"A 240-square-metre terrace on Lichtentaler Allee and a salt-crust loup de mer for two. Book it to impress clients."
The loup de mer comes to the table whole, baked in a salt crust and carved for two at €46 a head; the menu itself warns the fish needs at least forty minutes. That is the house style at Rizzi: Mediterranean theatre at Augustaplatz 1, inside the nineteenth-century Palais Gagarin, with about 95 seats in the salon and another 150 on a 240-square-metre terrace facing the Lichtentaler Allee parkway. Falstaff currently rates the kitchen at 86 points.
Küchenchef Alexander Gillis has run the stoves for roughly six years under owner Peter Schreck, whose Baden-Baden group also operates THE GRILL, Club Bernstein and the Geroldsauer Mühle. The menu, dated and reprinted through the season, drifts deliberately along the coast: Bouillabaisse Rizzi Style with garlic bread and aioli at €36, Black Angus carpaccio Cipriani style at €22, a bio-veal Wiener Schnitzel called Grandma Style at €36, and a Jacks Creek beef tenderloin from Australia at €58.
It is more Côte d'Azur than strict trattoria; for the purist canon, see the best Italian tables worldwide. A rotating business lunch runs Monday to Friday from noon to 3pm, and the tiramisu, listed as That's Amore at €12, is the dessert the regulars defend.
The Palais Gagarin was built as a residence in the era of Princess Isabella Gagarin and now shares its address with the city registry office, so wedding parties drift past the terrace on Fridays. Inside is candle-bright and conversational; outside, the terrace holds 150 under the plane trees with the Lichtentaler Allee promenade beyond the rail. Dress is smart casual. The kitchen serves daily from noon to 10pm, and the room runs to 11.
Book the terrace: the salt-crust carving is the kind of tableside event that does the talking for you, the weekday lunch keeps a client midday under €40, and OpenTable plus a WhatsApp line means no phone roulette. More rooms that close deals are in our impress-clients ranking. When the brief calls for tasting-menu formality, Le Jardin de France is the town's fine-dining counterweight; for a sushi night, Moriki sits five minutes away.
Skip it for a strictly Italian fix: the menu swerves from carpaccio to Thai curry to schnitzel, and Friday and Saturday run timed seatings at 17:00 and 18:00.
Reserve through OpenTable, or by WhatsApp and phone on +49 7221 25838. Friday and Saturday run timed seatings at 17:00 and 18:00 to 20:00, with open-ended tables from 20:15; weekdays are looser. The 240-square-metre terrace is the seat to specify when the weather holds.
Yes, if you want Baden-Baden's best terrace meal rather than its most formal one. Falstaff scores the kitchen 86 points, the salt-crust loup de mer for two is a genuine set piece at €46 a head, and the Palais Gagarin address on Lichtentaler Allee does half the work. Expect €60 to €90 a person with wine.
The whole loup de mer in salt crust, €46 per person for two, ordered with the forty-minute wait in mind. Otherwise the Bouillabaisse Rizzi Style at €36 with aioli and garlic bread, the Black Angus carpaccio at €22 to start, and the That's Amore tiramisu at €12 to finish.
Smart casual carries the room: jackets are common on the terrace at dinner but never required. The crowd skews polished, since the spa town promenades right past the rail. At the weekday business lunch, suits from the nearby banks set the register; jeans with a decent shirt pass everywhere.
Yes. Tables are spaced for conversation, the terrace gives a neutral-ground setting on the Lichtentaler Allee, and the timed Friday and Saturday seatings actually help schedule-driven evenings. The weekday lunch from noon to 3pm is the efficient option. See the full Baden-Baden dining guide for alternatives by occasion.
Friday and Saturday run timed seatings at 17:00 and 18:00; from 20:15 the table is yours for the evening.
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Rizzi appears in our global client-dinner ranking: rooms where the setting, the service choreography and the bill all land exactly as intended.
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