Val d’Isère Restaurants

There is a folder in every YSE chalet describing the best 20 or so restaurants as suggestions for the chalet staff’s night off, or for a lunchtime treat, for every budget. We can send you a copy on request.

LUNCHTIME
There has been huge improvement in food on the slopes over the last few years, which is good news for our guests, who only dine out once per week but eat lunch every day. Val d’Isère is now considered to have some of the best mountain restaurants in the Alps, including the Fruitière, Edelweiss, Signal (named best in Europe in one guide), Trifollet and La Peau de Vache (formerly La Tanière). And at valley level are lots of other excellent piste-side restaurants, such as l’Etincelle, l’Art des Mets or Les Tontons Grilleurs.

None of these is ever cheap, regardless of how the pound or euro is faring, but you don’t always have to pummel the platinum to buy lunch. The Brasserie Grand Cocor, the Sun Bar, the barbecue at the Bar de l’Ouillette, The Marmottes and Cascades self-service restaurants and Les Equinoxes (formerly Les Tufs) are all surprisingly cheap.

Brasserie Le Garage by the bus station has become a very popular lunching spot for hamburgers, pizzas and many other dishes.

If you can discipline yourself not to feel hungry between noon and 14.00, that’s when the snow is best, the lifts are empty and the pistes deserted. And after that, the restaurants empty out.

EVENING
In the evening there are around seventy restaurants to choose from, with a similarly broad price range. At the top end is the Table de l’Ours in the Barmes de l’Ours hotel, which is fabulous, though connoisseurs may argue that one eats as well at hotels Le Mourra, Matsuhisa or l’Altiplano. If you haven’t won the lottery recently, the food is also delicious at some fractionally less expensive hotels, such as the Blizzard, Tsanteleina or Experimental Chaet.

There is a wide range of excellent restaurants where the waitresses are less likely to whisper and the sommelier may let you top up your own glass: l’Étincelle, La Luge, l’Avancher, Le Névé, l’Alsace etc., etc.. L’Art des Mets, where you go in a sleigh drawn by a reindeer (well, actually, a tracked bodge) and eat in a yurt, is rather special, while Bambou offers delicious Thai cuisine.

And if you just want something tasty and cheap, the Salon des Fous, Le Lodge, La Cantine, Le 1789, La Cornicht, Le Barillon, Pizza’n’Love, Victor’s, Le Hibou, Chez Nano, Bar Jacques, Arctic Café and several others fit the bill.

All YSE staff have Wednesday off throughout the season except for the Christmas week when the staff day off will be Thursday, 26 December.

Please see the Après-ski and non-skiers page on this website for more information, including a list of mountain restaurants accessible to non-skiers.