Attached to the Hotel Alpen is a restaurant called Stefans. It is that restaurant that I am reviewing, not the hotel. This restaurant used to be a firm favourite whenever we visited Munich, once every two years; the Bavarian style fare was always delicious, the waiters great, and the place busy. However, it has now been 'modernised' so the menu has changed, the selection is very much smaller, and the contemporary furniture is all a bit Habitat. The veal is very good, the salads OK but not inspiring, and the choice is not as exciting as it once was. The now much younger service was cheerful, and the wine list offers some good wines, but that alone is not going to tempt us back.

The hotel room was very nice and well maintained. If you are wanting a luxury suite set up, then go to the Hilton. For the price and location, it was very hard to beat the Alpen. For those of us who do not speak fluent German, the lobby staff speaks English. One of the other guests complained about an Arab singer at an establishment across the way singing loud. Must have been his night off, because I never heard anything other than ambient street sounds, but not loud enough to keep you awake.
To show you how close the hotel is to the train station, I did not know how close we were to the main train station. We got in a taxi. I told the taxi driver where we were going. He looked at me like I was crazy and told me it was a couple of blocks away.

This hotel is excellently located--very close to the main train station in Munich and to a variety of dining, shopping, and tourist facilities. It is very clean. There was a variety of good food available at breakfast.

However, I probably would not choose this hotel again. I think there are better hotels available in Munich for much less money, especially for solo travelers, people who need reliable and reasonably-priced internet service, and women.

More detail:
I would not say that my experience (in a solo room) was a four-star one. Friends (a couple) stayed at the same hotel. They paid little more than I did for their double room, but seemed to get a much better deal...

1) My room (and the other solo rooms, as far as I could tell) are located in a corner directly across from a loud night club. Even with ear-plugs, the noise was a problem when I wanted to sleep.

2) Although I don't mind compactly sized rooms, my solo room was so tiny that I could not bend over in the shower to wash properly or shave my legs! The bed was so narrow that I could not sleep on my back with both shoulders on the mattress. I am of average size and consider myself fairly athletic! I really can't imagine how an older person or someone carrying a few extra pounds would manage to use the bathroom facilities or the bed. The double room my friends stayed in looked to be at least three times larger, but they paid only a little more than I did.

3) A pet peeve of mine is internet service. The main reason I am willing to pay extra to stay in four-star hotels is to get reliable, easy-to-use, and reasonably-priced service. I always call in advance to find out about internet availability. The service at this hotel was not as I expected based on my advance call. I found it surprisingly expensive and priced for strange time increments. Getting access required a separate trip to reception for each time increment.

4) Women may be interested to know that there was only one tiny bottle of combined soap/shampoo (no conditioner) available in the shower. There was not enough in the bottle for my just-below-shoulder-length hair, let alone to wash. There was a hair-dryer, but it had so little power that I gave up.

5) A minor problem, but those who appreciate friendly service may be interested to know that I found the reception staff rather unprofessional and snobbish. As I was checking in, they spoke to me in English and probably did not realize that I speak German. I had said nothing more than "hello" before one receptionist began making some rather rude remarks about tourists and my appearance to her colleague! She then asked me to pay in advance. You will all have to take my word for it that I'm a fairly polite, normal-looking person. I was dressed professionally, I'm vain about my hair/makeup, so I found this attitude surprising.

Summary:
I felt nickle-and-dimed at this hotel. The price was high--which I wouldn't mind, but there was not enough of basic necessities like space, soap, shampoo, and conditioner. And the internet service was priced far too high and was inconvenient to use.

This hotel is very suitably placed, being 5 mins stroll from the Hauptbanhoff and well located for the centre. It's also only 15-20 mins to the Hofbrauhaus so who can argue with that?

Checking in was painless and the room was clean and well appointed. The bathroom was excellent and the minibar prices were quite reasonable.

Strangely for a hotel in a city, there is no bar as such but you can order drinks in the lobby and either sit in a very small 'garden' area or within the hotel.

There only seemed to be one waiter on in the restaurant in the evening and service was a bit slow, but there are plenty of excellent places in Munich within easy walking distance so I would opt for eating out.

Breakfast was fine, but there were 3 staff in the restaurant which, amazingly, improved service no end.

The one drawback to this place was the heat. It was incredibly hot in the rooms and there is no air-con. Leaving the window open would have been an option if it was not for the noise of the 'ethnically-diverse' neighbourhood nearby. So the option was - leave the window open and be subjected to loud noise for most of the night, or close the window and roast. I like my sleep so closing the window was the better option. At least unill 6am when the chap in the room next door turned his TV on and found '11' on the volume control. Fortunately, a quick call to reception solved the problem.

A nice hotel, but don't go in Summer when it's too hot, and find somewhere else for dinner.