Chetzeron

Chetzeron is a 2009-opened mountain restaurant and small hotel at 2,112 metres on the Cry d'Er ridge above Crans-Montana — built into the converted shell of the original 1957 Cry d'Er cable-car station, with concrete-and-glass architecture by Swiss architect Actescollectifs that won the 2010 Swiss Architecture Prize. The building's south facade is a single 30-metre wall of glass facing the Valais Alps panorama, including the Matterhorn (visible eighty kilometres south on a clear day).

The cuisine is contemporary Alpine — chef Sami Lamine cooks a confidently modern menu without the regional weight of most mountain restaurants. Signatures include a hand-rolled tagliolino with Valais black truffle and 36-month Parmigiano; a slow-roasted Valais lamb shoulder with thyme and Mondeuse-fermented black truffle; a smoked Bisse char with horseradish butter and dill oil; a wood-fired Mediterranean octopus with lemon confit; the famous 'Chetzeron-Tarte' — an apricot tart with crème fraîche and pine-needle ice cream.

The wine list is unusually serious for a mountain restaurant — 400 references with deep Valais coverage and a tightly chosen Champagne section. Glass pours start at CHF 13 and the by-the-glass programme runs a generous eight-glass Valais flight. The cocktail bar at the front of the restaurant is genuinely interesting and runs a serious aperitif programme.

The dining room and terrace together hold a hundred and twenty covers — eighty in the architecturally striking glass-walled indoor room, forty on the south-facing terrace with the 270-degree Valais Alps panorama. The summer terrace is the most photographed mountain dining setting in the resort. Service is precision — the captains rotate from the village's seasonal staff pool and the kitchen pacing is exact. Chetzeron is also a sixteen-room boutique hotel for the small set of guests who want to overnight at altitude.

Chetzeron is the birthday-night room in Crans-Montana when the dinner needs to feel like an event. The architectural setting is the conversation; the funicular-then-cable-car ride up is the entry; the south-facing terrace at sunset with the Matterhorn view is the most photographed setting in the resort. Book the south-terrace four-top in summer or the corner table by the south-facing glass wall in winter.