From Michelin-starred dining to a small family restaurant...
From farmhouse-inns to fast food outlets - OK, you’ll struggle to find a farmhouse-inn in Epinal or a burger joint on the Route des Crêtes! - you’ll easily find somewhere to your taste in the Vosges, and confidently try something different too.
The authentic choice
"About our famous
farmhouse-inns..."
"If there’s one place to eat in the Vosges that’s absolutely typical, it’s the farmhouse-inn. Sit down at a farmhouse restaurant and you’ll enjoy regional dishes prepared using the farm’s own fresh produce.
No standing on ceremony here. You’ll receive a homely welcome from the farmer-innkeeper and his family. A warm welcome, a cheerful atmosphere, an authentic architectural setting, big wooden tables, an unchanged, natural environment. It’s got it all!
What do you eat? The famous “repas marcaire”, the traditional menu served in farmhouse-inns. It comprises a soup or a pie from the valley, a dish of potatoes cut into slivers and cooked for 2 or 3 hours in farmhouse butter with onions and bacon, then a good piece of Munster and a farmhouse fromage blanc sprinkled with kirsch or a bilberry tart.
If you’ve planned a walk before or after the meal to work off the calories, that’s probably a good idea!
But don’t forget to book your table before setting out! Some farmhouse-inns only open at weekends, and some are quickly swamped with diners."
The choice of excellence
"Maître Restaurateur,
the mark of quality"
Fresh produce, preferably from local production chains, dishes cooked on the premises, faultless service... these are some of the characteristics of the fifty or so restaurants proudly displaying a Maître Restaurateur sign outside. Scattered across the whole region, these signs make it easy to spot the best practitioners of traditional restaurant fare.
Discover our Maîtres RestaurateursThe novel choice
"Les Dîners Insolites
du Patrimoine"
Meticulously designed table settings, exceptional dishes from famous chefs, a carefully thought-out ambiance, and a pop-up restaurant in the very heart of a museum, town hall, château, industrial site or art gallery... That is the briefest summary of what Dîners Insolites du Patrimoine offers all year round.
dinersinsolites.comThe rustic choice
Or how about a picnic?
"On the lakeside, under the pines... there’s no lack of places for a picnic.
When it comes to buying provisions, just pick up your basket and head out to the market. There you’ll find regional produce alongside fresh seasonal fruit and vegetables. Explore the stalls of the many markets which are open every week. At night-times too during the summer, for example at Girmont-Val d’Ajol, where every Friday between 6 and 9pm you’ll find local producers and craftsmen selling the best the Vosges has to offer."
Munster: all the smell of the Vosges in this one cheese!
"Sensitive souls be warned! Yes, the Munster does have a hint of old socks about it! And cooked with potatoes it will “perfume” your house for two days. So why have it? Because it’s just so good! If you’re the fearless type, then the farmhouse Munster is for you, made from unpasteurised whole milk, without preservatives or colours.
For a minimum of 21 days its rind is wetted with warm water, and it is turned every couple of days in a cellar where the temperature is kept at a constant 11°C. Then it’s ready to be matured and tasted. At that point, it’s all a matter of taste: a 1-week matured Munster, with its white rind and chalky freshness, or a 3-week matured Munster with its orange-red rind and a smell best described as “ripe”!
And if you’re planning to bring some of this tasty cheese from the Vosges home with you, don’t forget to pack an airtight box. Your nose - and your travelling companions - will be very grateful!"
