Restaurant in Margencel, France
Lake-fresh fish, serious technique, overnight option.
Séchex Nous is a Michelin-recognised lakeside restaurant in the tiny port of Séchex, where the kitchen is supplied by a sixth-generation local fisherman. The menu centres on Lake Geneva whitefish, pike, trout and crayfish cooked with real technical precision. Three guestrooms make it a practical overnight destination. Book for a long lunch or stay the night.
Séchex Nous is worth booking if you want lake-sourced fish cooked with real technical discipline in a setting that is genuinely hard to replicate anywhere in the French Alps. The combination of a sixth-generation local fisherman supplying the kitchen, a Michelin-recognised menu built around Lake Geneva whitefish, pike, trout and crayfish, and three guestrooms for overnight stays makes this one of the more complete single-destination meals you can plan in the Haute-Savoie. Book it for a long lunch or, better, stay the night.
Séchex Nous sits at the tiny port of Séchex on the southern shore of Lake Geneva, a stretch of water that most visitors to the region drive past on their way to Geneva or Annecy. The dining room faces the lake, so the visual anchor here is water and mountain light — a view that shifts considerably depending on the season and time of day. Arrive at lunch on a clear day and the panorama across to the Swiss shore is the first thing you register before you look at a menu.
The kitchen is run by Lucas Dumelie, whose menu centres on fish landed by Ludovic Moleins-Plassat, Manon's brother and a sixth-generation fisherman working out of Séchex. That supply chain is not marketing copy: it directly shapes what appears on the plate and when. Whitefish lacquered in kalamansi with glazed gherkins and tarragon beurre blanc, and Arctic char with spinach leaf, garden herbs and marinière sauce are the kinds of dishes that appear on the Michelin-recognised menu. The cooking style is light and precise rather than rich and classical, which suits the setting and the produce.
Manon Moleins-Plassat runs the dining room with the ease of someone who grew up here, which contributes to a service register that is warm without being informal. For a food-focused traveller, that combination of sourcing transparency, technical cooking and genuine local rootedness is exactly what makes a destination meal worth the detour.
If you are planning more than one visit, structure them around the menu's seasonal anchors. A first visit at lunch lets you make the most of the lake view and gives you the clearest read on the fish menu in its most direct form. A second visit in the evening, staying in one of the three guestrooms, shifts the experience entirely: the port at dusk is quieter than you expect for a lakeside venue, and an overnight stay lets you move through the meal without the logistics of a drive back to Annecy or Geneva. A third visit in a different season — spring for crayfish and early herbs, autumn for the mountainous hinterland's vegetables , will show you how much the menu shifts with supply rather than staying fixed around a signature format. Séchex Nous rewards revisiting more than most restaurants at this price tier because the sourcing is genuinely seasonal and hyper-local.
Summer lunch is the obvious choice for first-timers: the lake light is at its leading, the fish supply is at its most varied, and the outdoor proximity to the port gives the meal a context you do not get inside. That said, late spring and early autumn are quieter and arguably better for a focused meal. Booking appears direct given the restaurant's relatively modest profile outside specialist food circles, but the small scale of the venue means availability can tighten quickly around weekends and French public holidays. Plan at least two to three weeks ahead for a weekend booking.
Séchex Nous is at 2 Route des Meules, 74200 Margencel. Three guestrooms are available for overnight stays, which meaningfully changes the case for visiting from further afield. The cuisine is priced at the €€€ tier. No phone or website data is currently available in our records , check Google or local booking platforms for current availability. For more options in the area, see our full Margencel restaurants guide, our full Margencel hotels guide, and our full Margencel bars guide.
Quick reference: €€€ modern cuisine, lakeside port location, three guestrooms on-site, booking difficulty easy, advance booking recommended for weekends.
Within the broader French Alps dining circuit, Séchex Nous occupies a different register from the mountain-focused fine dining of Flocons de Sel in Megève or the celebrated classicism of Georges Blanc in Vonnas. It is smaller, more personal, and more tightly tied to a single ingredient source than either. If you are building a multi-stop itinerary across eastern France, it pairs well logistically and stylistically with Auberge de l'Ill in Illhaeusern or Troisgros in Ouches as a counterpoint , a lakeside, produce-driven meal against grander, more theatrical experiences. For the food-focused traveller who has already done the major Michelin destinations in the region, Séchex Nous is the kind of smaller, harder-to-find restaurant that tends to be the most memorable stop of a trip. See also our full Margencel wineries guide and our full Margencel experiences guide for ways to build out the visit.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Booking Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Séchex Nous | €€€ · Modern Cuisine | Easy | |
| Plénitude | Contemporary French | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Pierre Gagnaire | French, Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen | Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Kei | Contemporary French, Modern Cuisine | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Le Cinq - Four Seasons Hôtel George V | French, Modern Cuisine | €€€€ | Unknown |
What to weigh when choosing between Séchex Nous and alternatives.
Follow the lake fish: whitefish, pike, trout, and crayfish are the focus of the menu and the reason to come. Dishes like Arctic char with spinach and garden herbs, and whitefish lacquered in kalamansi with tarragon beurre blanc, show the kitchen's technical range. Mountain vegetables and herbs from the hinterland round out the plate. Avoid defaulting to anything terrestrial on a first visit — the lake sourcing, partly via a sixth-generation fisherman in the family, is what separates this from comparable regional options.
Margencel itself has no direct rivals at this level. For lake-focused dining in the broader Lake Geneva area, you are looking at Switzerland-side options, which shift the price point and border logistics considerably. For mountain-rooted fine dining in the French Alps, Flocons de Sel in Megève operates in a different register — higher formality, higher price, more elevation-focused cuisine. Séchex Nous is the clearest case in the immediate area for this specific combination: wild-caught local fish, precise cooking, and a port-side setting.
The restaurant sits at the tiny port of Séchex in Margencel — a genuinely small, unhurried location that shapes the experience. This is not a destination you stumble into; arriving with a reservation and a plan to linger makes the most of it. Three guestrooms are available for overnight stays, which changes the calculus if you are travelling from Geneva or further. The cuisine is rated €€€ and is Michelin-noted for its technically rigorous approach to lake fish, so expect a considered meal rather than a casual lunch stop.
Given the port-side scale of the venue and its positioning as a precision-driven fish restaurant, this is not a natural fit for large groups. Smaller parties of two to four are likely to get the most from the format. If your group is considering an overnight stay, the three guestrooms add a logical structure for a party of up to six — booking the rooms alongside dinner shifts this into a viable private retreat format. check the venue's official channels to confirm capacity before building a larger booking around it.
Yes, particularly if the occasion suits an intimate, lake-side setting rather than a formal city dining room. The combination of Michelin-noted cooking, a personal family story behind the restaurant, and the option to stay overnight in one of three guestrooms makes it well-suited to anniversaries or low-key celebrations. At €€€, the price is in the right range for a special meal without tipping into the bracket where you need to justify a tasting menu running past midnight. Couples will get more from this than groups expecting a high-energy room.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
