Black Forest · Where to eat

Classic haute cuisine
The Traube Tonbach sits in a side valley above Baiersbronn, and the Schwarzwaldstube is the reason most people drive up it. Booking runs through the hotel.
Order: Three-star cooking under Torsten Michel; set menus rather than a carte; a dining room inside the Hotel Traube Tonbach in the Tonbach valley
Why go: Baiersbronn claims more Michelin stars per head of population than Paris, and this is the kitchen the claim rests on.
Locals order: Stay the night at the hotel. The road back down the Tonbach valley is not one to drive after a wine pairing.
book through the hotel a long way ahead

Classic French
The gourmet room of the Hotel Bareiss in Baiersbronn-Mitteltal, open Thursday to Sunday only, lunch from noon and dinner from 19.00.
Order: Claus-Peter Lumpp's three-star menus, first starred in 1984 and three-starred since 2007; game in season, venison with cauliflower and romanesco among it; the card published in advance for download
Why go: Lumpp took the first star here in 1984 and the third in 2007, and has not left the stove in between.
Locals order: Take the lunch sitting from noon rather than dinner; the room is quieter and the valley is still light when you come out.
reservation request form or telephone; four days a week

Modern fine dining
A converted mill on the Unterer Mühlenweg in Schluchsee, in the Hochschwarzwald above the lake, with Fabian Obergfell running the kitchen.
Order: Two Michelin stars awarded in the 2026 selection; dinner only, Tuesday to Saturday from 18.30; casual chic asked for at the door
Why go: The Black Forest gained a second two-star kitchen in June 2026 and it is in a lakeside village, not a city.
Locals order: Dinner starts at 18.30 and there is no lunch service; build the day around the Schluchsee and eat afterwards.
book through the restaurant's own online system; Tuesday to Saturday

Modern regional
In the Hotel Sackmann on the Murgtalstraße at Baiersbronn-Schwarzenberg, holding its star since 1995.
Order: One Michelin star under Jörg and Nico Sackmann; father and son cooking in the same kitchen; dinner 18.00 to 21.00, Wednesday to Sunday
Why go: A star held continuously since 1995, now cooked by the son of the man who won it.
Locals order: The kitchen closes at nine. In Baiersbronn that is normal, and it catches out everyone arriving from a city.
phone or email the hotel; closed Monday and Tuesday

Creative French
On the Augustaplatz in Baden-Baden. Tuesday to Saturday, lunch 12.00 to 15.00 with the kitchen stopping at 13.45, dinner from 18.30 with the kitchen stopping at 21.00, and Thursday evening closed.
Order: Creative French cooking under Stéphan and Sophie Bernhard; a lunch card as well as an evening menu; wine-paired menus, five courses with wine at 195 euros
Why go: One of only two starred kitchens in Baden-Baden, and the one run by a French couple in a spa town that has always looked west across the Rhine.
Locals order: The kitchen closes at 13.45 at lunch, over an hour before the room does; arriving at one is cutting it fine.
phone or email; closed Sunday, Monday and Thursday evening

Seasonal, garden-led
Nico and Yannik's room on Dreikönigstraße in Freiburg, holding a Michelin star again for 2026. Wednesday from 18.00, Thursday to Saturday from 18.30, and shut for the second half of August.
Order: A four-course Carte Blanche at 65 euros or the full menu at 130; a Wednesday bistro card with plates from 3 to 31 euros; produce from the restaurant's own vegetable garden
Why go: The menu is set by what the restaurant's own beds have ready, which is why Wednesday is a bistro and Thursday is not.
Locals order: Wednesday is the cheap night - an à la carte bistro card from three euros a plate, in exactly the same room.
book through the restaurant's online system or by phone

French haute cuisine
The gourmet room of the Colombi Hotel on the Rotteckring in Freiburg. Tuesday to Saturday, 19.00 to 23.00, with the kitchen taking its last order at 20.45.
Order: Elegant French cooking in a pine-panelled room; standard, vegetarian and vegan menus; parties of six or more served one menu for the whole table
Why go: Six people or more get one menu for the table, agreed in advance; the room does not do split orders at that size.
Locals order: Last orders are at 20.45. A Freiburg dinner that starts at nine has to happen somewhere else.
book through the hotel by phone, email or form

Swabian regional
On the Hohlengraben in St. Märgen, high in the central Black Forest, with fifteen hotel rooms and a sauna above the restaurant. Closed Wednesday and Thursday.
Order: Seasonal four-course menus; a five-course Genussmenu MS with wine pairings; Swabian country cooking with a contemporary edge
Why go: A Bib Gourmand in the 2026 guide, in a village most people only drive through on the way to Titisee.
Locals order: The kitchen runs 11.30 to 13.30 and 17.30 to 20.00 even though the room stays open longer; order inside those windows.
phone, email or book online; closed Wednesday and Thursday

Regional Black Forest
On the Dorfstraße in Herrenschwand, a hamlet above Todtnau in the southern Black Forest, with Volker Hupfer at the stove.
Order: Regional cooking the house calls Schwarzwald-Umami; produce drawn from the surrounding valley; a Bib Gourmand kitchen inside a nature-park hotel
Why go: The kitchen has a name for what it does - Schwarzwald-Umami - and it is not a marketing line bolted on afterwards.
Locals order: Herrenschwand is a long climb up from the valley floor; people book a room rather than treating it as a night out.
book through the hotel by phone or email

