Le Jardin de France

Le Jardin de France has been Baden-Baden's most serious restaurant since 2002, when Stéphan and Sophie Bernhard — both French, both classically trained — took over a 19th-century courtyard dining room at the Belle Époque hotel. A first Michelin star arrived within three years; a second in 2013; and the room has held both ever since. It is, by the Michelin guide's own math, the most decorated kitchen in the state of Baden-Württemberg.

The cooking is French in architecture and Badisch in ingredient. A tasting menu will walk you through Black Forest venison with juniper and Riesling; Rhine-plain asparagus with morels and Alsatian vinaigrette; Brittany turbot with a lemon-butter reduction that Bernhard trained on at the Troisgros in Roanne; and a soufflé, always a soufflé. The wine list runs to 700 references, weighted toward Alsace, the Ortenau, and a quiet selection of Burgundy that the head sommelier has curated for a decade.

The room itself is a glass-roofed courtyard of the old Belle Époque hotel, warm sandstone walls, linen-white tables, silver candlesticks, a black grand piano in the corner. Service is French-trained and slightly theatrical; dress code is jacket for gentlemen, smart for all. The eight-course tasting with wine pairing is €280; the five-course at €180 is still the benchmark of the menu.

For a Proposal: the glass-roofed courtyard, the piano, the candlelight, and the sense that you have stepped into the quieter parlour of 1880. Stéphan Bernhard understands the evening; if you let the maître d'hôtel know in advance, a rose arrives with coffee and the soufflé is timed to the moment. The wine list is deep enough that a cellar selection becomes its own gift.