Disgusting Food Museum sits on Schuetzenstrasse in Mitte, one block from Checkpoint Charlie, on a single compact floor. It lays out foods from around the world that some cultures treat as a delicacy and others cannot look at, and it makes an argument with them: that disgust is learned rather than universal, and that the line between food and revulsion is drawn by where you grew up. The ticket includes a tasting at the bar by the exit. This guide covers what is in the cases, how the sliding price works and how long you will really be inside.
About This Experience
Schuetzenstrasse 70, 10117 Berlin Mitte, one block from Checkpoint Charlie and a short walk from the Topography of Terror.
U6 to Kochstrasse or Checkpoint Charlie, about four minutes on foot. U2 and U6 to Stadtmitte, about six minutes. S1, S2, S25, S26 and U2 to Potsdamer Platz, about twelve minutes. Bus M29 stops at Checkpoint Charlie.
Friday to Tuesday 12:00 to 18:00, with last admission at 17:00. Closed every Wednesday and Thursday, which catches out visitors used to Berlin museums closing on Mondays. Holiday closures are not published in detail, so check around Christmas and New Year.
The museum uses dynamic pricing, so the same standard adult ticket runs anywhere from 10.00 to 17.00 euros depending on how busy your slot is, with reduced and under 18 tickets from 7.00 to 12.00 euros and under 6s free. Booking early and picking an unpopular slot gets the bottom of the band; walking up gets the top. Booked ahead through the platform, entry with the tasting is $19.
A compact single floor exhibition off Schuetzenstrasse, closer to a curated cabinet of curiosities with a bar at the end than to a conventional museum. Wheelchair accessible.
Surstroemming, casu marzu, durian, a Peruvian frog smoothie, the smell jars you open yourself, the tasting bar at the exit and the hall of fame you sign if you finish everything on it.
Check Live Availability & Prices
Entry with the tasting is $19 booked ahead, with a time slot. Given how far the door price can climb on a busy afternoon, booking is worth more here than at most Berlin attractions. Live dates are below.
Which Disgusting Food Museum Ticket to Pick
One ticket covers everything: the display cases, the smell jars and the tasting bar at the end, at $19 booked ahead, rated 4.4 from 233 travelers. The pricing at the museum's own counter is the thing to understand before you go. The same standard adult ticket ranges from 10.00 to 17.00 euros purely on demand for the slot you choose, and reduced and under 18 tickets range from 7.00 to 12.00 euros.
Book early into a quiet slot and you pay the bottom of the band. Turn up on a Saturday afternoon and you pay the top of it, for exactly the same forty five minutes.
That matters because this is a small museum and it does not pretend otherwise. Realistic visit length is 45 to 60 minutes, and visitors who skip the audio guide report finishing in twenty. It suits curious people who like an argument with their exhibits, families with children old enough to enjoy being grossed out, and anyone already walking past Checkpoint Charlie.
Children generally love it. The museum does warn that some content can cause physical and mental discomfort, which is an honest note rather than marketing.
What it does not cover is a meal, or the extreme items in the cases. The tasting is included but modest: reviewers describe insect bars, salty liquorice, Marmite and haggis rather than the maggot cheese behind glass, and several call it underwhelming when they had braced for worse. Nobody is handing you casu marzu.
Treat the tasting as a coda and the smell jars as the real event, and the ticket earns its place among the stranger corners of Berlin's museum scene rather than competing with the big collections a few U-Bahn stops north.
Disgusting Food Museum Berlin Tickets
One ticket, entry plus the tasting bar. The price and rating below come live from the booking platform.
from $19 Disgusting Food Museum Entry Ticket & Tasting
- 80 challenging foods
- Tastings included
- Sick bags, not a joke
What You'll See
The cases hold foods from around the world, each one a delicacy somewhere and an outrage somewhere else. Surstroemming, the Swedish fermented herring, is the headline act, and a can is opened in front of visitors on the first Saturday of each month at 13:00. Casu marzu, the Sardinian cheese eaten with live maggots in it, sits nearby.
So does durian, banned from hotels and trains across Southeast Asia for its smell, along with a Peruvian frog smoothie, grilled dog, bull penis and cow blood. The labels do the work: each exhibit explains who eats it, why, and what it says about the people who find it revolting.
The smell jars are where the museum actually happens. You lift the lid yourself, which converts an intellectual point about cultural conditioning into a physical reaction in about half a second, and reviewers consistently name them as the part worth the ticket. At the exit, the tasting bar offers items you can try at your own pace, insect bars and salty liquorice and Marmite among them, with a hall of fame you sign if you get through everything on offer.
An audio guide called Sound of Disgust runs over 70 minutes in six languages and is the difference between a twenty minute walkthrough and an hour that leaves you thinking.
How a Visit Flows
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Before you go
Book early into a quiet slot
Dynamic pricing means the same ticket runs 10.00 to 17.00 euros at the counter. Check the day too, because it is shut on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
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Arrival
Off Schuetzenstrasse
The entrance is a street level door one block from Checkpoint Charlie. Last admission is 17:00, so a late lunch nearby can cost you the visit.
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First 10 minutes
The framing
The opening panels set out the argument, that disgust is learned and culturally arbitrary. Reading them changes how the rest of the cases land.
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Middle stretch
Cases and smell jars
Work along the displays and open every jar. This is the section people remember, and the one that produces the noises you can hear from the door.
