The 12 best restaurants in Flaine
A-listers seeking haute or international cuisine slope-side will be gravely disappointed. Rustic chalet-restaurants serving wholesome Savoyard fare are the USP of family-friendly Flaine. Self-catering residences easily trump hotel accommodation in this functional, purpose-built resort and lunch is the main meal of the day when it comes to eating out. Dining in after dark is de rigueur for most visitors.
Flaine Forum and Flaine Forêt cook up the widest choice of eating options, ranging from those unpretentious café-bars the French do so well to modern burger joints, midrange restaurants and retro pizzeria fuelled by regional produce and decades of family love. In terms of cuisine, traditional Savoyard – think fromage – rules the roost.
For further Flaine inspiration, see our guides to the resort's best accommodation and après ski.
Find a restaurant by location
In resort
Friendly Kitchen – Totem
No dining address is quite as emblematic of 1970s Flaine as Totem’s urban restaurant. As spectacularly minimalist as one would expect in an alpine resort famed for its no-holds-barred brutalist architecture, the open-plan restaurant lies at the heart of the eponymous hotel at Flaine Forum. No two vintage chairs match and an egalitarian menu caters to every taste and appetite: homemade soup, fries, fashionable poke bowls, guacamole dips and the gambit of cheesy Savoyard dishes (a killer three-cheese fondue, croque monsieur oozing melted Beaufort AOP and Abondance-stuffed cordon bleu included).
Views inside and out – of Totem’s statement raw concrete fireplace designed by Marcel Breuer or of forest and snowy slopes – aren’t bad either. Evening dining is buffet-style, with two sittings.
Price: ££
Contact: en.totem-flaine.com
Brasserie des Cimes
Sixteen pizza varieties alone ensure no one goes hungry at this family-friendly Savoyard restaurant at Flaine Forum. Despite its location on the ground floor of a brutalist shopping gallery, the interior is decked out like a cosy Savoyard chalet – think traditional wood-beamed ceiling, cherry-red table mats and vintage skis decorating wood-clad walls.
The sizeable, south-facing terrace – a top spot for people-watching – overlooks the black-and-white “Grove of 7 Trees” of modern French sculptor Jean Dubuffet (1901–85) and snowy peak of Tête de Pelouse beyond. Don’t skimp on dessert: the crepes smothered in warm chocolate sauce or salted butter caramel and ice-cream sundaes are legendary.
Price: £–££
Contact: lescimesflaine.com
Le Michet
All the hearty Savoyard favourites are on the menu at this enchanting mountain hideaway, a five-minute walk or ski from the front de neige in Flaine Forum. The snow-globe setting is enchanting: the centuries-old shepherd’s hut up on summer pastures was reconstructed in 1971 as a much-loved, family-run restaurant with a huge central fireplace.
Cheese, charcuterie and produce from regional farms fuel the kitchen which, while relatively fast and burger-predictable at lunchtime, morphs each evening into a more gastronomic affair with hints of world flavours. Meat lovers get quite giddy over the chef’s signature côte de boeuf – 1kg of beef rib steak, shared between two and served with fries on a hot stone. End with blueberry tart. Reservations essential.
Price: £££
Contact: restaurantlemichet-flaine.com
Le Bauhaus
It’s impossible to miss this upmarket restaurant given its prime location, across from the Grandes Platières DMC (Flaine’s main cable car) on Flaine Forum’s bustling snow front. Lunchtimes usher in a monied crowd gorging on indulgent seafood platters of lobster, oysters, whelks and periwinkles – either outside on director chairs draped in faux fur, or inside on the ground floor of luxury hotel-spa Alhena. Artisan charcuterie comes from Maison Baud in Annecy, decadent black truffles pepper cheese fondues and pasta dishes, and a good-value two-course kids’ menu caters to pint-sized gourmets. Come dusk, feasting on glorious golden puddles of local raclette in a transparent bubble is the thing to do. Reservations are essential.
Price: ££–£££
Contact: restaurant-bauhaus-flaine.com
Chez Daniel
A dining staple at Flaine Forum for at least three decades, this traditional Savoyard restaurant next to the resort’s natural outdoor ice rink cooks up all the region’s iconic cheesy specials in a rustic no-frills interior. The cheese fondue spiked with your choice of mushrooms or onions is memorable, as is the feisty tartiflette (oven-baked potatoes, onions, bacon and Reblochon cheese).
Framed vintage prints of Flaine since its brutalist inception in 1969 adorn wooden walls, and dining around tightly packed tables is jaw-to-jowl around as French tradition demands. Two sittings and compulsory reservations can make Daniel’s place feel a trifle unwelcoming – don’t take it personally.
Price: £–££
Contact: flaine.com
Sabaudia
Wicker outdoor seating, exposed stone façade and a coffee shop-styled interior ensure you feel instantly relaxed the second you waltz in this casual café-bar – as popular with season workers as holidaying skiers for its quality home cooking at excellent-value prices. Burgers here hit the spot every time – the cheese ‘burger’ with deep-fried breaded chicken is delicious – as does the beef steak and perch filets with fries. Look for the terrace across from lift No 1 in Flaine Forêt linking it with Flaine Forum.
