Restaurant in Menthon-Saint-Bernard, France
Michelin-recognised modern cuisine, Alpine setting.
Le Palace de Menthon holds a Michelin Plate for 2024 and 2025 under chef Frédéric Delormes, making it the most credible kitchen in the village at €€€. The lakeside setting on Lac d'Annecy does real work, and the seasonal menu rotation means a return visit in autumn or winter delivers a noticeably different experience from a summer meal. Booking is easy, which is a genuine advantage over harder-to-reach Alpine alternatives.
If you've already eaten here once, the question isn't whether the setting still works — it does. The real question is whether a second visit offers enough variation to justify the trip back to Menthon-Saint-Bernard. Under chef Frédéric Delormes, the kitchen holds a Michelin Plate for both 2024 and 2025, which signals consistent technical competence rather than a destination-level dining event. That's not a reason to skip it; it's a reason to calibrate your expectations and time your visit around what the season is doing to the menu.
Le Palace de Menthon sits at €€€ pricing, making it a meaningful but not extreme commitment for the Haute-Savoie region. For context, the restaurants at that level in the French Alps tend to trade on either hyperlocal produce or the kind of mountain-view theatre that justifies a detour. Le Palace de Menthon has the latter — its lakeside position on the Route des Bains delivers an atmosphere that changes meaningfully across the year. Summer brings a certain brightness and outdoor-terrace energy; autumn tightens the mood and quiets the room. If atmosphere matters to your decision, the season you choose shapes the experience more than any other variable.
Modern Cuisine at this price tier in the French Alps is almost always built around what the surrounding landscape is producing, and Delormes's kitchen follows that logic. The Haute-Savoie sits at the intersection of mountain and lake produce , lake fish from Lac d'Annecy, Alpine herbs, autumn game, and the kind of root vegetables and aged dairy that define the colder months. A summer visit and a November visit are not the same meal, and that matters if you're returning. First-timers often arrive in summer when the region is at its most accessible; if you've already done that, an autumn or early winter booking is the more interesting choice from a menu-depth perspective.
The room's ambient energy shifts accordingly. In peak summer, the hotel draws a broader mix of guests and the dining room carries more background noise. In the shoulder season, the atmosphere settles , quieter, more focused, better suited to a long meal. If the previous visit was a summer dinner, the contrast of dining here in October or November is genuine, not just cosmetic.
Without confirmed dish-level data, specific plate recommendations would be speculation. What the Michelin Plate recognition does confirm is that the kitchen executes at a consistent standard worth tracking across seasons. The Michelin Plate designation , held in both 2024 and 2025 , is awarded for cooking quality rather than for concept or setting, so the food itself is the anchor here. For returning visitors, the productive approach is to ask the front-of-house team directly what has changed since your last visit and what reflects the current season most closely. A kitchen operating at Michelin Plate level should be able to answer that question in a way that guides your ordering.
The tasting menu format, if offered, is the structure most likely to reflect seasonal rotation across multiple courses. A la carte orders risk landing on the more stable, year-round dishes. If seeing what the kitchen is currently most interested in is the goal, the tasting route is the more reliable path.
Booking is not competitive here. There is no weeks-out scramble, no release-day pressure. For a Michelin Plate property in an Alpine hotel setting, that's a direct advantage over harder-to-book destinations in the region. Book two to three weeks ahead for peak summer dates; the shoulder season is more flexible. For those travelling from Annecy , roughly 12 kilometres along the lake road , this is a practical dinner option rather than a dedicated pilgrimage. For travellers coming specifically to eat, the combination of setting and kitchen quality at €€€ makes more sense than driving further for something louder and more expensive. See our full Menthon-Saint-Bernard restaurants guide for the broader picture, and check our Menthon-Saint-Bernard hotels guide if you're planning an overnight.
The 3.6 score from 55 reviews sits noticeably below what a Michelin Plate kitchen would typically attract. That gap is worth addressing directly rather than ignoring. At a hotel restaurant in a scenic location, review scores often reflect guests eating outside their preferred format , hotel diners who wanted something casual, or visitors who benchmarked the experience against the room rate rather than the food alone. That doesn't mean the criticism is unfounded, but it does mean the Google score and the Michelin recognition are measuring different things. Treat the Michelin Plate as the more reliable indicator of kitchen quality; treat the Google score as a prompt to check current feedback and set realistic expectations about service consistency.
See the comparison section below for how Le Palace de Menthon sits relative to peers across France.
For dining elsewhere in the village, Le Confidentiel is worth knowing about as a local alternative. For bars and experiences in the area, see our Menthon-Saint-Bernard bars guide and experiences guide. Wine-focused travellers should also check our Menthon-Saint-Bernard wineries guide.
The setting does a lot of work here , the lakeside position on Lac d'Annecy is the headline, and the Modern Cuisine kitchen holds a Michelin Plate for 2024 and 2025, which confirms a baseline of cooking quality. At €€€, it's a meaningful spend but not an extreme one for the region. The Google rating of 3.6 from 55 reviews is lower than the Michelin recognition suggests, so arrive with realistic expectations about service and consistency rather than treating this as a destination-level event. Book two to three weeks ahead in summer; easier in the shoulder season.
