Lübeck wears its culinary identity proudly, and the star of the show is marzipan. Niederegger, the legendary confectionery house founded in 1806, has been crafting its silky almond paste into elaborate sculptures and loaves for over two centuries. Stop into their flagship café on Breite Straße for a slice of marzipan cake with a proper coffee — it's not a tourist trap, it's a genuine local ritual that Lübeckers themselves return to again and again.

Beyond the sweet stuff, the city's position on the Baltic trading routes gives its food scene a wonderfully briny, northern character. Smoked fish — particularly eel and herring — features heavily at the Saturday market on Marktplatz, where vendors set up stalls beside the Gothic town hall and the smell of oak smoke drifts through the cold morning air. Pick up a smoked eel sandwich and eat it standing at the stall; locals wouldn't have it any other way. Mecklenburger Rippenbraten, a slow-roasted pork rib dish, also turns up on traditional menus across the old town.

For sit-down dining, the streets of the Altstadt reward slow wandering. Hieronymus on Fleischhauerstraße serves refined northern German cooking with seasonal ingredients and a wine list that punches above its weight. For something more casual, the old merchant quarter around Mengstraße has a clutch of reliable spots doing Labskaus — the beloved sailor's hash of corned beef, beetroot, and potato, topped with a fried egg and pickled herring — exactly as it should be done. Hearty, historic, and genuinely delicious.