Price: £–££
Contact: flaine.com
Chez Pierrot
When a pizza joint has stayed the pace since 1979, you know you’re in for a treat. Papa Pierrot opened his pizzeria a decade after Flaine’s inception, hobnobbing with skiing celebrities on the slopes and the Grand Massif’s earliest snowboarders when he wasn’t flipping dough. Since December 2024, daughter Malia has been at the helm of the legendary eatery, a cosy wood-clad affair filled with heart-warming aromas of French onion soup, bubbling pots of cheese fondue, grilled meats and – of course – pizza (including the sassy Quatro de Savoie, melting four different local cheeses). Lunch is only served on Saturdays and snow-storm days; otherwise, dining at Perriot’s is evening only.
Price: £
Contact: chez-pierrot.com
On the mountain
La Pente à Jules
Hot on the heels of ski lessons in the beginner zone, families pack out this duo-faceted eatery, near the bottom of the red Almandine and Faust runs, at lunchtime. Very much a quintessential mountain restaurant, skiers can choose between good-value burgers, wraps, fish ‘n chips and drinks in paper cups from the self-service snack bar, or fancier grilled meats and carb-packed mains in the table-service restaurant. Ask for your 300g entrecôte steak à point or medium unless you like it practically dripping blood. Post-lunch, there’s deckchairs to snooze in or sip a digestive while the kids play in the snow. Resident DJs on the decks from 3pm make the south-facing terrace a dancey, après-ski hot spot too.
Price: £-££
Contact: lapenteajules.com
Closest lift/piste: Green Pin ski run
Le Lapiaz
The type of place you hit after dark to celebrate a birthday or simply to revel in Flaine’s breathtaking location between fir trees and soaring alpine peaks, Le Lapiaz thrills every time. Perched on a red run, the only way to get to this ski-in/ski-out hotel restaurant after 5pm is by snowcat. With a table reservation, the restaurant will pick you up for free in Flaine Forêt and drop you back afterwards. Arriving at the chalet-styled restaurant, diners are cocooned in a contemporary space with a statement central bar and an artsy wall of logs expertly stacked around a log burner. Drinks in the bar are effortlessly cool, as is the honestly unstartling bistro menu mixing Savoyard stalwarts with salmon steaks, chicken filets, club sandwiches, pasta et al. Lunch daily, dinner Thursday to Saturday.
Price: £££
Contact: hotel-lapiaz.com
Closest lift/piste: crossroads of Azurite and Épicéa runs between Flaine Forum and Flaine Forêt
Les Servages d’Armelle
Gourmets desiring a culinary ski day can reserve a table for lunch at this splurge of a restaurant, inside a luxurious four-star chalet-hotel on the slopes in Les Carroz. Mountain views are big and bold wherever you dine, be it inside by the log fireplace or alfresco on the stunning sun-soaked terrace. Local produce is king in the kitchen and, unusually for a mountain restaurant, wild and line-caught fish and Breton seafood are specialities. The John Dory paired with spicy chorizo made by the chef is sublime. (Yes, prerequisite Savoyard cheese dishes are also on the menu.) Round off the feast with a green Chartreuse ice-cream “bomb” in wild bilberry coulis.
Price: £££
Contact: servages.com
Closest lift/piste: Timalets piste to Le Stade, Les Carroz
La Luge à Téran
The ski over from Flaine to this Grand Massif legend, near the bottom of the Gouilles chairlift above Samoëns, for lunch is worth it. Just make sure you reserve in advance. Tables – inside and out – at Sylvie and Edwin’s picture-postcard alpine chalet with log burner, flagstone floor and pops of faux fur go like hot cakes. Portions of homecooked fare are generous and sizzle with local flavour: cheesy Savoyard fondue, gorgonzola and spinach gnocchi, lemon meringue tart and sweet chestnut moelleux, a blowout Chamois platter with oven-baked cheese, potatoes, salad and tangy charcuterie. La Luge’s isolated location between pine trees and lofty mountain views make it immensely popular start and end of ski season, as well as after dark, when nature lovers make their way here slowly on skins, snowshoes or on foot.
Price: ££
Contact: facebook.com/lalugeateran
Closest lift/piste: blue Dahu piste, Samoens
Aux Petits Oignons
Fun, unusual and practically dollhouse-sized, this standout dining spot in downtown Les Carroz is well worth the ski over from Flaine. Otherwise known as Chez Muriel et Sylvain, cooking is invariably over an open fire and the cheese dishes transport foodies to another world entirely. The prized house speciality – dainty grenaille potatoes dipped in a breaded, oven-roasted round of creamy Saint Félicien cheese laced with black truffle – has been on the menu for the past 18-odd years, to the delight of countless skiers who here return year on year for this dish alone. Feisty homemade burgers (traditional and veggie) and imaginative meal-sized salads are other lunchtime staples.
Price: £
Contact: apo74.fr
Closest lift/piste: Les Carroz downtown
How we choose
Every restaurant in this curated list has been expertly chosen by our ski expert, following years of experience on the slopes. We cover a range of budgets, from piste-side huts to Michelin-starred restaurants – to best suit every skier’s taste – and consider the food, service, best tables, atmosphere and price in our recommendations, with options both in the resort and on the mountain. We update this list regularly to keep up with the latest opening and provide up to date recommendations.
