Dining in NE France

Where exactly will you be staying in the Northeast corner of France?
What is your approximate budget?

We are staying in Beilstein Germany, 2 hours from the French border. Our budget is moderate. Thanks for your help.

Sorry to pin you down, Scott, but there are three different towns called Beilstein in Germany, each around couple of hours from the border, but different parts of the border.

Do you mean:

Beilstein, Württemberg, in Baden-Württemberg,

Beilstein, Rhineland-Palatinate, in Rhineland-Palatinate,

or

Beilstein (Spessart), Hesse?

Otherwise we are throwing darts blindfolded.

Thanks for helping us help you.

We are staying at one of Rick Steve’s recommendations at Hotel Hausner Lipman in Bielstein along the Mosel River near Cochem.

Do you mean Bielstein near Wiehl, Nordrhein-Westfalen. East of Cologne?
In your previous post you said "Beilstein"!

I have found a "Bielstein and der Mosel" (click for map) 10 Km from Cochem, Rheinland-Pfalz I guess that is it.
I found a "Hotel Haus Lipmann", website: http://www.hotel-haus-lipmann.de/

Spelling is important, or you will confuse everybody and get lost.
And never ever say Xxx Germany or Yyy France. That is about as useful as saying "Springfield, USA".

According to https://www.viamichelin.com/ that is 197 km 2h 10 (plus stops, and finding parking) from Cochem to Metz, which is probably the nearest large place in France. Will you have a car? I don't think that is practical for a day trip, and definitely not an evening visit and driving back afterwards after dark.
There must be hundreds of good restaurants at much closer distances.

Metz. You are talking about lunch, right. Check the red Michelin guide book to see what’s open for a nice lunch. It wouldn’t be worth the trip for an ordinary meal.
Edit: assuming you are taking the train, you need to change in Luxembourg.

Didn’t see any French restaurants in Cochem, but had excellent meals and closer in style to French food in Trier.

I agree with Chris. Look for a well rated French restaurant in Cochem, it will probably be just as good for a 'French' meal as somewhere in France. That's a long way to drive (I assume you're driving) for a meal and you could be very disappointed if it's not as good as you anticipate it to be.

I don't know a lot about Metz so can't direct you there, but I do know Luxembourg a bit. I don't tend to eat French when on holiday (although super casual Flunch gets a fair number of my Euros each year) but I do know that Luxembourg, because of its location at the crossroads and its position in hosting the EU has all sorts of top quality restaurants, many French. Luxembourg is a great stew of French, German, Belgian and Letzeburgesch.

That would give you back 90 minutes of driving, too.

If you go to Strasbourg, the food seems more German than French. One doctor there told me there are more native Germans in Strasbourg than native French. If you go to Reims, there is a nice mostly pedestrian avenue close to the train station with at least a couple dozen restaurants - plenty to choose from.

Metz is probably the closest to where you will be but I haven't visited yet.