La Chaumière

Ordered the 10-course tasting menu and ate dinner at the outdoor terrace. Beautiful location and well suited for dates. Intimate dining atmosphere with fairy lights overhead. Would make for a really good date location, and many people seem to agree - most parties were couples. Multiple staff members struggled with English, much more than I would expect for a Michelin-starred restaurant at an international destination. Staff consistently struggled to describe dishes and sometimes gave information about details in dishes that contradicted my own taste and inferences of the underlying preparation techniques. Food was broadly underwhelming to me and failed to meet expectations. Dishes generally lacked the bold flavors, contrast, tension, surprise, or successfully showcase delicate flavors that I have come to expect and enjoy from high end restaurants. By comparison, most of the menu felt conservative and too scared to take risks - fine for a date setting, but I came alone with the intent of tasting and experiencing the food. A lot of dishes simply faded into the background, as if by design, to facilitate a date/conversational atmosphere and not draw excessive attention to the food. At various points during the meal, I had doubts about the ingredient selection and execution of some of the dishes, but wasn't sure about. Now, having done some research, I am more confident - the sea bream was likely not fresh or handled incorrectly, resulting in a slightly fishy taste, while the dish and preparation fail to show of the delicate texture and flavor of well-sourced and well-prepared sea bream. The restaurant makes use of small, immature chanterelles, in my view a major blunder, as they have a dryer texture and far weaker flavor, both impeding the overall quality of the cannelloni they were served with and wrapped in. Very disappointing to see an ingredient I grew up eating every autumn misused in this way. The yellowtail was unusually tough, a failure in preparation. Strawberries on the dessert looked like they were a bit dry and had started to wilt, lacking the sheen and texture of freshly sliced strawberries. Throughout the whole meal, sauces and pairings failed to add contrast to dishes and at time stifled the main ingredient instead of bringing it out. In addition to having several objective issues and faults throughout the menu, the style of the dishes and menu isn't for me. I did enjoy talking with the sommelier after my meal - he shared his Italian heritage with me and we discussed the local and global production of clear fruit spirits - eau de vie, grappa, and pisco, for about 30 minutes.

Wine is good. The tartare was a little too gingery for me. The chicken was phenomenal! Loved the mushroom sauce. Absolutely amazing

Extremely disappointed in the food, service & atmosphere. In my opinion I don’t understand why this place has a Michelin star!! The food looks NOTHING like the pictures at all. The ribs were in a bowl & nothing that came out looked anything like the pics. The food: Starters: We got the salad & calamari for appetizer. The salad was pretty basic, the dressing was good but the salad was just plain and not the best tasting or looking. The calamari had a pretty good unique flavor. I usually don’t like seafood, but it tasted great. Main course: We ordered the beef for two. The steak was extremely chewy, with absolutely no flavor whatsoever. The green sauce on the side I was excited for, but me nor my fiancé liked the taste, it was just sour and not very good to us. I could be wrong, but it looked like the size was only for one, not two and the server kept trying to up charge us, which I didn’t like, and told us the plate for two wouldn’t be enough? Sides: Mashed potatoes tasted like plain microwave mashed potatoes with no flavor and heavy of butter, not in a good way. The plate of tomato’s, it wasn’t very unique, I didn’t care for them, it’s just a cut up tomato, not impressed. The experience: The experience just was not that great, but not only that the food was average. There was no unique flavors at all. But my star review is solely based on the food like always. But getting into the experience & environment: we got seated outside, and from the begging there was cigarette smoke getting blowed on me from every angle and it really wanted to make me puke. I did not like the fact that I’m trying to eat and enjoy a meal while inhaling someone’s else’s nasty smoke. I think they should separate the sections between smokers and non smokers. It also took 50 minutes to get a salad, glass of wine & bread. No one checked on us, we had to get a few servers attention for different things & ask for a few things twice. It isn’t designed like a Michelin Star restaurant usually is with how you order and how things come and go. There was also bugs in one of our appetizers, not to mention I was getting bit by mesquites the whole time, they didn’t have anything to keep bugs out. There was also dogs at several tables & the servers were petting them then began to serve food without washing their hands and switching out our silverware right after. There were flys flying around our calamari when we were trying to eat it so we were swatting bugs while trying to eat, not fun! I believe a food reviewer needs to come back and review this Michelin star. The entire time we had our main course, no one came up to us, asked if we needed anything, we sat for 20 minutes before the host came to our table and asked if we were finished to take a few plates. At this point I’m just ready to leave, one of three dogs started barking & growling and every table but ours has a light on it and it’s getting dark, not sure why we were skipped on that either, maybe they ran out? But it felt very excluding. The chef came to our table & talked to us for a little bit so that was the best part in the experience. Usually we order dessert but I was ready to leave.

Room is not cozy and clean. Most affordable in the valley for family of four. We had a room with balcony with view. 3minutes walk to tram, train and bus, and handful of grocery and restaurants. Staffs are very kind and helpful.

Excellent dishes all the way, we had their 6 courses dégustation menu,very refreshing dishes, feature lots of seafood for mid-Sept dining,Iike every dish, especially the Fera and the mussel/zucchini cannolini dish. I am not a fan of chocolate, but I enjoy their chocolate dessert, delicious!! Their service can be a bit quicker, even for a Saturday evening : )