Restaurant Emma Metzler

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

Young Cuisine in a Landmark Building

Restaurant Emma Metzler occupies a remarkable address: the Museum für Angewandte Kunst on Frankfurt's Schaumainkai, housed in the striking white building designed by American star architect Richard Meier. The spacious terrace looks out over the museum park, making it one of the more distinctive dining settings in the city. Wine Spectator recognised the restaurant with its Award of Excellence in 2025 — a reflection of the serious attention paid to the cellar as much as the kitchen.

The Chef and His Philosophy

Behind the restaurant is chef and owner Anton de Bruyn, whose career took him through Hamburg, Vienna and London before he brought what he learned back to Frankfurt. From his time in London he imported the concept of bistronomy — a format that serves both small and large dishes throughout the day, with the ease of a neighbourhood bistro but with markedly higher standards of product quality, technique and service. The result is a place that feels genuinely democratic without being casual about its craft.

Regional Roots, Global Curiosity

The kitchen's orientation is firmly regional. Trout come from the Taunus, Bresse chickens are sourced from the Odenwald, and Berkshire pigs arrive from a farm in the Vogelsberg. The team bakes its own sourdough bread and prepares animals nose to tail — as chops, house-made sausages and everything in between. At the same time, the chefs look outward for inspiration, drawing on aromas and ideas from across the world to develop and refresh traditional dishes. This tension between rootedness and curiosity is what gives the French-German bistronomy cooking here its particular character.

Seasonal menus show the range well. A recent Christmas menu moved from gently cooked and torched pike-perch with pickled elderflower and tarragon vinaigrette, through house-made mushroom ravioli with Pecorino foam, to a pink-roasted Simmentaler heifer back with chestnut purée and smoked bone marrow. A New Year's Eve menu opened with pheasant consommé served in a wine glass, continued through chanterelle-trumpet ravioli with smoked almond and Madeira mushroom jus, and closed with blood orange sorbet and hibiscus meringue — five courses including Champagne.

The Room and the Culture

The interior was conceived by designer Uwe Fischer and architect Ben Jourdan. Small tables, wall mirrors, plain Frankfurt chairs and bright maple tabletops reference the traditional Hessian inn while translating it into something contemporary. The Emma Metzler also functions as a cultural site in its own right: it has shown works by designers and artists, co-organised the gastronomy and music festival El Barrio, and hosts its own natural wine fair, PLOPP. The restaurant's own podcast series and its producer profiles — spotlighting the farms, roasters and winemakers it works with — make the supply chain visible and personal.