I am not sure if trendy is the right description for this one, but it is a very different sort of restaurant: Le Palais Oriental in Montreux. It is right on the lakeside just along from the casino.
+1 for Le Palais Oriental, it has excellent food and is in a great location. You can park your car in the covered public Parking Du Marché just nearby.
I've eaten in most. What kind of food? Lunch or dinner? Do you want to be able to eat inside or outside on a terrace? Is being near the lake enough (no lake view) or is a view of the lake essential? Define trendy. Budget?
I like it too but it depends what CD means by "trendy". Le National in Vevey's rue du Torrent is what I would call "trendy" and it's just off the market square. And the Rouvenaz in Montreux has a lot of buzz. But neither have lake views. Depends what you're looking for.
Any suggestions on where to take some Swiss German friends for a special (but not super expensive) dinner in the Vevey/Montreux region? A lake view would be nice but isn't essential.
Our friends are regular visitors to the area, so we've already taken them to Le Palais Oriental, Le National, and La Rouvenaz.
Has anyone eaten at L'Auberge du Raisin in Cully? Any other recommendations for special restaurants in some of the other small villages like St. Saphorin, Chardonne, etc?
And one last question, has anyone eaten at the new Thai restaurant, Sukhothai, in Territet?
Good thing that it's noon because I'm really ready for lunch now!
No lake views but excellent food and good contemporary atmosphere. Try and book a table upstairs where they have a huge wood fireplace where they roast the meat. Only downside is that it's just been awarded a michelin star so it'll get more difficult to book and I daresay the prices will go up.
Thanks, Nev! I just looked at the website for L'Auberge de l'Onde and it looks perfect. I've walked past it on many occasions on the way to the caveau in St. Saphorin and have always wondered about it. I hope that they still have a free table for this weekend.
Any other suggestions? We always end up going to the same places and are looking for some new restaurants to try.
One of my favourite places is Le Museum in Montreux ( http://www.museum-montreux.ch/ ) and it's speciality is the steak charbonnarde. As it is set slightly further back, there is no lake view, but the interior is quite traditional with low ceilings and is very atmospheric.
As previously mentioned, La Rouvenaz on Montreux's Grand Rue is also good for Italian food.
Fai Wong Chinese (five mins from the train station) has an excellent selection, although is rather pricey for a Chinese meal, so would only recommend for a treat, but the decor is very ornate and traditional.
If you are keen to get a view, then Le Chalet, opposite Montreux train station, offers a terrace, fireplace and traditional Swiss food.
A little bit further out (15 mins from Montreux in direction Valais), if you have transport, Le St. Christophe between Bex and St. Maurice (get a a table on the ground floor where the fireplace is) and the Café Berra in Choex (above Monthey) are also very good.
Tolalala and Nev, thanks for the recommendations - I love trying new places! And thanks for the additional info about where to sit to be next to the fireplace, Nev. With winter coming (although it certainly doesn't feel like it today), that's very useful knowledge to have.
I'll raise a glass in your honor this weekend as we enjoy our meal.
After getting so many great restaurant suggestions, I wanted to leave some feedback on our dinner at the Auberge de l'Onde in St. Saphorin. Following Nev's suggestion, we ate in "La Rotisserie" on the first floor. Three of us took the Sfr 98 Menu de Marché. Each course was delicious, but the most memorable was the foie gras that the sommelier paired with a Duche d'Uzes Blanc. I don't know if it was the combination of the two, but the wine tasted really good. I'm currently trying to find out where I can buy a bottle to see how it stands on its own. We were all impressed with the setting. The traditional building with exposed wooden beams combined with modern touches was very pleasant. Oh! and my husband was extremely happy with his grilled steak and his dessert that was created around the theme, Pears from the Valais.
The wine bar in the basement looks interesting and seems to occasionally have live jazz music at the end of the week.
Thanks again for your helpful suggestions! Please add to this thread if you think of other restaurants in the area that we should visit.
This restaurant is a few hundred yards on the French side of the border and in Summer you can eat on the terrace with a magnificent view of the lake over towards Vevey and Montreux. It has an excellent wine list.
None of these restaurants is far from Montreux and if you do lunch at any of them you could stop and walk it off on the way back with a stroll along the lakeside between Montreux, Chillon and Villeneuve.