French brasserie
At Vorderaha on the Schluchsee, and one of the ten new Bib Gourmand entries across Germany for 2026.
Order: Brasserie cooking at value prices; a Bib Gourmand new in the 2026 guide; a room inside the Auerhahn hotel at Aha on the Schluchsee
Why go: Germany added ten Bib Gourmands in 2026 and this was the only one in the Black Forest.
Locals order: The hotel sells it as the second-night dinner in its midweek packages, which is when the room is fullest.
book through the hotel; check the day, it does not open every evening

Classic French
Inside the Hotel Dollenberg above Bad Peterstal-Griesbach in the Renchtal, towards the northern end of the Black Forest.
Order: A gourmet room the hotel bills as two-star cooking; a Kaminstube and a mountain hut, the Renchtalhütte, on the same estate; classical French technique throughout
Why go: One estate runs a gourmet room, a Kaminstube and a hut on the hillside, and expects you to use all three across a stay.
Locals order: The Renchtalhütte is where the hotel's own guests eat on the second night; ask about it when you book the Pavillon.
book through the hotel

Far-Eastern influenced
The Traube Tonbach's other kitchen, named for the year the house began trading, in the same building as the Schwarzwaldstube.
Order: Seasonal cooking with Far Eastern aromatics under Florian Stolte; the second gourmet room of the Hotel Traube Tonbach; a distinction first awarded in 2019
Why go: One hotel runs two separate gourmet kitchens under a single roof, and this is the one that looks east.
Locals order: Book this rather than the Schwarzwaldstube when the three-star room is full; it is a different kitchen, not an overflow.
book through the hotel

Austrian-influenced cooking
Martin Fauster's dining room on Konviktstraße in Freiburg's old town. Lunch runs on Friday and Saturday only, three courses at 63 euros and four at 89; closed Sunday and Monday.
Order: Crustacean cream soup with langoustine; fregola sarda with beetroot and smoked eel; lamb with green beans and aubergine
Why go: The Friday and Saturday set lunch is the cheapest way into this kitchen and the only daytime service it runs.
Locals order: Konviktstraße is the prettiest street in the old town and the restaurant never says so; walk up it before you sit down.
phone or email; five days a week

Southern Italian
On Stadtstrasse in Herdern, north of the Freiburg centre and away from the old-town crowds. Closed Wednesday and Thursday.
Order: Southern Italian cooking under Federico Campolattano; a card and wine list published as dated PDFs and changed through the year; lunch on Saturday only
Why go: Italian cooking taken as seriously as the German kitchens around it, in a city that otherwise treats Italian as everyday food.
Locals order: Saturday is the only lunch service. The rest of the week is dinner, and two days it does not open at all.
online form or telephone

Black Forest Gasthof
At Sommerau outside Bonndorf in the southern Black Forest. Wednesday evening only, then Thursday to Sunday, 12.00 to 14.00 and 18.00 to 20.00; closed Monday and Tuesday.
Order: A country Gasthof kitchen serving both lunch and dinner; a cookbook of the house recipes sold on site; a valley setting outside Bonndorf
Why go: Service windows of two hours at midday and two in the evening, which is how a Black Forest Gasthof has always run.
Locals order: Dinner orders stop at eight. Turning up at half past is turning up after closing.
phone, email or enquiry form; five days a week

Brewpub and biergarten
In Freiburg's old town, with the Gaststätte opening at 18.00 daily and the beer garden running from 11.00 through the warm months. The Insel room shuts while the garden is open.
Order: Inselhopf brewed on the premises; Flädlesuppe and a weekly changing card; a beer garden across the street from the brewhouse
Why go: The brewery and the beer garden sit on opposite sides of the street and run to different timetables.
Locals order: In summer the indoor Gaststätte does not open until six because everyone is in the garden; plan lunch elsewhere.
book online; the beer garden is first come, first served

Konditorei and cafe
A Konditorei in Triberg, in the central Black Forest, which bakes the Black Forest gateau from the recipe the town holds to be the original.
Order: Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte baked to the original recipe; the cakes and pastries of a working Konditorei; coffee to go with them
Why go: This is where the original-recipe claim for Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte is made and defended, rather than argued about at a distance.
Locals order: One slice with a coffee and stop. The cake is heavy with kirsch and cream and a second is a mistake.
no bookings; counter and café service

Market hall
A nineteenth-century market hall between Grünwälderstraße and the Kaiser-Joseph-Straße in the middle of Freiburg. Closed Sunday and on public holidays.
Order: Nineteen traders across more than a thousand square metres; Italian, Middle Eastern and Asian counters side by side; open until midnight on Friday and Saturday
Why go: It stays open until midnight on Friday and Saturday, which turns a lunch market into the cheapest late dinner in the city.
Locals order: Order from two or three counters and share. Nobody here eats a whole meal from one stall.
no bookings; find a table

Cathedral market
The market runs in the square around the Freiburg Münster six days a week. The Lange Rote was invented in 1949 by the baker Josef Föhrenbach and several stands sell it now, Wurststand Brunner among them.
Order: The Lange Rote, a 35-centimetre skinless pork sausage grilled and served with fried onions; 130 stalls set around the cathedral; six market days a week
Why go: A 35-centimetre sausage in an ordinary-sized roll, which is the joke Freiburg has been making since 1949.
Locals order: Ask for it mit Zwiebeln. The fried onions are the standard order and leaving them off marks you out at once.
no bookings; queue at the stand