AURA by Alexander Herrmann & Tobias Bätz

In their modern and elegant fine dining restaurant, well-attuned chef duo Alexander Herrmann and Tobias Bätz deliver regionally inspired cuisine with a distinctive signature. For their set menus (one of which is vegetarian), they use the finest ingredients Franconia has to offer to create imaginative, intensely flavoursome dishes, some of which are very intricate. A standout example is the fabulous wild eel, glazed with soy sauce, grilled over binchotan charcoal and served with braised leek and Tropea onions, radicchio and plum jam, and a green strawberry vinaigrette with eel oil and green pepper. The wine list is devoted to Franconian labels. Service of the set menu starts at 6pm sharp. Always on hand, the front-of-house team is exceedingly friendly and adept, and the chefs also frequently present their dishes in person. The small cards with information about the ingredients, prepared and preserved in Future Lab ANIMA, are a nice touch. For overnight stays, the Herrmann family's long-established Posthotel has genuinely lovely, comfortable guestrooms.