Maison Benoît Vidal

Maison Benoît Vidal opened inside L'Impérial Palace on the Annecy waterfront in 2022 and was awarded two Michelin stars in the 2024 Guide — one of the fastest ascents from opening to two stars in recent French dining history. Vidal is Annecy-born, trained under Jacques Pic and Emmanuel Renaut, and previously cooked a two-starred programme in Val d'Isère before closing that restaurant to return to the home lake. The Impérial Palace dining room is the grandest in Annecy — belle-époque ceilings, chandeliers, and a lake-facing terrace.

The cooking is alpine haute with a more classical French training than Sulpice's. Vidal is more comfortable with butter, more willing to deploy a beurre blanc, and more given to long, deeply reduced sauces. The signature dishes include a féra with beurre blanc and Lake Annecy herbs, a saddle of Haute-Savoie lamb with garlic confit, and a dessert of Beaufort cheese glazed with honey and served warm. The format is tasting menu only — five or eight courses at dinner, three or five at lunch.

The dining room seats 60 — larger than Père Bise — and the mood is correspondingly more buzzy. Service is led by director Vincent Fournier, and the wine list runs to 1,200 labels with particular strength in Savoyard producers (Domaine Belluard, Jean-Yves Péron) and Jura. The restaurant has an all-new patio opened in April 2026 that extends the lake-facing terrace outdoor seating.

Lunch tasting is €95 for three courses or €160 for five. Dinner is €250 for five, €330 for eight. Wine pairings are +€140. The Impérial Palace hotel package (room + dinner) is a standard option for out-of-town diners.

Maison Benoît Vidal is the Annecy impress-clients restaurant. Two factors: it is inside the most historically grand hotel in Annecy (useful for the photograph the client will take of the room), and the kitchen is the current critics' darling (useful for the food writer or informed client who will recognise the technique). The private dining rooms off the main dining room seat 8–14 and are the quietest in the city.