The best restaurant is Michelin-starred Le Jardin de France (Lichtentalerstrasse 13, 300 7860), where the seven-course gourmet menu is €78 and a handful of carefully created main courses – using Périgord truffles or champagne-and-orange sauce to bring out the flavour of fish – cost in the region of €30 each. For French and local cuisine at less than half this price we suggest Stahlbad (Augustaplatz 2, 24569). For a more modern, lively bar-restaurant there’s Leo’s (Luisenstrasse 8-10, 302 5990), which doubles as a Szenebar, or hangout, with DJs too.

Proper coffeehouses include the Café König (Lichtentalerstrasse 12, 23573), one-time haunt of Franz Liszt and Leo Tolstoy some 150 years ago, and the place to sample genuine Black Forest Gâteau imbued with local wild-cherry brandy, Kirschwasser.