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Last 15 minutes
The tasting bar
Insect bars, liquorice, Marmite and similar, at your own pace. Finish the lot and you can sign the hall of fame.
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After
Straight on to Checkpoint Charlie
You will be out inside an hour. The Topography of Terror is a short walk away, which is the sensible way to spend the rest of the afternoon.
Know Before You Go
Not suitable for
- Anyone with a strong gag reflex, since the museum itself warns that some content can cause physical and mental discomfort
- Visitors expecting a large museum, because this is one compact floor and the size is the most repeated complaint in reviews
- People with food allergies who want to taste, as the bar includes insect protein, fish and nut based items
What to bring
- Headphones for the Sound of Disgust audio guide, which runs over 70 minutes in six languages
- An appetite you do not mind losing, since the tasting comes at the end rather than the start
- Proof of concession or age for the reduced and under 18 rates at the desk
- Your timed booking, which is what protects you from the top of the price band
Not allowed
- Turning up on a Wednesday or Thursday, when the museum is closed all day
- Arriving after 17:00, when last admission has passed
- Taking exhibits out of the display cases, however open the smell jars are
Insider Tips
Six things that decide whether this is good value or a steep forty five minutes.
- Book online and pick a quiet slot. Dynamic pricing swings the same standard ticket between about 10.00 and 17.00 euros on demand alone.
- Aim for the first Saturday of the month at 13:00 if you want a can of surstroemming opened in front of you, which is the one genuinely memorable scheduled moment here.
- Open every smell jar. Reviewers say again and again that the smells, not the display cases, are what makes the ticket worth it.
- Keep expectations low for the tasting bar. It is mostly packaged snacks and liquorice rather than anything from the extreme end of the exhibition.
- Stack it with Checkpoint Charlie and the Topography of Terror, both minutes away, rather than making a dedicated trip across the city for it.
- Check the day before you set out. It closes Wednesdays and Thursdays, which trips up visitors expecting the usual Berlin Monday closure.
Where You're Headed
Disgusting Food Museum Berlin FAQ
How much does the Disgusting Food Museum Berlin cost?
There is no single door price. The museum uses dynamic pricing, so a standard adult ticket runs from 10.00 to 17.00 euros depending on how busy the slot is, with reduced and under 18 tickets from 7.00 to 12.00 euros and free entry under 6. Booked ahead through the platform, entry with the tasting is $19. Booking early into a quiet slot is what gets you the bottom of the band.
What days is the Disgusting Food Museum Berlin closed?
Every Wednesday and Thursday. It opens Friday to Tuesday from 12:00 to 18:00 with last admission at 17:00, which is worth double checking because most Berlin museums close on Mondays instead. Holiday closures are not published in detail, so confirm before travelling at Christmas or New Year.
Can you taste the food at the Disgusting Food Museum Berlin?
Yes, the tasting bar at the end is included in the ticket. What you get is modest by design: items such as insect bars, salty liquorice, Marmite and haggis rather than the maggot cheese or the frog smoothie in the cases. Finish everything on offer and you can sign the hall of fame.
How long does the Disgusting Food Museum Berlin take?
Between 45 and 60 minutes at a normal pace, including the tasting. Visitors who skip the audio guide have reported finishing in as little as twenty minutes. The audio guide runs over 70 minutes if you follow the whole thing, and it is what turns a quick walkthrough into a proper visit.
Is the Disgusting Food Museum Berlin suitable for children?
Children usually enjoy it more than adults do, because the ick factor and the smell jars are exactly what they came for. No formal minimum age is published, though the museum warns that some content can cause physical and mental discomfort, so use your judgement with sensitive or very young visitors.
What foods are on display at the Disgusting Food Museum Berlin?
Foods from around the world, including surstroemming, the Swedish fermented herring, casu marzu, the Sardinian cheese with live maggots, durian, a Peruvian frog smoothie, grilled dog, bull penis and cow blood. Each is labelled with who eats it and why, which is the point of the place. There are also smell jars you open yourself.
Where is the Disgusting Food Museum Berlin?
Schuetzenstrasse 70 in 10117 Berlin Mitte, one block from Checkpoint Charlie. Take U6 to Kochstrasse or Checkpoint Charlie and walk about four minutes, U2 or U6 to Stadtmitte for about six, or come from Potsdamer Platz in roughly twelve minutes on foot.
Is the Disgusting Food Museum Berlin worth it?
At the low end of the price band, around 10 to 12 euros, it is good value and genuinely funny. At the top of the band for a 45 minute visit it is steep, which is precisely why booking ahead matters more here than at most attractions in the city. Go for the argument about why disgust is learned, not for a dare, and open every smell jar.
What Visitors Say
Booked two weeks out and paid the low end of the price range, which turned out to matter. Small place, an hour with the audio guide, but the labels are smarter than I expected. The point about disgust being taught rather than natural stayed with me longer than the smells did.
Our ten and thirteen year olds had the best time of the whole Berlin trip here, mostly daring each other at the smell jars. The tasting is less dramatic than they hoped, more liquorice than anything alarming. Do it after Checkpoint Charlie, it is four minutes away.
Went on a Saturday without booking and paid near the top of the scale for something we finished in forty minutes. Worth it, but book ahead and go on a weekday. We came back for the surstroemming opening on the first Saturday, which was the real show.