9 Best Restaurants in The Rhineland, Germany

Great care is taken over the light, seasonal international dishes here, which are made with fresh, carefully chosen ingredients and served with the estate's wines. Choose to dine in the Kavalierhaus (squire's house, 1650), the orangery, or in the summer, on the flower-lined terrace facing the garden.

Thomas and Gudrun Höreth's enchanting country inn—a former mill dating back to 1026—is a labyrinth of little rooms and cellars grouped around oleander-lined courtyards. Highlights of the menu include homemade cheeses, terrines, pâtés, and Entensülze (goose in aspic), served with the Höreths' own wines.

Locals flock to this stylish corner brasserie serving hearty staples of French rural cuisine with a Rhineland twist.

A young crowd gathers here to do what people along the Rhine have done for centuries—talk, drink, and enjoy good company. There's a party every Friday and Saturday with a DJ. Consistently voted one of the best deals in town, this restaurant offers good German beer, tangy cocktails, and a creative mixture of German and French food.

Classic German cuisine with a creative twist has earned this chic restaurant, a stone’s throw from the Rhine, a Michelin star. The concise, ever-changing menu features interesting flavor combinations using seasonal ingredients, and many dishes are available as half-portions.

Beneath the exposed beams and painted ceiling of this cozy restaurant, trout from the hotel's own fish farm will grace your table, served alongside German and French wines. It's housed in the rustic family inn Moselromantik Hotel Weissmühle in the forested hills of the Enderttal (Endert Valley) on the site of a historic mill that belonged to the current proprietor's great-great-grandfather. 

When the Bundestag was still in town, this Bonn institution used to be cited in the press as frequently for its backroom political dealings as for its Lombardy-influenced food. Locals, prominent and otherwise, still flock to the restaurant, in an 18th-century house in the suburb of Kessenich. The style is pure Italian farmhouse, with stone walls and exposed beams, but the handmade pastas often stray from the typical, as in the salmon-filled black-and-white pasta pockets in shrimp sauce.

Rita and Hermann Saxler operate a comfortable, modern hotel and upscale restaurant in a 19th-century manor house on the Ufer (riverbank) at Zeltingen. Whether you opt for the handsome dining room or the terrace overlooking the Mosel, Saxler's restaurant is a good destination for refined regional cooking with a Mediterranean touch.

Winegrower Josef Laufer more than lives up to the hospitality promised by the wreath and Krug (an earthenware pitcher) hanging above the front door of his hotel and restaurant. The wood-paneled restaurant, with its old tiled stove, is cozy; the service warm and welcoming; and the regularly changing seasonal German fare includes trout from the Wisper river and game.