11 Best Restaurants in The Rhineland, Germany

Sophisticated Italian cuisine is served here in a warm, elegant setting on the city's southwest side. The seasonally changing menu focuses on fish and game, and the wine list is interesting and extensive—although sometimes pricey.

Chef Benjamin Kriegel earned a Michelin star for his innovative cooking, experimenting with unusual combinations of flavors and textures using mainly locally sourced ingredients. The five- or six-course menu of small plates changes with the seasons; recent highlights included marinated and smoked Bavarian char with borscht aspic, sour cream, and fermented white cabbage.

In a historic brick building in the charming suburb of Kaiserswerth, this Michelin-starred restaurant, with its elegant wood-paneled dining room and artfully presented gourmet French dishes, is worth the trip. Diners can order the prix-fixe menu or à la carte, with or without wine pairings.

On a quiet residential street on the outskirts of the Altstadt, and hidden from view in summer by an ivy-covered patio, this restaurant feels like a true escape—befitting its laid-back name, Beach House. The regularly changing menu focuses on high-quality seasonal ingredients prepared in an elegant, yet no-fuss fashion. 

At this elegant country hotel in the forested Eifel Hills, guests are offered one of Germany's absolute finest dining experiences in a room plush with gold and white wood furnishings and red carpet. Choose a spectacular five-, seven-, or eight-course menu or dine à la carte: the chef is renowned for transforming truffles, foie gras, and Persian caviar into masterful dishes, and challans duck in an orange-tarragon sauce is his specialty.

This wine estate in the peaceful suburb of Olewig features a gourmet restaurant with four- and five-course prix-fixe menus. Bordeaux and Burgundy wines are available in addition to the estate's own wines, and wine tastings, cellar visits, cooking classes and guided tours on the wine path can be arranged. In addition to the gourmet restaurant, the hotel also has a wine bar serving regional cuisine and a more casual wine tavern.

This bistro has a striking art nouveau interior, the walls crammed with paintings, a grand piano (live music nightly), and a good-size bar, attracting an upscale clientele and the post-theater crowd. Delicately mixing French and German cooking, Benner's is well known for its black Angus steaks as well as its very popular (and expensive) Sunday brunch.

While it still retains its Michelin star, this acclaimed restaurant recently adopted a more casual approach, offering a pared-down modern tasting menu as well as à la carte dishes with French, Mediterranean, and Asian influences. The harborfront setting remains spectacular.

The sophisticated, Michelin-starred French nouvelle cuisine and attentive staff here are a hit with upscale locals. The restaurant, which is named for the woodcock, has been in operation just outside the Old Town by the Westpark since 1981. 

The name means "gourmet owl," and, indeed, the chef caters to gourmets in the 19th-century Palais Walderdorff complex opposite the cathedral. Truffles are a specialty, along with excellent fish. Wines from top German estates, particularly from the Mosel are featured, along with an extensive selection of reds.

Sit on the patio, in the restaurant, or the glassed-in terrace, which affords a spectacular view of the Rhine and the vineyards where the Schloss Johannisberg wines originate. Seasonal specialties include wild garlic soup, white asparagus with schnitzel, and duck with cabbage and potato dumplings.