The fastest, cheapest, frequently best food on Frankfurt's streets.
Vendors, food trucks and stalls: the cheapest, fastest, frequently best food in Frankfurt.
Best Worscht in Town scales Frankfurt currywurst from mild to the feared FBI sauce, Lars Obendorfer's Grüneburgweg stand grown from a 1970 snack cart.
Try: Currywurst with heat levels up to the notorious FBI sauce
Tip: Sauces climb from Bissi Prickeln to a claimed 1,200,000 SCU; sign the waiver of common sense above level C at your own risk.
Gref-Völsings has made Frankfurt's Rindswurst since 1894, and its Ostend Braterei window still sells them hot with a roll at lunchtime on weekdays.
Try: Rindswurst, hot from the Braterei window
Tip: The all-beef sausage was born here in 1894; eat it standing with mustard and bread, then buy a vacuum pack for home.
Metzgerei Schreiber's stand 8 in Frankfurt's Kleinmarkthalle serves hot Fleischwurst, Krakauer and Gelbwurst with mustard to a permanent queue.
Try: Hot Fleischwurst eaten standing at stand 8
Tip: Order the Fleischwurst with Senf, take the paper plate to the standing tables, and accept that the queue is part of the ritual.
Edel's Hausmannskost dishes Grüne Soße and Hessian home cooking from stand 24 of Frankfurt's Kleinmarkthalle, the fastest honest lunch in the centre.
Try: Grüne Soße with eggs, ladled at a market stand
Tip: This is the cheapest way to try real Grüne Soße in the city centre; Saturdays sell out the pots well before closing.
Michel's Feinkost slices traditional sausage and ham at stand 62 of Frankfurt's Kleinmarkthalle, the quieter counter beside Schreiber's queue.
Try: Traditional sausage and ham cut over the counter
Tip: When Schreiber's line wraps the aisle, Michel's sausage specialities two rows over settle the same craving faster.
Anadolu Metzgerei runs the Turkish counter on the Kleinmarkthalle gallery, sucuk and spiced cuts above Frankfurt's main market floor every market day.
Try: Turkish meat specialities from the gallery stands
Tip: The gallery level gets half the foot traffic of the ground floor; come here for sucuk and merguez-style links to cook at home.
Frittenwerk fries fresh-cut potatoes on Kaiserstraße in Frankfurt, stacking poutines and currywurst fries for the station-district lunch rush.
Try: Poutine and loaded fries with house-made dips
Tip: The Kaiserstraße shop closes at 19:00, earlier than the street around it; the Skyline Plaza branch catches the evening gap.
Der Fette Bulle keeps Kaiserstraße's burger queue moving in Frankfurt, patties and hand-cut fries eaten fast at the counter seats by the window.
Try: Smashed-style cheeseburger with chilli cheese fries
Tip: Counter seats turn over quickest at lunch; the falafel burger keeps mixed groups on the same side of the street.
Eis Christina draws queues down Eckenheimer Landstraße, Frankfurt's benchmark Italian gelato counter and the Nordend's standing summer-evening ritual.
Try: Spaghettieis and seasonal fruit sorbets
Tip: The pavement queue moves faster than it looks; on hot evenings the last scoops of the popular flavours go before 21:00.
Eis Fontanella scoops Italian gelato on Frankfurt's Kaiserstraße until almost 22:00, the Bahnhofsviertel's sweet counterweight to the street outside.
Try: Classic Italian scoops on Kaiserstraße
Tip: It stays open later than most German ice parlours; a cone here is the standard finish to a Bahnhofsviertel food crawl.
Antipodean Gelato churns small batches on Bornheimer Landstraße, the Nordend's modern answer to Frankfurt's old-school Italian parlours and their queues.
Try: Small-batch gelato in changing experimental flavours
Tip: Flavours rotate constantly and the board empties from the top; afternoons midweek are the calm window.
Saravanaa Bhavan's dosa griddle on Kaiserstraße gives Frankfurt the street-food staples of Chennai, plated fast from morning onward until night.
Try: Dosa and vada, South India's own street-food canon
Tip: Order the medu vada with filter coffee for the true tiffin-hour experience before noon.
The Sachsenhausen branch of Best Worscht in Town sells its graded-heat currywurst on Schweizer Straße, open Sundays unlike the original on Grüneburgweg.
Try: Currywurst on Sachsenhausen's shopping street
Tip: This is the branch that opens on Sunday; walk it off down Schweizer Straße toward the apfelwein taverns.
Stand 30 of Frankfurt's Kleinmarkthalle sells Oberhessen and north German sausage specialities, the market hall's deep cut for the wurst obsessive.
Try: Regional Hessian sausage from stand 30
Tip: Ask for the Oberhessen air-dried styles you will not find in supermarkets; the vendors slice tasting slivers if you ask nicely.