Hamburg is home to Europe's largest urban development project: Harbour City. Located in the middle of this brand-new district is Westfield Hamburg-Überseequartier, a shopping mall featuring, among other things, 165 shops, 40 F&B outlets, and 3 hotels. The F&B section is divided into 3 clusters: a lunch area, a dining area, and a food court.

Like many major cities, the German city of Hamburg —until recently— was dealing with a housing shortage. More people wanted to live there than there were homes available, causing housing prices to rise steadily. The municipality devised a master plan: an entirely new district was built in an undeveloped area along the River Elbe, west of the city: Harbour City. The district was intended to become a lively, livable, and economically attractive neighborhood through the combination of housing, shops, offices, restaurants, entertainment, hotels, and a cruise terminal. Construction began in the year 2000. 25 years later, the project is virtually complete. This makes it the largest inner-city real estate project in Europe..

Harbour City in Hamburg

Westfield Hamburg-Überseequartier

In the development plan for Harbour City, a location was designated in the heart of the area, the Überseequartier, for a large-scale shopping and recreation center. Several parties submitted bids, and Westfield won the project. The Australian-based real estate developer and operator Westfield has since developed and manages around 60 shopping malls worldwide in 11 countries, including Westfield Mall of the Netherlands.

Westfield Hamburg-Überseequartier opened its doors in April 2025. The fact that all of Germany is proud of the mall and the new district was evident from the fact that the annual national fireworks show on December 31, which previously always took place at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, took place last year on the waters of the Elbe in front of the mall.

Westfield Hamburg-Überseequartier contains:

  • 165 shops, including brands such as Zara, Mango, and Adidas

  • 40 F&B-outlets

  • Hamburg's largest cinema from KINEPOLIS, with 10 screens

  • 3 hotels from the Accor group with a total of 810 rooms distributed across hotels in various price categories:

    • Ibis Style

    • Novotel

    • Pullman

  • Offices of major multinationals, including Shell

  • Around 600 homes; to attract a diverse group of residents, the houses consist of one-third social housing, one-third regular rental, and one-third owner-occupied homes

  • A private metro station

  • A private jetty for cruise ships

The city already had several covered shopping centers. In Harbour City, however, the city administration wanted to create an open and transparent space. Consequently, the mall is not a closed stronghold, but a whole consisting of 13 buildings that are connected underground but also form a unified whole above ground thanks to a gigantic glass roof.

F&B in Westfield Hamburg-Überseequartier

Anna Laura Riemann is Director of Marketing Central Europe for Westfield. During a tour, she tells Food Inspiration: “For the F&B within this Westfield mall, we looked at concepts for different times of the day. People live here, so they have breakfast here. People work here, so they have lunch here. People come here to shop and want something to eat and drink in between. And in the evening, people come here for recreation – for example, they go to the cinema – and want something to eat or drink before or after that. For all those moments, you want to establish concepts that align with the specific wishes of your audience.” 

3 F&B clusters

The F&B concepts within the mall in Hamburg are grouped into 3 F&B clusters:

1. Lunch cluster

  • Focus: lunch time between 11 AM and 2 PM

  • Main target group: city shoppers.

  • Location: inside the mall, among the shops

  • Concepts: businesses run by local entrepreneurs, including a poke bowl bar, a Thai restaurant, a salad concept, and an Indian restaurant

2. Food court 'The Kitchen'

  • Focus: snack and street food time, from 3 PM to 8 PM

  • Main target group: leisure.

  • Location: in the middle of the mall, at the entrance to the cinema.

  • Concepts: the 9 concepts in this cluster are grouped into a food court where each restaurant has its own seating area. A bar is located in the center. Concepts in this cluster serve dishes from German, Italian, Indian, Japanese, Korean, and American cuisine, among others.

3. Dining cluster

  • Focus: dining time, between 6 PM and 11 PM

  • Main target group: international tourists and day-trippers

  • Location: waterfront, at the edge of the mall. The restaurants are also accessible from the outside

  • Concepts: international concepts, including seafood restaurant Pesca by Dutch founders, and a fine-dining cconcept by the German Michelinchef Thomas Bühner