4 Best Restaurants in Frankfurt, Germany

The restaurant on the ground floor of the Städel art museum changes from a casual bistro at lunch to an elegant restaurant open until midnight. Lunch features pastas and panini, or a three-course prix-fixe business lunch. The dinner menu changes every two months to take advantage of seasonal items such as chanterelles, but always includes German favorites such as schnitzel and a few international favorites. The café is open between lunch and dinner for coffee and pastries.  The same company operates café locations at the Frankfurt airport.

Frankfurt's Westhafen (West Harbor), once busy and commercial, has been transformed into an upscale neighborhood of apartments, a yacht club, and waterfront restaurants. One of the most chic is Frankfurter Botschaft, with a glass facade and a big terrace overlooking the Main River. The city's elite descend here for business lunches or a cocktail on the terrace at sunset.

This small restaurant and wine bistro is a favorite of both locals and visitors. The menu, dramatically different from those of its neighbors, focuses mostly on seafood, including lobster. The fish and shellfish are prepared in a variety of styles, but the strongest influence is French, as is also the case with the lamb Provençale, one of the nonseafood specialties. For dessert, try the vanilla ice cream with warm raspberry sauce. There's an extensive choice of regional wines by the glass. Reservations are strongly recommended on weekends.

This modern restaurant with an open-kitchen design is named for the Viennese architect Margarete Scütte-Lihotzky, who created the style in the 1920s. There are three-course prix-fixe menus both for lunch and dinner, or you can order à la carte from an eclectic and creative menu including homemade soups, risotto, and meats with the ubiquitous Frankfurter green herb sauce.