Les Touristes

Verdict

Les Touristes is worth booking if you want creative, vegetable-forward French Contemporary cooking at a €€€ price point in Martigny. Book it for a special occasion, a long lunch with wine, or a first encounter with serious Swiss-French contemporary cuisine without paying €€€€ prices.

Portrait

If you came back to Les Touristes after a first visit, the thing most likely to have shifted is the menu. Chefs Christophe Genetti and Gross Maël operate within the JRE framework, which prizes seasonal thinking and creative reinvention over fixed signatures. What you ordered last time may not exist this visit; and that is the point. The kitchen treats vegetables as the structural core of the plate, not as accompaniment, the menu reflects genuine conviction rather than trend-chasing. Michelin's assessors have recognised this with Plates in both 2024 and 2025, confirming consistent execution across kitchen cycles.

For a first-timer, the format to know is this: Les Touristes sits at Rue de l'Hôpital 2 in central Martigny, a city better known for its Roman amphitheatre and the Fondation Pierre Gianadda than for its restaurant scene. That context matters. This is not a destination that benefits from surrounding fine-dining density; it stands largely alone at its level in town, which means it attracts a mix of locals celebrating milestones and visitors passing through the Rhône valley en route to the Alps or the Italian border. The room reflects that dual audience: expect a setting serious enough for a business dinner, accessible enough that you will not feel underdressed in smart casual.

The JRE designation is a useful trust signal for first-timers uncertain about what to expect. Jeunes Restaurateurs Europe selects chefs on the basis of culinary quality, creativity, hospitality, membership is not automatic and carries a meaningful credential. At Les Touristes, that translates into a kitchen that leads with vegetables, builds dishes around balance rather than richness,, per Michelin's own assessment, earns its Four Radishes rating for sustainability practice. The Michelin note is direct: dairy is present in the cooking but the reviewers believe the other ingredients carry enough flavour to stand without it. Whether you share that view will depend on your palate, but it signals a kitchen thinking beyond convention.

For groups and private occasions, Les Touristes operates at a scale where the experience in the main room is already relatively intimate. The address and room size mean this is not a venue with a sprawling private dining wing. If your group requires a fully separated private room, confirm availability directly before booking, the venue's size means configurations vary. For parties of two to four, the main dining room will almost certainly deliver the occasion experience you need: the price point, the award credentials, the cooking ambition are all aligned for a memorable meal without requiring a private space. Larger groups planning a celebration should contact the restaurant early to discuss options.

On price: at €€€, Les Touristes sits one tier below Switzerland's Michelin-starred heavyweights. You are not paying Schloss Schauenstein or Memories rates, the cooking reflects a kitchen at a different stage, ambitious and award-recognised, but not yet operating at two- or three-star complexity. That gap is actually the argument for booking: you get serious, creative cooking with real credentials at a price that leaves room for a good bottle of Valais wine. The region produces white wines from Petite Arvine and Heida that pair well with vegetable-forward menus, ask the team for local pairings if the wine list allows.

Booking is easy by Swiss fine-dining standards. There is no months-long waitlist, no lottery system. Book a few weeks ahead for weekends to be safe, but Les Touristes is not the kind of address where access itself becomes the story. The story is the food. For more on where to stay and what else to do in the area, see our full Martigny restaurants guide, our full Martigny hotels guide, our full Martigny bars guide, our full Martigny wineries guide, and our full Martigny experiences guide.

For context on how Les Touristes fits within the broader Swiss fine-dining picture, compare it against Hotel de Ville Crissier in Crissier, Cheval Blanc by Peter Knogl in Basel, Maison Wenger in Le Noirmont, The Restaurant in Zurich, Einstein Gourmet in Sankt Gallen, Da Vittorio in St. Moritz, Colonnade in Lucerne, Mammertsberg in Freidorf, and L'Atelier Robuchon in Geneva. For the global French Contemporary benchmark, see Amber in Hong Kong and Odette in Singapore.

Quick reference: Les Touristes, Rue de l'Hôpital 2, Martigny, Switzerland. French Contemporary, €€€. JRE member. Booking: easy, a few weeks ahead for weekends.

Ratings

• Michelin Plate: 2024, 2025
• JRE member