Restaurant in Solothurn, Switzerland
Serious French cooking at honest prices.
Le Restaurant holds the Michelin Bib Gourmand for 2024 and 2025, making it the strongest case for classic French cooking at a mid-range price in Solothurn. Chef Jeremy Degras runs the kitchen, sommelier Cristina Iuculano oversees a 1,400-selection wine list, and booking is easy. Go at lunch for value; go at dinner if you want to make the most of that cellar.
If you are planning a serious French meal in Solothurn, Le Restaurant at Hauptgasse 64 is the place to book. It holds the Michelin Bib Gourmand for both 2024 and 2025, which is Michelin's specific signal that a kitchen delivers cooking quality above its price point. At a €€ cuisine price tier, that is the kind of value recognition worth paying attention to. Chef Jeremy Degras runs the kitchen, Richard Leuenberger manages the room, and sommelier Cristina Iuculano oversees a wine list that runs to 1,400 selections and 30,000 bottles in inventory, with strengths across Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, France, and Italy. For a French restaurant at this price level, that is an unusually serious cellar. Booking is rated easy, so you do not need to plan weeks in advance, but with a Bib Gourmand and a Google rating of 4.1 across 709 reviews, availability will tighten at peak times.
Le Restaurant serves both lunch and dinner, and for a returning visitor the question of which to choose matters more than it might seem. In classic French restaurants at this price tier, lunch tends to offer the same kitchen, the same team, and the same sourcing at a more relaxed pace and often at a lower per-head cost. If your first visit was at dinner, consider the midday service next time: you are likely to get Degras's cooking with more daylight, a quieter room, and the kind of unhurried pacing that a French kitchen at this level is built for. Dinner, by contrast, is where the wine program earns its place. Sommelier Cristina Iuculano's presence, paired with a cellar of this depth, makes the evening sitting the right choice if you want to commit to a wine-forward meal. The corkage fee is set at $150 if you bring your own bottle, which is worth factoring in: given the 1,400-selection list, you would need to be bringing something the cellar does not already carry to justify it.
A 30,000-bottle inventory and a $$$-rated wine list at a €€ restaurant is an unusual combination. The list is priced at the higher end, with many bottles over $100, so if you are eating at Le Restaurant primarily for the value proposition of the Bib Gourmand, plan your wine spend separately. The strengths in Bordeaux and Burgundy suggest a program oriented toward depth and age rather than novelty, which suits the classic French format. Italian selections add range. If wine is a priority for your visit, this cellar is a genuine reason to choose Le Restaurant over the competition in Solothurn. If you are watching budget and want to keep the whole meal at the €€ tier, stick to the lower end of the list or confirm the by-the-glass options when you book.
Michelin's Bib Gourmand is awarded to restaurants offering good cooking at moderate prices, the current threshold being a two-course meal within a defined price ceiling. The fact that Le Restaurant has held it in both 2024 and 2025 means the recognition is not a one-year anomaly. For a classic French kitchen, this is a meaningful credential: classic French technique at a demonstrably accessible price point is not the default in Switzerland, where the broader dining market skews expensive. If you are comparing Le Restaurant to destination-level Swiss French cooking at places like Hotel de Ville Crissier in Crissier or Cheval Blanc by Peter Knogl in Basel, those are different spending commitments entirely. Le Restaurant sits closer in register to a well-run French bistro with genuine kitchen ambition, which is exactly the gap the Bib Gourmand exists to identify.
If you have already eaten here once, the next visit is about going deeper. On the wine side, engage Cristina Iuculano on what is drinking well in the cellar right now, particularly in Burgundy or older Bordeaux if that is your direction. On the food side, the €€ cuisine price tier suggests a menu structured around two-course or three-course progression rather than an extended tasting format. Le Restaurant has been running the Bib Gourmand through consecutive years, which implies menu consistency rather than a kitchen chasing seasonal reinvention for its own sake. That is a reasonable thing to expect here: reliable execution of classic French cooking, not a moving target.
For context on the broader French dining tier in Switzerland, Schloss Schauenstein in Fürstenau, Memories in Bad Ragaz, and Einstein Gourmet in Sankt Gallen all occupy a higher price and award tier. If you are benchmarking classic French specifically, Waterside Inn in Bray and d'Eugénie à Emilie in Baudour are useful reference points for the format at its most traditional. Le Restaurant sits below all of those in price and prestige, but the Bib Gourmand signals it is punching above its weight on cooking quality.
Planning a longer stay? See our guides to restaurants in Solothurn, hotels in Solothurn, bars in Solothurn, wineries near Solothurn, and things to do in Solothurn.
| Venue | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Le Restaurant | €€ | — |
| SALZHAUS | €€ | — |
| Zum Alten Stephan | €€ | — |
| Al Grappolo AG Vini | — |
Side-by-side comparison to help you decide where to book.
The venue data does not specify a private dining room or stated group capacity. For parties larger than four, contact Le Restaurant directly at Hauptgasse 64 before booking to confirm availability. The Bib Gourmand recognition suggests steady demand, so larger groups should inquire well in advance.
Yes, and the wine program is the main reason. A 1,400-selection list with 30,000 bottles in inventory, overseen by sommelier Cristina Iuculano, gives a special-occasion dinner genuine depth. The Michelin Bib Gourmand status means the kitchen clears a quality bar, and the €€ price point means you can spend the budget on a serious bottle rather than the food bill.
At €€ for a two-course meal, yes. The Michelin Bib Gourmand — held in both 2024 and 2025 — exists specifically to flag good cooking at moderate prices, and Le Restaurant has earned it in consecutive years. The wine list prices at $$$, so if you plan to drink well, budget accordingly; the corkage fee is $150 if you prefer to bring your own.
Book at least one to two weeks ahead for dinner, and further in advance if your date falls on a weekend or around local events in Solothurn. Consecutive Bib Gourmand recognition in 2024 and 2025 keeps demand steady. Hours are not published in current data, so confirm service times when you reserve.
Dietary accommodation details are not in the available venue data. Classic French kitchens rely on butter, cream, and animal proteins as structural elements, so guests with significant restrictions should call ahead or email before booking to confirm what the kitchen can adjust.
SALZHAUS and Zum Alten Stephan are the two closest comparisons for a sit-down meal in Solothurn. Al Grappolo AG Vini is worth considering if your priority is Italian wine and a shorter list in a less formal setting. Le Restaurant is the strongest option for classic French technique and a serious cellar.
Tasting menu details are not confirmed in the available data, so this cannot be answered definitively. What is confirmed is that the kitchen has earned the Michelin Bib Gourmand in back-to-back years under chef Jeremy Degras, which signals consistent execution. If a multi-course format is available, the wine list depth makes pairing a worthwhile addition.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
