Stöckli

Stöckli is the chalet-annex restaurant of the Gstaad Palace — the 1913 Belle Époque hotel that defines the village's skyline and the unofficial centre of the Saanenland's winter society. The Stöckli is a separate hand-carved wooden chalet built into the hotel's north garden, opened in the 1960s as the Palace's after-ski Swiss-traditional restaurant, and continuously operated since then by the Scherz family who own the Palace.

The menu is unrepentantly Swiss-alpine. Fondue moitié-moitié (Gruyère and Vacherin Fribourgeois) with kirsch float; raclette de Savoie shaved tableside under a heat lamp; a Bündner Gerstensuppe (barley-and-air-dried-beef soup); slow-cooked veal cordon-bleu with mountain-cheese filling; a Toblerone-cheesecake dessert that is the Palace's most ordered sweet plate.

The wine list is short and entirely Swiss — Chasselas from Lavaux, Gamaret from Vaud, Cornalin and Heida from Valais, Pinot Noir from Graubünden. Glass pours start at CHF 12. The hotel's main wine cellar (1,500 bins) is available on request; for a Stöckli dinner most guests stay on the regional list, which is the format the room was designed for.

The chalet itself is the photograph: hand-carved walnut walls, a single cast-iron Sarnen stove in the centre of the room, low-pendant amber lights, framed black-and-white prints of the village's first Olympic skiers, and an open-plan kitchen visible through a butcher-block pass. The room holds forty-five covers across twelve tables. It is, by reasonable consensus, the most photographed Alpine dining room in Switzerland.

Stöckli is the team-dinner room of choice in Gstaad — the fondue format guarantees a shared experience, the room's volume on a Saturday night in February is celebratory rather than rowdy, and the wine list is forgiving on a multi-bottle dinner for eight. It is also the easiest first-date room in the village if both diners want Saanenland atmosphere without the seven-course pacing of a tasting menu.