Visiting The Swiss Alps? These Two Hotels Have Michelin-Starred Restaurants
Chances are, if you plan to hit the slopes (or the shops) for a few hours in the Swiss Alps, you'll work up an appetite.
Why settle for resort hotels with bland, run-of-the-mill food when a Michelin-starred restaurant can be an elevator ride away?
The Switzerland-based Tschuggen Hotel Group owns multiple luxury ski resort accommodations with an impressive dining portfolio, including the opulent classic Carlton Hotel in St. Moritz and the modern marvel Tschuggen Grand Hotel in Arosa — each has a one-star Michelin restaurant under its belt. If savoring the Swiss Alps is also on your agenda, check out these grand gourmet hotels.
Carlton Hotel St. Moritz
The all-suite Carlton Hotel boasts a 100-year-plus legacy in St. Moritz, and it continues to attract high-end travelers (and royalty). The Tschuggen Group re-imagined the space under Carlo Rampazzi's twentieth-century Russian tsar-inspired vision in 2006 to create a classic yet fanciful experience. All 60 suites and junior suites — designed with bold-colored themes in blue, red, violet, and orange — feature stellar views of the village, Lake St. Moritz and the Alps. The village of St. Moritz — replete with spendy fashion houses and artisanal shops — is easily reached by foot within minutes, but the hotel's complimentary Bentley chauffeur service might prove too alluring to pass up.
Dining choices here, as expected, are of the refined sort, including the Swiss-centric Romanoff where dinner and an exquisite breakfast buffet is served, and the Bel Étage, which sports a lovely sun terrace for a scenic lunch and afternoon tea. Carlton Hotel's premier restaurant, however, is the one-Michelin-star Da Vittorio St. Moritz, which is an outpost of the original three-Michelin-star restaurant of the same name near Bergamo, Italy. The haute Italian fare includes grilled langoustine with almonds and pumpkin hummus or a primi piatti with a lavish lashing of white Alba truffle. Its tasting menu, which can be enjoyed in four, five, or seven courses, is the most recommended option to sample the best of Lombardy in alpine Switzerland.
Tschuggen Grand Hotel Arosa
If the Carlton Hotel is the classic grande dame of St. Moritz, the Tschuggen Grand Hotel is the future-forward icon of Arosa, a mountain resort located in the picturesque Schanfigg Valley.
Also designed by Carlo Rampazzi, the resort has 130 renovated rooms and suites housed in a steely high-rise building, though the interiors, by contrast, display a much softer side, featuring fine Venetian stucco on the walls and ceilings. The main draw, though, is the Tschuggen Bergoase, the world-class spa complex that appears as a glassy mirage with its nine filigree "sails" emerging from a mountain's slope. The four-story, 50,000-square-foot marvel by Mario Botta features several treatment rooms, a ladies-only and unisex sauna, gym, steam baths, and a swimming pool which, like Carlton Hotel's spa, flows outdoors with stellar views of the Alps' peaks.
With five restaurants to choose from, Tschuggen Grand guests are spoiled for choice for where to indulge the palate. Casual diners head to The Basement for American and Swiss grub in a ski lodge-like setting, while those in a fine dining mood head into the Grand Restaurant. La Vetta, the bijou 28-seat restaurant that has maintained its Michelin star since 2012, goes beyond Swiss fare for an eclectic but well-curated lot of international flavors — think roasted miso-glazed duck breast with Chinese cabbage and edamame, or beguiling combinations like tomato and papaya with crème brûlée, celery, and Thai basil. Arosa might not be a household name like its glitzier cousins St. Moritz and Zermatt, but Tschuggen Grand's dining and out-of-this-world spa make it a bucket list destination in its own right.