At €€€, yes , conditionally. If you're combining the lakeside setting with a well-timed seasonal menu, the price-to-experience ratio is solid for the Haute-Savoie. It's not a spend-anything destination meal, but it's a credible €€€ choice with Michelin Plate-confirmed kitchen quality. If you're comparing it to the €€€€ bracket , Mirazur or Flocons de Sel in Megève , those are harder bookings and higher spends. Le Palace de Menthon makes more sense if your budget sits below that tier and the lake setting matters to you.
If the kitchen is offering a seasonal tasting menu, it's the stronger choice over a la carte for returning visitors or anyone who wants to see what Delormes is currently focused on. The Michelin Plate recognition is for cooking quality, and a multi-course format is where that tends to show most clearly. That said, menu details and pricing are not confirmed in current data , confirm the format and current menu directly when booking.
The setting is well-suited to a milestone dinner , lake views, hotel context, Modern Cuisine kitchen with Michelin recognition. At €€€ it won't strain the budget the way a €€€€ Parisian address would. The 3.6 Google score introduces some uncertainty around consistency, so for a high-stakes occasion it's worth calling ahead to confirm current service levels and table preferences rather than booking blind. Autumn evenings in particular tend to deliver a quieter, more private atmosphere than peak summer.
The kitchen's Michelin Plate recognition is for overall cooking quality rather than any single dish, and specific menu items aren't confirmed in current data. The practical approach: ask the front-of-house what reflects the current season when you arrive. A kitchen at this level should be able to give you a direct answer. If a tasting menu is available, it's the most reliable way to see the kitchen's current priorities rather than landing on the stable year-round a la carte options.
Bar seating details aren't confirmed in current venue data. As a hotel restaurant in this format, bar dining is possible but not guaranteed. Contact the restaurant directly to confirm seating options before assuming you can walk in for a casual bar meal.
No dress code is confirmed in current data. At a Michelin Plate hotel restaurant at €€€ in France, smart casual is the safe default , no need for formal wear, but a step above holiday casual is appropriate. If in doubt for a special occasion, call ahead.
Within the village, Le Confidentiel is the most relevant local alternative. If you're willing to travel within the region, Flocons de Sel in Megève is the obvious step up in ambition , three Michelin stars, higher spend, harder to book. For the full picture of what's available nearby, see our Menthon-Saint-Bernard restaurants guide.
| Venue | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Le Palace de Menthon | €€€ | — |
| Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen | €€€€ | — |
| Kei | €€€€ | — |
| L'Ambroisie | €€€€ | — |
| Le Cinq - Four Seasons Hôtel George V | €€€€ | — |
| Mirazur | €€€€ | — |
How Le Palace de Menthon stacks up against the competition.
A Michelin Plate restaurant in a French Alpine palace at the €€€ price tier warrants smart dress at minimum — think collared shirts for men, evening casual for women. There is no confirmed dress code in the available data, but showing up in hiking gear would be out of place given the setting and price point. When in doubt, overdress slightly.
Menthon-Saint-Bernard is a small village, so meaningful alternatives are in nearby Annecy, roughly 10 km away, which has a stronger cluster of Michelin-recognised kitchens at comparable and higher price tiers. If you are weighing a lakeside setting against dining credentials, the Annecy options generally offer more verified track records at similar or higher spend.
Bar seating arrangements are not confirmed in the available data for this venue. Given its palace-hotel format and €€€ pricing, a bar or lounge area is plausible, but whether it serves the full dining menu is unconfirmed. check the venue's official channels before planning a casual drop-in.
Dish-level data is not available, so specific plate recommendations would be speculation. What the consecutive Michelin Plate recognition in 2024 and 2025 does confirm is that the kitchen under Frédéric Delormes is operating at a consistent standard. At €€€, ask staff for the chef's current focus when you arrive rather than defaulting to a fixed menu format without knowing what's seasonal.
Yes, with caveats. The palace setting in Menthon-Saint-Bernard and Michelin Plate credentials make it a reasonable choice for a milestone dinner in the French Alps. The 3.6 Google rating from 55 reviews is lower than you would expect from a venue at this tier, so manage expectations around consistency. It works better as a destination occasion for two than a large group booking.
Menu format and pricing are not confirmed in the available data. At the €€€ tier with Michelin Plate recognition, a tasting menu is the format that typically justifies the price — but without confirmed menu structures or dish-level detail, this is a question to put directly to the restaurant when booking.
At €€€ with back-to-back Michelin Plate recognition in 2024 and 2025 under chef Frédéric Delormes, the kitchen is delivering at a level the price tier demands. The lower-than-expected Google score suggests the full experience is uneven for some guests, likely tied to the broader hotel operation rather than the food alone. If the Alpine lake setting is part of what you are paying for, the overall value case is stronger.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
