Au Vieux Manoir

Should You Book Au Vieux Manoir?

Yes — if you are visiting Monthey and want a serious French Contemporary meal backed by consecutive Michelin recognition, Au Vieux Manoir is the right call. It holds a Michelin Plate for both 2024 and 2025, which signals consistent kitchen standards without the price premium of a starred room. At the €€€ price range, it sits at a point where the quality-to-cost ratio is genuinely compelling for the Valais region. For a first-timer arriving in Monthey, this is the restaurant to anchor an evening around.

What Au Vieux Manoir Is

Au Vieux Manoir is a French Contemporary restaurant at Route de Choëx 155 in Monthey, a town in the canton of Valais in southwest Switzerland. It earns its place as one of the more considered dining options in a region better known for its alpine scenery than its restaurant density. The Michelin Plate designation, awarded in both 2024 and 2025, marks it as a kitchen producing food that Michelin inspectors considered worth noting — a threshold that filters out most casual restaurants in any given city.

The cuisine falls under French Contemporary, which in Swiss practice typically means classical French technique applied to seasonal and regional ingredients, with plating that reflects modern sensibilities rather than old-school formality. This is not the kind of cooking where the format is a guessing game: you can expect structured courses, deliberate flavour combinations, a kitchen that takes its craft seriously. For a first-timer, that means you are unlikely to be surprised in a bad way, the food aims for precision rather than provocation.

What makes Au Vieux Manoir worth noting beyond its food is its role in Monthey specifically. Monthey is not a restaurant destination in the way that Geneva, Zürich, or even Lausanne is, so a venue of this calibre carries more weight locally than it might in a city with twenty comparable options. If you are staying in the area or passing through the lower Valais, this is the kitchen that justifies making a dinner reservation rather than settling for something more casual. For context on the broader dining scene, see our full Monthey restaurants guide, and for a local peer, Du Théâtre offers a different Modern Cuisine approach at a comparable position in the market.

Who Should Book

Au Vieux Manoir suits couples or small groups looking for a proper dinner with some occasion weight to it, birthdays, anniversaries, or simply a meal that justifies a real reservation rather than a walk-in. The €€€ price tier in Switzerland places it below the country's leading starred tables (which frequently run €€€€ and higher) but clearly above the brasserie category. If your group wants something formal enough to feel like an event but does not want to spend at the level of Hotel de Ville Crissier or Cheval Blanc by Peter Knogl in Basel, Au Vieux Manoir is a sensible middle position.

For diners visiting Switzerland from further afield, who are building an itinerary around standout French Contemporary cooking, it is worth knowing that Odette in Singapore and Amber in Hong Kong represent the ceiling of the format internationally. Au Vieux Manoir does not compete at that altitude, but it does not try to. Its value is local: it is the most credentialled French Contemporary option in its immediate geography, it delivers at a price point that makes the meal feel earned rather than extravagant.

When to Go

The Valais region experiences its peak tourism periods in winter (ski season, roughly December through March) and midsummer (July and August), when the alpine passes and lakeside areas draw visitors. If you are travelling in either of these windows, book ahead, a Michelin-recognised restaurant in a smaller Swiss town fills its reservation book faster than its city counterparts during high season, simply because the supply of comparable options is thinner. Shoulder season visits (April to June, September to October) offer the practical advantage of easier bookings, the regional produce available to a kitchen like this tends to be at its most varied during spring and autumn. A weekday dinner in shoulder season is the low-friction option for a first visit.

Practical Notes

Au Vieux Manoir is at Route de Choëx 155, Monthey, on a route that connects the town centre toward the Choëx area. If you are arriving by car, that address is direct to navigate. Monthey is served by the Swiss rail network, with connections through the Rhône Valley corridor; if you are arriving by train, the town centre is accessible on foot or by local transport. For where to stay, see our full Monthey hotels guide. If you want to extend your time in the area with a drink before or after dinner, our Monthey bars guide covers the options, our Monthey wineries guide is useful given the Valais region's serious wine production, particularly its Chasselas and Pinot Noir. For broader activity planning, our Monthey experiences guide covers the surrounding area.

Phone and website details are not currently held in our database. Booking difficulty is rated Easy, which suggests reservations are available without weeks of advance planning outside peak periods, but given the size of a restaurant of this type in a smaller town, confirming by advance booking remains advisable rather than arriving and hoping for a table.

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How It Compares

More Swiss French Contemporary Worth Knowing

If you are building a broader Swiss dining itinerary, several kitchens offer useful points of comparison at different price and ambition levels. Maison Wenger in Le Noirmont and Einstein Gourmet in Sankt Gallen are worth investigating for regional reach. Colonnade in Lucerne and The Restaurant in Zürich operate in Switzerland's larger urban centres. For the alpine luxury end of the spectrum, Da Vittorio in St. Moritz and Schloss Schauenstein in Fürstenau sit at the top of the country's formal dining tier. Mammertsberg in Freidorf and Memories in Bad Ragaz round out a picture of what Switzerland's serious kitchens look like at the €€€€ level.