Eat-Hola

Eat-Hola is the second of the two W Verbier dining rooms and is the Swiss outpost of Martín Berasategui's tapas-bar concept — the twelve-Michelin-starred Basque chef's most recognisable export beyond his San Sebastián flagship. The room sits at the back of the W's ground floor: a long zinc bar, a curved banquette around twenty four-tops, a tiled open kitchen that runs the full length of the back wall, and a soundtrack that is closer to a Madrid wine bar than a chalet hotel.

The menu is recognisably Berasategui — Iberico ham from the family-supplier Cinco Jotas, hand-cured anchovies from Cantabria, Galician octopus with Tetilla cheese, a pan con tomate that uses a mother sourdough started in San Sebastián and shipped weekly. The signature 'gilda Berasategui' (a Basque pintxo of olive, anchovy and pickled guindilla) opens most dinners. The Iberico cochinillo for two is the headline shared plate and is the single best-cooked roast suckling pig outside Spain.

The wine list runs to 400 references with a serious Spanish spine — Vega Sicilia, Pingus, López de Heredia in deep verticals — and a more modest French section. Sherry by the glass is a real programme: ten manzanillas, finos, olorosos and palo cortados that the kitchen pairs against the cured-meat opening courses. Pairings are not formal but the captains will run a Spanish-led six-glass match for guests who ask.

Service is faster than the W's main dining room — the format is built on small-plate turnover — and the kitchen pacing is exact. The room runs at a high volume on Saturday nights and converts to an after-dinner cocktail bar after 23:30, which is the village's best late-night drinks programme. It is the W's most distinctive room and the best tapas dinner anywhere in the Swiss Alps.

Eat-Hola is the birthday-and-share-plates room in Verbier — the format is built around social dining, the menu is broad enough that a table of six can graze for two hours, and the wine programme is friendly to a multi-bottle dinner. It is also the most underrated date room in the village; the curved banquette tables are unexpectedly intimate and the room's volume covers the conversation. Brief the captain on a budget and let the kitchen run a chef-pick tapas dinner for the table.