Winter 2026/27 selection · Eat
The mountain tables worth the lift
The lunches we would ride the gondola for, skis or not.
The ski area has dozens of mountain restaurants. This list keeps only the ones where we can say exactly why they are worth the ride up: cooking done on site, a terrace that delivers, a place unlike the others. Every address was checked in October 2026 against the venue's own website or published sources, season and access included.
In the order you reach them going up.
Restaurant · On the slopes · 2,112 m
Lunch at 2,112 m in an old gondola station, with hammocks for afterwards.
Chetzeron was a gondola station until 2009, when it became a restaurant; the hotel followed in 2014. The original concrete is still there, softened with stone and oak, and the huge windows do the rest.
Order this: The seasonal lunch on the long-table terrace
Good to know: Altitude: 2,112 m
- 02
Merbé
Restaurant · Cry d'Er gondola · 1,947 m
Halfway up the Cry d'Er gondola: bone-aged steaks, alpine cheese, two sunny terraces.
Merbé sits at 1,947 metres, at the intermediate stop of the Crans to Cry d'Er gondola: a chalet with the whole range laid out in front of it, and two terraces that hold the sun right through lunch.
Order this: A cut from the bone-aged meat selection (it changes, so ask the team)
Good to know: Altitude: 1,947 m
Restaurant · Les Violettes · 2,208 m
A real alpine hut at 2,208 m, co-run by a starred chef and guide.
Two minutes' walk from the top of the Violettes gondola, this Swiss Alpine Club hut is the shared project of chef Franck Reynaud and high-mountain guide Pierre-Olivier Bagnoud. Reynaud is blunt about it: this is not his gourmet table. Think crisp rösti, air-dried meats and a Vacherin and Gruyère fondue.
Order this: The crisp rösti
Good to know: Altitude: 2,208 m
Why not the others? Because we only add a place once we can write about it with checked facts. The list will grow through the winter.
