Auerbachs Keller has been operating since 1525 and is Leipzig's most famous restaurant by some distance. It occupies two spaces: the historic Renaissance wine cellar where the student Faust supposedly made a bet with Mephistopheles (Goethe immortalised it in Faust, Part I), and a series of larger rooms around it. Two bronze figures — Faust and Mephisto — guard the entrance from the Mädler-Passage arcade above.
The food is solid German and Saxon cooking: game, roasted meats, Sächsische Sauerbraten, and a reasonable wine list with some Saxon whites. It is expensive by Leipzig standards, and you pay partly for the atmosphere, which is genuine — the barrel-vaulted ceiling, the murals depicting scenes from Faust, the sense of having drunk in a place where Luther, Napoleon, and Goethe all sat. Book ahead for dinner.