"Bamberg's mill-quarter Wirtshaus with a terrace over the Regnitz and a €25.70 Poxdorf farm duck — book it for an easy first date."
About Eckerts
Two terraces, two hundred seats, and the Regnitz running under the floorboards. Eckerts occupies the old mill quarter at Obere Mühlbrücke 9, a bridge address in the middle of Bamberg's UNESCO-listed old town, and treats Franconian cooking as a living craft rather than a museum piece. Georg Schrenker and Christian Hörner-Seiser run the kitchen; the house brews its own ECKERTS beer, churns its own ice cream and rolls its own pasta. Mains hold between €19.80 and €33.80, which in a World Heritage city with this much river frontage reads closer to a public service than a price list.
The Kitchen
Schrenker and Hörner-Seiser cook what the house calls handwerklich: handcrafted, regional, deliberately unfancy. The dish to order is the Poxdorfer Bauernente, a farm duck raised by poultry breeder Markus Werner in Poxdorf, roasted and served with creamed savoy cabbage and potato dumplings for €25.70; it runs Friday through Sunday and sells through most weekends. The stone-oven Flammkuchen line starts with the bacon-and-onion classic at €14.20 and peaks at the house version with orange crème fraîche, asparagus and smoked salmon at €18.20. In game season a roast saddle of venison arrives with chocolate sauce and sesame spätzle at €33.80, the most expensive plate in the building.
Nearly everything is made on site: the pasta, the cakes in the counter case, the lemonades, the fruit spreads, and an ice-cream list that includes a scoop churned from the house brew. Vegan and gluten-free lines run without fuss, and part of the electricity comes from water power, a working legacy of the mill quarter. Falstaff lists the room; Google has it at 4.5 across thousands of reviews as of 2026, and it holds the fifth spot on our Bamberg Top 10. This is the rare kitchen that improves a thousand-year-old food culture by leaving it alone.
The Room
A hundred seats inside, a hundred more outdoors split between a rooftop terrace and a bridge terrace, with sightlines to the old town hall on its island and the Hainpark downstream. The interior reads Franconian-modern: pale wood, a bar with an open fireplace, and a parlour that takes families without flinching. Noise sits at a comfortable hum even on full weekend services; lighting is candle-bright at dinner and daylight-flooded before it. There is no dress code, and jeans are as welcome as a blazer. Wednesday and Thursday the house closes at 17:00, so the best evenings are Friday through Tuesday, and in summer the bridge terrace is the most contested real estate in the Mühlenviertel.
Best for a First Date
Book Eckerts for a first date because the terrace does the work a tasting menu cannot: moving water under the table, the old town hall lit across the river, and a bill either of you can settle without theatre. Plates land quickly enough to keep a conversation moving, the Flammkuchen format is built for sharing, and the whole evening sits under €100 for two glasses of Silvaner, two mains and dessert. Walk the Klein-Venedig bank afterwards. The same room also scales to a team dinner without strain; a hundred indoor seats absorb a table of twelve without notice.
Not for
Skip it for a late tasting-menu evening: the kitchen is à la carte, last orders 21:00, and Wednesday and Thursday the house closes at 17:00.
Frequently Asked
Is Eckerts worth it?
Yes, on its own terms. Eckerts is the best-run modern Wirtshaus in Bamberg, not a tasting-menu room, and it should be judged against the city's taverns rather than against the best fine-dining restaurants worldwide. Handcrafted Franconian cooking, a house-brewed beer and a riverside terrace land at roughly €35–€50 a head, and it checks most of the seven signs of a great restaurant without trying to be anything but a Wirtshaus.
How hard is it to book Eckerts?
Walk-ins work most of the year. The river terrace fills about a week ahead in high summer and through the late-August Sandkerwa festival, and the Poxdorfer Bauernente only runs Friday to Sunday, so weekend tables are the ones to lock early. Reserve directly through das-eckerts.de; Bamberg has no Resy or OpenTable layer, as our Bamberg dining guide explains. The kitchen is closed Wednesday and Thursday evenings.
What does a meal at Eckerts cost?
Mains run €19.80 to €33.80 and starters €8.80 to €13.80, so dinner for two with the house ECKERTS beer or a glass of Franconian Silvaner lands between €70 and €100 before tip. The fixed-price Franconian Mittagstisch, served daily from 12:00 to 14:00, is the value play. Tip five to ten percent and hand it to the server; cards work here, but much of Bamberg still prefers cash.
Is Eckerts good for a first date?
Book it. The bridge terrace at 19:00 on a Friday, a shared ECKERTS Flammkuchen, the duck if it is running, and the old town hall lit across the water is as good as a first date gets in Franconia. For a wine-first alternative, Weinhaus Messerschmitt pours Silvaner against 1730s panelling five minutes away.
What should I order at Eckerts?
The Poxdorfer Bauernente, a €25.70 farm duck with creamed savoy cabbage and potato dumplings, served Friday through Sunday. Midweek, take the €18.20 house Flammkuchen with orange crème fraîche, asparagus and smoked salmon, then a scoop of the beer ice cream churned from the house brew. In game season the €33.80 venison saddle with chocolate sauce is the kitchen at its most ambitious. For Bamberg's smoked-beer side, Schlenkerla is four minutes north.
Reserve a Table
Reserve at Eckerts
Walk-ins fine off-peak; book the terrace a week ahead in summer and during Sandkerwa.
Affiliate disclosure: Restaurants for Kings may earn a commission when you book through our reservation links, at no cost to you. Our scores are editorial and never paid for.
Practical Information
AddressObere Mühlbrücke 9, 96049 Bamberg
NeighbourhoodMühlenviertel
CuisineModern Franconian
PriceMains €19.80–€33.80
Dress CodeNo dress code; blazer optional
Seating100 inside · 100 terrace
ReservationDirect, das-eckerts.de
