42 Best Restaurants in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, Germany

Restaurant Tilia in Bad Schandau is a delightful dining spot at Hotel Lindenhof that caters to a variety of tastes, making it a favorite among locals and visitors alike. With a focus on fresh, seasonal ingredients, Tilia offers a menu that beautifully blends traditional German cuisine with modern culinary twists. What sets Tilia apart is its vegan-friendly options, ensuring that plant-based diners can enjoy a satisfying meal without compromise, a rarity in Saxony. The warm and inviting atmosphere, combined with attentive service, makes it an ideal place to unwind after a day of exploring Saxon Switzerland.

If Klösse (dumplings) are a Thuringia religion, this restaurant is their cathedral. Thuringia's traditional Klösse are at their best here, but be patient—they're made to order and can take up to 20 minutes. The dumplings come with just about every dish, from roast pork to venison stew, and the wait is well worth it. Pay attention to seasonal and holiday specialties, like roast goose in November.

At the back of the Schlosskirche, this restaurant's four dining rooms are tucked away in a basement with 16th-century stone walls and barrel-vaulted ceilings. The kitchen specializes in German dishes, such as Kümmelfleisch mit Senfgurken (caraway beef with mustard-seed pickles).

One of the liveliest restaurants in town re-creates an 18th-century beer cellar in the basement of the Taschenberg Palace. The furniture and porcelain are as rustic as the food is traditional.

German cheesecake is fluffier and less dense than its American cousin and the best place to try it in Quedlinburg is at Vincent's café. The café regularly bakes 131 different variations of this treat, and the café is worth searching for even if you aren't headed to the castle. 

The Watzke microbrewery operates two brewhouses with the same beer and hearty menu in the city center. The location directly across from the Goldene Reiter statue of Augustus the Strong is the more pelasant for outdoor dining and people watching. The other location is at Dr.-Külz-Ring 9.

The "tunnel" refers to the barrel-ceiling ground-floor restaurant, where foaming glasses of excellent Gose beer are served with a smile. The friendly staff will also help you decipher the Old Saxon descriptions of the menu's traditional dishes. Upstairs there's a larger wine restaurant with an open fireplace.

On the other side of the train station from the Bauhaus, about 20 minutes' walk, lies a brewery with a fairly young history by German standards, dating back only to 1900. The former buildings of the Brewery Schade house a brewpub that not only serves some of the best seasonal regional cuisine in Dessau but also the best unfiltered Zwickel beer in eastern Germany. The food is rustic German and the beer a cold way to reflect on a day in Dessau.

Beer lovers rejoice: Erfurt has six brewpubs, among which the Golden Swan is by far the best. The house beer is a pleasant unfiltered Kellerbier, and the constantly changing seasonal menu is a step above normal brewpub fare. The restaurant and its beer garden are in the best-preserved segment of the original pigment factories on the Michaelisstrasse