Zur Höll

A wine tavern in the oldest house

Zur Höll, "Hell", is on Burggasse, the street that runs from Herrngasse towards the Burggarten along the edge of the wall, a couple of steps from the Crime Museum. The house, half-timbered in yellow with geraniums in the windows, is the one the restaurant itself presents as Rothenburg's oldest: it says its rear part dates from around the year 900. Inside there are beams, stone walls, a vaulted cellar and a well. It has worked as a wine tavern, a Mittelalterliche Trinkstube, for more than thirty years, and only opens in the evening.

It is the house for a quiet dinner with wine, when the day trippers have already left the town. For a celebration of up to 50 people they book the whole house.

The menu and the wine

The menu is short and is completed with dishes of the day. To nibble with the wine: bread with lard and onion for €4.80, Obatzter, the Bavarian cheese cream with onion and paprika, smoked sausages or a cheese board. The Fränkische Brotzeit, with cold cuts, ham, cheese and bread, costs €16. If you want a hot dish, Franconian sausages with sauerkraut for €12, ribs with salad for €17, lamb loin with vegetables for €28 or the Teufelsspieß, the devil's skewer of veal, pork and roast vegetables, for €28.

The wine is central. They serve by the quarter-litre wines from Franconia, from wineries such as the Bürgerspital and the Staatlicher Hofkeller of Würzburg or Horst Sauer of Escherndorf: the dry house wine costs €6 and the Silvaner or the Riesling, €6.50. The bottle list runs through the region's great vineyards, such as the Würzburger Stein, and ends with sweet wines from Auslese to Eiswein. There is also draught beer from Landwehrbräu, and Franconian spirits.

Hours and bookings

Open Monday to Saturday from 17:00 to 23:00; closed on Sunday. For the same day, you can only book by phone, on +49 9861 4229. By email or the website, the booking is valid when the restaurant confirms it.

What is nearby

Before dinner, go and watch the sunset from the Burggarten, at the end of the street. The Crime Museum is on the same Burggasse, and the Burg-Hotel, three streets away.