Auberge Metzger

Where the Forest Meets the Table

Arriving at 55 Rue Principale in Natzwiller, the context does a lot of work before you even reach the door. The Vosges forest presses in from every direction, and the village sits at an altitude that keeps the air noticeably cooler than the Rhine plain below. This is not the Alsace of wine-route tourist towns strung with geraniums; it is quieter, more self-contained, and the cooking at Auberge Metzger reflects that character directly. The dining room is described as spacious and contemporary, a considered foil to the timber-and-stone surroundings rather than a nostalgic reproduction of them. What you encounter inside is the logic of a kitchen that has been feeding this specific corner of the Bas-Rhin for well over a century.

Successive generations of the same family have held this address since 1885, each period leaving its own trace on the menu while keeping the regional grammar intact. That kind of continuity is not common even by the standards of French provincial cooking, where family-run establishments are the norm but multi-generational tenure of more than a hundred years is rarer. The Michelin Plate recognition in 2025 positions the kitchen within the guide's documented tier of restaurants delivering consistently good cooking, placing it in a different bracket from the starred destination houses further afield, such as Auberge de l'Ill in Illhaeusern, while affirming that the cooking meets a standard worth travelling to rather than simply noting in passing.

The Sourcing Logic Behind an Alsatian Menu

The dishes at Auberge Metzger do not require a sourcing narrative because the ingredients carry their own geographic argument. Choucroute, the defining preparation of Alsatian table culture, depends on locally fermented Strasbourg-area cabbage and the quality of the charcuterie assembled alongside it. Zander, the freshwater pike-perch that runs through the Rhine system and its tributaries, is cooked here in riesling, a pairing that has existed in this region for long enough to qualify as reflexive rather than deliberate. The wine brings acidity and the floral mineral register particular to Alsatian riesling grown on the Vosges foothills; the fish, firm-fleshed and mild, absorbs that without competing with it.

Calf's head and tongue represents a different register entirely: the kind of preparation that requires confidence in the diner and in the kitchen, and that has been retreating from menus across urban France for decades as younger audiences gravitate toward leaner, less anatomically confrontational proteins. That it remains a feature here is a signal about the clientele and about the kitchen's priorities. This is a menu that does not edit itself for contemporary squeamishness, and that fidelity to the whole-animal tradition of rural French cooking is one of the more honest things about it.

The seasonal slate on the chalkboard operates on a different cadence from the core menu, responding to what arrives from the forest fringe and the surrounding agricultural land week by week. This two-register approach, anchored dishes plus a rotating slate, is a structural choice that allows the kitchen to stay grounded in regional identity while keeping the experience dynamic for regular guests. The slate is also where the kitchen can respond to ingredients that arrive in brief volume, which in this part of Alsace means mushrooms in autumn, fresh river catch in spring, and game during the hunting season.

A Useful Comparison Point for Regional Cooking

To understand where Auberge Metzger sits in the broader picture of French regional cooking, it helps to think about the spread between addresses like this one and the destination houses that attract international attention. Troisgros in Ouches, Flocons de Sel in Megève, or Mirazur in Menton operate at the creative and price apex of the French fine dining tier. At the other end of the spectrum, regional auberges with deep local roots perform a function that starred restaurants cannot: they maintain the unmodified archive of a region's cooking at a price point that keeps those dishes in circulation among ordinary local customers rather than restricting them to occasion dining. Auberge Metzger at €€ sits firmly in that category, and the Michelin Plate confirms the kitchen is executing it at a documented level of competence rather than simply trading on longevity.

For context within Alsace, the tradition of the family auberge doing serious regional food at this price point is also documented at addresses like Au Crocodile in Strasbourg, though that kitchen occupies a higher price tier and a more urban context. The Natzwiller address is more isolated and more specifically rooted in the forest character of the northern Vosges. You can explore more of what the region offers through our full Natzwiller restaurants guide, and if you are building a longer stay around the area, our Natzwiller hotels guide, bars guide, and experiences guide cover the surrounding options.

For other traditional French cooking addresses worth contextualising alongside Auberge Metzger, see Auberge du Vieux Puits in Fontjoncouse, Auberge Grand'Maison in Mûr-de-Bretagne, and Auga in Gijón, each of which illustrates a different regional tradition working within a similar format logic. The broader French fine dining tier, from Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen to AM par Alexandre Mazzia in Marseille and Assiette Champenoise in Reims, operates on entirely different terms, and placing Auberge Metzger in that company would misread what it is doing and why it matters. Also worth noting in this lineage: Bras in Laguiole and Paul Bocuse in Collonges-au-Mont-d'Or represent the other pole of what a long-established French regional house can become when it scales toward international destination status. Auberge Metzger has not moved in that direction, and the Google rating of 4.8 across 145 reviews suggests the local and visiting audience finds the current register exactly right. You can also browse local wineries if you are planning a full day in the area.

Planning a Visit

Natzwiller sits in the Bas-Rhin, roughly 50 kilometres south-west of Strasbourg in the Bruche valley. A car is effectively required; the village is not on a direct rail line and the forest roads that approach it are part of the experience. The address at 55 Rue Principale is the centre of the village, and the auberge has been a fixed point of that address for long enough that directions in the area treat it as a landmark. The €€ price range places it at a level where a full meal with wine remains accessible without advance financial planning, and the family-run front-of-house team described in the Michelin notes creates an atmosphere that is warmer and less formal than the price tier might already suggest. Hours and booking availability are leading confirmed directly with the venue, and the season of visit will affect what appears on the rotating slate alongside the permanent regional dishes.