Colmar does not look like the rest of France. The houses lean together over cobbled lanes with timber frames painted in ochre and burgundy. Canals cut through the old town. The locals speak French with a clipped German rhythm, and the menus read like a culinary treaty between two nations. This is Alsace, and Colmar is where you eat it best.
The food here is neither fully French nor fully German. It is Alsatian: heavy on pork, cabbage, and potatoes, but executed with the precision of a French kitchen. The wines are white, almost exclusively, and they are among the most misunderstood in France. Riesling here is dry, not sweet. Gewürztraminer smells like lychee and rose petals. Pinot Gris has body and spice. The region also makes Crémant d'Alsace, a sparkling wine produced by the same method as Champagne, and it costs half the price.
Start at the Marché Couvert, the covered market on Rue des Tanneurs. The building is a brick and cast-iron hall from the 19th century, and inside, vendors sell Munster cheese, smoked pork chops, fresh spaetzle, and kugelhopf from bakery stalls. The kugelhopf is an Alsatian brioche baked in a ceramic ring mold, studded with raisins soaked in kirsch, and topped with almonds. It is neither breakfast nor dessert. It is both. Buy a slice and eat it while you walk. The market opens Tuesday through Saturday from 8 AM to 12:30 PM, and on Fridays there is an additional afternoon session until 6 PM.
For a proper introduction to Alsatian dining, find a winstub. These are the region's wine taverns—small, wood-paneled rooms with checkered tablecloths and ceramic storks on the shelves. Wistub Brenner, on Rue de l'École in the Petite Venise quarter, is the standard. Chef Daniel Queille has run the kitchen for years with a simple rule: buy the best ingredients and do as little as possible to them. The choucroute garnie here is a plate of sauerkraut piled with smoked pork, sausages, and ham, served with boiled potatoes and a dollop of mustard. The portion is large enough for two, though the menu does not tell you that. Prices run €18 to €24 for the choucroute, and a glass of house Riesling is €5. The terrace in summer overlooks the Lauch canal.
Tarte flambée, or flammekueche, is the other Alsatian staple. It is a thin, crisp flatbread spread with crème fraîche or fromage blanc, topped with raw onion and bacon lardons, then baked in a wood-fired oven for 90 seconds. The result is closer to a pizza bianca than a quiche, and it is meant to be eaten with your fingers, folded in half. At Le Fer Rouge, a restaurant built into a former forge on Rue du Rempart, the flammekueche comes out blistered and slightly charred. They also make a version with Munster cheese and cumin, which sounds aggressive but works. A classic flammekueche costs €9 to €12, and the Munster version is €11 to €14. The room is dark and atmospheric, with exposed brick and iron fixtures.
If you want Alsatian food with a lighter hand, La Cour des Anges on Rue des Têtes uses organic and local produce, lists its suppliers on the menu, and offers vegetarian and vegan versions of traditional dishes. Their tartes flambées are made with homemade pastry, which is rarer than it should be. A meal here costs €20 to €28 per person without wine. The courtyard terrace is quiet, tucked away from the main tourist corridors.
For a midday treat, try L'Echevin, the restaurant at Hôtel Le Maréchal on the banks of the Lauch. They serve a menu du jour at lunch that includes a starter, main, and dessert for €22 to €28. The cooking is French with Alsatian accents—coq au Riesling instead of coq au vin, freshwater fish from the Rhine plain, and seasonal vegetables. In summer, they set tables on the terrace by the water. The service can be slow, but the setting compensates.
Baeckeoffe is the dish that separates the locals from the tourists. It is a slow-cooked casserole of marinated beef, pork, and lamb, layered with potatoes and onions, and baked for three hours in a sealed ceramic pot. The name means "baker's oven," because historically, women would drop their pots at the bakery on their way to church and collect them after Mass. At La Maison des Têtes, a restaurant in a 17th-century building covered in sculpted heads, the baeckeoffe is served in individual portions with a crown of golden potatoes. This is high-end Alsatian dining: expect to pay €35 to €55 for a main course, and book ahead. The wine list is exceptional, with vertical selections from Domaine Zind-Humbrecht and Domaine Weinbach.
For wine without the formality, walk the Route des Vins d'Alsace. The route is a 170-kilometer ribbon of vineyards and villages that starts near Marlenheim and ends in Thann, but the section around Colmar is the most rewarding. Riquewihr, Kaysersberg, and Eguisheim are all within 15 kilometers. In these villages, family-run domaines offer tastings in their courtyards. Domaine Marcel Deiss in Bergheim, a 20-minute drive north, is worth the trip. Jean-Michel Deiss farms biodynamically and produces field blends that challenge the region's obsession with single-varietal wines. A tasting of five wines costs €12 to €15. Domaine Zind-Humbrecht in Turckheim, just west of Colmar, is another benchmark. Their Rieslings are dry, mineral, and age-worthy, and their Pinot Gris has the weight of a red wine. Tastings are by appointment and cost €15 to €20.
Closer to town, the Cave de Turckheim cooperative sells reliable wines at honest prices. A bottle of their Crémant d'Alsace Brut costs €9 to €11. Their Gewürztraminer is €8 to €10. The shop is open Monday through Saturday, 9 AM to 12:30 PM and 2 PM to 6:30 PM. They also ship.
For something sweet after dinner, seek out kugelhopf at Pâtisserie Gilg on Rue des Marchands. They bake it fresh each morning in ceramic molds lined with almonds. A small kugelhopf costs €4 to €5. They also make bredalas, the Alsatian Christmas cookies, year-round if you ask. Another option is a visit to Chocolatier Jacques Bockel on Grand'Rue, where they produce chocolate versions of Alsatian architectural landmarks. The edible Maison Pfister is €6.
Beer is not the first drink you associate with Colmar, but Alsace has a brewing tradition that predates the wine industry. Meteor, the oldest brewery in the region, has produced beer in Hochfelden since 1640. Their Meteor Pils is crisp and bitter, and their Alsace Bière de Noël is a dark winter ale spiced with cinnamon and orange. You can find Meteor on tap at most winstubs for €4 to €5 a half-liter.
What to skip: the restaurants on Place de la Cathédrale with laminated menus in six languages. The choucroute there is pre-portioned and reheated. The wine is marked up 300 percent. Walk two minutes in any direction and you will eat better for less. Also skip the tarte flambée chains near the train station. Flammekueche needs a wood fire, not a conveyor oven.
A practical note on timing: Alsatian restaurants serve lunch from noon to 2 PM and dinner from 7 PM to 9:30 PM. Many kitchens close entirely between services. Winstubs are more flexible, but do not expect a full menu at 3 PM. The Marché Couvert closes at 12:30 PM most days, so shop in the morning. Wineries along the Route des Vins are open year-round, but January and February are quiet—call ahead. During the Christmas markets in late November and December, every restaurant in Colmar is packed. Book two weeks ahead.
A daily food budget in Colmar runs €35 to €55 if you eat one restaurant meal and snack from the market. A glass of good wine in a winstub is €5 to €8. A bottle of excellent Riesling from a domaine costs €15 to €25 retail. The best value in town is the tarte flambée: it costs less than a sandwich in Paris and feeds two people.
Leave Colmar with a bottle of Pinot Gris and the understanding that Alsatian cuisine is not German food with a French accent. It is its own thing, born from centuries of border disputes and shared cellars, and it tastes like nowhere else in France.
By Sophie Brennan
Irish food writer and historian based in Lisbon. Sophie combines her background in medieval history with a passion for contemporary gastronomy. She has written for Condé Nast Traveller and authored two cookbooks exploring Celtic and Iberian culinary traditions.