Restaurant in Hittisau, Austria
Two Bib Gourmands. Book before you arrive.

Ernele is the strongest value-to-award restaurant in Hittisau, earning back-to-back Michelin Bib Gourmand recognition in 2024 and 2025 at a €€ price point. Chef Felix Groß runs a kitchen grounded in Bregenzerwald regional produce. With a 4.9 Google rating and easy booking access, it is the first reservation to make when routing through Vorarlberg.
At the €€ price point, Ernele is one of the most compelling value propositions in the Bregenzerwald. Two consecutive Michelin Bib Gourmand awards (2024 and 2025) confirm what the 4.9 Google rating across 78 reviews already signals: this is a kitchen punching above its price tier. If you are travelling through Vorarlberg and eat only one meal in the region, Ernele makes a strong case for itself.
Hittisau is a small village in the Bregenzerwald, a region in Vorarlberg better known for its cheese culture and alpine craft traditions than its restaurant scene. That context matters here. Ernele is not a convenience stop; it is the reason food-focused travellers route through this corner of Austria. Chef Felix Groß runs a kitchen rooted in regional cuisine — the kind of cooking that draws directly from the surrounding landscape without dressing it up in unnecessary complexity. In a village of this size, a Bib Gourmand restaurant is genuinely rare, and Ernele fills that role with consistency. For visitors exploring the area, it serves as a reference point: what Vorarlberg produces and how it tastes at its most considered.
The address — Heideggen 311 , places Ernele outside the immediate village centre, which is worth knowing before you arrive. Plan to drive or arrange transport. The setting is visually in keeping with the Bregenzerwald: expect the kind of quiet, unhurried atmosphere that makes the room itself feel like part of the argument for regional cooking. This is not a city restaurant transplanted to the countryside; it reads as genuinely local.
For travellers who use our full Hittisau restaurants guide, Ernele consistently appears as the anchor recommendation. Nearby options include Krone Hittisau and Wälder Stube 1840, both worth considering for a longer stay, but neither carries the same award validation as Ernele at this price level.
The Bregenzerwald is at its most accessible between late spring and early autumn, when the mountain roads are fully open and the produce calendar aligns with what a regional kitchen does leading. Summer weekends draw visitors from across Vorarlberg and neighbouring Germany and Switzerland, so securing a table for Friday or Saturday dinner during July and August requires more lead time than the venue's generally easy booking profile might suggest. A midweek visit in late May, June, or September gives you the leading combination of availability and seasonal produce. Winter visits are feasible but check ahead , smaller regional restaurants in Austria do observe seasonal closures, and hours data is not confirmed in our records.
The Michelin Bib Gourmand is awarded to restaurants that deliver high quality at moderate prices. Back-to-back recognition in 2024 and 2025 signals a kitchen operating with consistency, not a one-season spike. At €€ pricing, Ernele sits below the full Michelin star tier but above a casual dining baseline , the Bib Gourmand bracket is exactly where value-oriented food travellers should be looking. The 4.9 Google rating from 78 reviews is a smaller sample than urban venues accumulate, but the score holds up across recent feedback. Combined, these two trust signals put Ernele in a category shared by very few restaurants in the Bregenzerwald.
For regional cuisine comparisons further afield in Austria, Gannerhof in Innervillgraten and Fahr in Künten-Sulz offer useful reference points for what this style of cooking looks like at comparable price levels across the country.
Ernele suits food-focused travellers who are routing through Vorarlberg and want a meal that reflects where they are. It is a strong choice for couples or small groups who want a serious kitchen without the ceremony or pricing of a full tasting-menu restaurant. It is less suited to large groups expecting a lively, high-energy room, or anyone looking for an urban cocktail-and-small-plates format. If the Bregenzerwald is on your itinerary for cheese, craft, or hiking, Ernele fits the same philosophy: quality sourced locally, without excess.
Explore more of what the area offers through our Hittisau hotels guide, bars guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide.
If Ernele's approach interests you, these kitchens apply similar regional principles at different price tiers: Kräuterreich by Vitus Winkler in Sankt Veit im Pongau, Ois in Neufelden, and Ikarus in Salzburg for a more internationally framed take on Austrian produce. For the benchmark of Austrian creative cuisine, Steirereck im Stadtpark in Vienna and Landhaus Bacher in Mautern an der Donau sit at the leading of the €€€€ tier.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Booking Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ernele | Regional Cuisine | €€ | Easy |
| Steirereck im Stadtpark | Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Döllerer | Contemporary Austrian, Innovative | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Ikarus | Modern European, Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Konstantin Filippou | Modern European, Modern Cuisine | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Landhaus Bacher | Austrian, Classic Cuisine | €€€€ | Unknown |
Key differences to consider before you reserve.
At the €€ price point with back-to-back Michelin Bib Gourmand recognition in 2024 and 2025, Ernele is strong value by any measure in the Austrian alpine dining category. The Bib Gourmand is specifically awarded for quality at moderate prices, so the award is itself an answer to this question. For comparable spend elsewhere in Austria, you are unlikely to find this level of recognition outside a city.
Book before you travel to Hittisau, not on arrival. A village restaurant with two consecutive Bib Gourmand awards draws visitors specifically for the meal, and Hittisau is not a place where you find easy alternatives if Ernele is full. A week or more lead time is a sensible minimum, more during peak Bregenzerwald season in summer.
Ernele is in Hittisau, a small village in the Bregenzerwald — this is a destination meal, not a convenient stopover. Chef Felix Groß works within a regional cuisine framework, which means the menu reflects Vorarlberg produce and traditions rather than international trends. At €€, the expectation is substance over spectacle.
There are no directly comparable Michelin-recognised alternatives within Hittisau itself. For regional cuisine at a higher price tier in Vorarlberg and the broader Austrian alpine area, Döllerer in Golling represents the step up. If you are routing through the region and want to stay at the €€ level, Ernele has no clear peer in the immediate area.
It depends on what you mean by special occasion. Ernele is not a formal celebration venue in the way a city fine-dining room would be, but a Bib Gourmand restaurant in a Vorarlberg village with a focused regional kitchen makes for a genuinely memorable meal for food-focused travellers. Couples and small groups routing through Bregenzerwald are the natural fit; large parties should confirm capacity directly.
Specific menu items are not documented in the available venue data, and Ernele's menu is likely to change with the season and produce availability. Given the Bib Gourmand recognition and regional cuisine focus, ordering whatever reflects current Vorarlberg produce is the practical approach. Ask the team on arrival what is running that day.
Whether Ernele offers a tasting menu format is not confirmed in the venue data. At the €€ price range and Bib Gourmand level, the kitchen is recognised for delivering quality without the premium that a formal tasting menu typically commands. Confirm the current format when booking.
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