Nobuyuki Matsuhisa — known globally as Nobu — has built one of the world's most recognisable restaurant brands on a cuisine of his own invention: a synthesis of Japanese technique and Peruvian ingredients that he developed during years cooking in Lima in the 1970s. When Badrutt's Palace Hotel chose to reposition the historic La Coupole dining space, they invited Matsuhisa to install his concept beneath the hotel's original glass dome — a collaboration between the world's most storied ski resort hotel and one of the world's most copied contemporary chefs.
The result is one of St. Moritz's most sociable and visually spectacular dining environments. The glass dome overhead is original to the hotel's late 19th-century construction; the cuisine beneath it is anything but historical. The Nobu menu remains faithful to its founding signatures: black cod with miso, the world-famous yellowtail sashimi with sliced jalapeño and yuzu sauce, tuna tataki with ponzu, and rock shrimp tempura. These dishes translate with complete confidence to the alpine setting — the contrast between the building's Victorian grandeur and the cuisine's Pacific Rim vitality is one of the evening's genuine pleasures.
Adjacent to the main dining room, a cocktail and sushi bar extends the La Coupole experience into something more informal — an option for those who prefer the counter experience over a table setting. The bar serves the full Nobu menu alongside a cocktail list of considerable ambition. During the Badrutt's Palace winter season, La Coupole operates as one of the resort's primary social nodes, attracting the hotel's international clientele as well as those making the reservation specifically for the Matsuhisa cuisine.
For a birthday dinner where the guest of honour appreciates the exceptional but prefers the vibrant over the reverent, La Coupole — Matsuhisa delivers with the theatrical confidence of a restaurant that has served the world's most demanding clientele for decades. The dome setting alone justifies the reservation.