Auberge Metzger

Verdict

Auberge Metzger is not a destination restaurant in the way people use that phrase to mean a two-hour pilgrimage for a chef's tasting menu. Book it.

What to Expect

The most common misconception about Auberge Metzger is that, because it sits in a small village in the Vosges forest rather than in Strasbourg or Colmar, it must be a rustic country stopover with limited ambition. That reading is wrong. The dining room is described in Michelin's own notes as spacious and contemporary, a deliberate counterpoint to the forested setting outside. This is not a beamed, dark-wood Alsatian cliché. The room is a deliberate signal: the kitchen takes its food seriously, the setting is designed to let the plates carry the conversation.

For a food-focused traveller, that distinction matters. You come here for calf's head and tongue, choucroute with all the trimmings, fillet of zander cooked in Riesling; dishes that are rooted in Alsatian tradition but executed with enough precision to earn and hold Michelin recognition. The slate menu adds seasonal movement to the carte, so the kitchen is not simply running the same dishes on autopilot year after year. A cheerful front-of-house team, noted specifically in the Michelin citation, means service reads as warm rather than formal. That is a meaningful distinction at this price level, where some regional auberges can feel either too stiff or too casual.

The signature opener, aniseed-flavoured snails prepared à l'alsacienne, is the dish that sets the tone for the meal. Order it on your first visit regardless of what else you plan to eat. It tells you how the kitchen positions itself: regional flavour as the main event, not a footnote. From there, the risotto of seared scallops shows the kitchen can move beyond purely Alsatian reference points without losing coherence. The zander in Riesling is the cleaner representation of local identity, it is the stronger call for anyone building a meal around the region's wine culture.

Multi-Visit Strategy

If you are spending several days in the Bas-Rhin or using Natzwiller as a base for walking the Vosges, Auberge Metzger rewards more than one visit rather than a single marathon meal. On your first visit, anchor around the regional classics: the snails, the choucroute, the zander in Riesling. This gives you the full picture of what 140 years of Alsatian cooking looks like when it is maintained rather than reinvented. On a second visit, check the slate menu for whatever is seasonal and ask the front-of-house team what has changed since your last meal. The family-run structure means that the people taking your order usually know the answer to that question directly. A third visit, if you have it, is the moment to move deeper into the meat dishes; calf's head and tongue are the kind of preparations that reward a diner who is already comfortable with the kitchen's register and not encountering them cold.

For context on comparable traditional cooking in the wider region, Auberge de l'Ill in Illhaeusern sits at a significantly higher price tier and carries three Michelin stars, a different proposition entirely. Au Crocodile in Strasbourg is the more urbane comparison if you want to benchmark Metzger's regionalism against a city setting. For Alsatian traditional cooking at a €€ level with Michelin recognition, Auberge Metzger holds its own clearly.

Booking and Timing

Booking difficulty at Auberge Metzger is rated Easy. For a Michelin Plate restaurant in a small village with a strong local following, that accessibility is worth flagging. Weekend lunch is the session that fills fastest, particularly in summer and autumn when the Vosges walking routes bring visitors through the area. If you want a specific table or session on a Saturday, booking a week or two ahead is sensible. Midweek visits allow more flexibility. No booking method is listed in available data, so contact the restaurant directly at 55 Rue Principale, 67130 Natzwiller. Arrival by car is the practical approach given the village location; public transport connections to Natzwiller are limited.

For more context on eating and staying in the area, see our full Natzwiller restaurants guide, our Natzwiller hotels guide, and our Natzwiller experiences guide.

Value Assessment

At €€, Auberge Metzger is positioned as an accessible mid-range table, not a budget compromise. A Michelin Plate at this price tier means you are getting quality-checked cooking without the three-figure-per-head commitment of a starred room. For the explorer-type traveller who wants to eat regionally and well without the ceremony of a full tasting-menu experience, this is a strong call.

Elsewhere in France at the traditional end of the spectrum, Auberge Grand'Maison in Mûr-de-Bretagne and Cave à Vin & à Manger in Narbonne offer comparable regional-traditional positioning in their own areas. Among the major French destination restaurants, Mirazur in Menton, Flocons de Sel in Megève, and Troisgros in Ouches operate in a different category entirely, cited here as regional benchmarks for travellers building a broader French itinerary rather than direct comparisons to Metzger's format or price.