Historisches Odenwald-Gasthaus Zum Grünen Baum — Restaurant in Michelstadt

We stayed overnight at the Hotel Zum Grunen Baum in Michelstadt as part of a 2-week driving tour in Germany to see smaller, picturesque towns which still had well preserved town centers. The combined hotel-gasthaus-restaurant is ideally located about 1 block from the old town square. There appeared to be about 8 rooms in the 2nd floor of the main building, with more rooms in a building beyond the bier-garten. There is no lift. Our room had an ensuite toilet and shower, but it looked like some of the rooms had a shared shower down the corridor from us. While the building is old, the room itself had been modernized. The bed was low to the ground but comfortable. There was a lot of free parking behind the hotel, and the free wi-fi had adequate coverage and speed. Overall, the hotel part was nice but nothing exceptional.||Dinner, however, was exceptional. The restaurant had wonderful charm and ambience. The menu had a very nice selection of traditional German foods, plus some traditional foods with a twist. Make sure to eat here – but also make sure you make a reservation ahead of time. We were there in mid-October a few weeks after Oktoberfest, and the restaurant was fully booked on Saturday night. We saw quite a few folks without reservations being turned away. Not sure what it would be during the week, but not worth the risk of not booking – the food was really good! The included breakfast was also great with quite a large selection of breads, meats, cheeses, and other hot and cold items. ||Michelstadt old-town itself was charming with many half-timber buildings and city-walls, but felt somewhat smaller than some other old-towns in the region like Bamberg, Rothenburg ab der Tauber, and Miltenburg, and with a great mix of old-and-new architecture within a few blocks. ||If we visit Michelstadt again, we would definitely stay at the Zum...

We stayed overnight at the Hotel Zum Grunen Baum in Michelstadt as part of a 2-week driving tour in Germany to see smaller, picturesque towns which still had well preserved town centers. The combined hotel-gasthaus-restaurant is ideally located about 1 block from the old town square. There appeared to be about 8 rooms in the 2nd floor of the main building, with more rooms in a building beyond the bier-garten. There is no lift. Our room had an ensuite toilet and shower, but it looked like some of the rooms had a shared shower down the corridor from us. While the building is old, the room itself had been modernized. The bed was low to the ground but comfortable. There was a lot of free parking behind the hotel, and the free wi-fi had adequate coverage and speed. Overall, the hotel part was nice but nothing exceptional.||Dinner, however, was exceptional. The restaurant had wonderful charm and ambience. The menu had a very nice selection of traditional German foods, plus some traditional foods with a twist. Make sure to eat here – but also make sure you make a reservation ahead of time. We were there in mid-October a few weeks after Oktoberfest, and the restaurant was fully booked on Saturday night. We saw quite a few folks without reservations being turned away. Not sure what it would be during the week, but not worth the risk of not booking – the food was really good! The included breakfast was also great with quite a large selection of breads, meats, cheeses, and other hot and cold items. ||Michelstadt old-town itself was charming with many half-timber buildings and city-walls, but felt somewhat smaller than some other old-towns in the region like Bamberg, Rothenburg ab der Tauber, and Miltenburg, and with a great mix of old-and-new architecture within a few blocks. ||If we visit Michelstadt again, we would definitely stay at the Zum...

The service, atmosphere, surroundings and beer garden made Zum Grunen Baum a pleasure to have as the hotel for our two-day break in the middle of our European bike tour.||||We were made most welcome by the staff once my ancient German managed to find its way to the front of my conciousness so that I could explain who we were, at which point Igor turned up, whose English was certainly better than my German. He took our bags up to the room, and chatted to us in a most friendly manner that persisted throughout our stay.||||We had a pleasant room in the eves looking out over the roof tops, with a nice bed, tiny bathroom and beams in the ceiling. Oddly, there was no mirror in the room, but that wasn't the end of the world. The pillows on the bed were just too big, but other things made up for that.||||It was my wife's birthday the day we arrived and once I'd told the waitress this in the quaint and atmospheric restaurant, we soon had the owner at the table with her best wishes and a gift of a bottle of wine. The food was simple, but very tasty and we had a lovely meal before sitting in the evening sun in the beer garden behind the hotel which the walls of the town formed part of with lovely flowers, smiling staff.||||Finding the car park was a challenge, through the maze of Michelstadt's winding, one-way, cobbled streets, but that was just another adventure.||||I used to live in Michelstadt and had visited the Green Tree then, and it was lovely to...