Where to eat and drink in Courchevel: well beyond 1850
Lunch on a sunny terrace, most dinners in your own village and one night kept for the meal of the trip. Restaurant le Farçon in La Tania is the dinner to book, Django Piano Bar is the fun night in 1850, Le Petit Savoyard in Moriond is the fondue, and Elephant in Le Praz is burgers and a pool table.
Courchevel has a name for eating, and 1850 has a lot to do with it. What people find once they are here is that the resort eats well in every village, not only the top one, so most nights the best plan is to eat where you are staying. Lunch is on the mountain, long and outside when the sun is out.
Give one night to the dinner worth the trip. Restaurant le Farçon in La Tania holds a Michelin star and cooks around Savoie, and its lunch menu is the gentler way in if you would rather keep the evening. In 1850, Django Piano Bar is the dinner people enjoy most, with live piano, a retro room and a manager out among the tables.
This is Savoie, so give another night to cheese. Le Petit Savoyard in Moriond does a truffle fondue, and a raclette that keeps coming with charcuterie and potatoes until you stop. When the group has had enough of all that, Elephant down in Le Praz does burgers and pizza in a lively room with a pool table, and there is room to spread out.
On the mountain, start a morning at Le Bel Air above Moriond with coffee and a tart in a deckchair, and stay for lunch. In 1850, Polar Café at the foot of the slopes is where the instructors drink their coffee. Book dinner before you arrive, and remember the villages sit at very different heights, so a dinner in one you are not staying in needs a plan for getting home.
Mountain lunch
Coffee and a tart in a front row deckchair above Moriond, then lamb chops on a terrace that keeps the sun for most of the day.
Le Bel Air Mountain Restaurant
Morning coffee and one of their tarts in a front row deck chair is a better use of an hour than most things you can do on skis. Lamb chops with the house salad is what regulars order at lunch, and the terrace holds the sun for most of the day. Rose at five euros is cheaper than a Coke, which nobody expects at two thousand metres.
Dinner
A Michelin star in La Tania, a pianist and a retro room in 1850, and a truffle fondue in Moriond that is worth booking before you arrive.
Restaurant le Farçon
A Michelin star down in La Tania, and the lunch menu at around sixty eight euros is the way to eat there without giving up the whole evening. The cooking is built around Savoie, so venison and reindeer turn up alongside the fish. Several people call it the best meal of their week.
Django Piano Bar
A pianist, a retro room and a manager who works the floor, which together make it the most enjoyable dinner in 1850 rather than the most expensive one. Well seasoned cooking, a decent wine list, and it holds up on New Year's Eve. Book.
Restaurant le Petit Savoyard
The truffle fondue is the order, and the raclette arrives with charcuterie, potatoes and salad kept topped up until you stop. Cheaper than Courchevel prices lead you to expect, and it fills, so book before you arrive. Blueberry tart to finish.
Bars
Burgers, pizza and a pool table down in Le Praz, and space enough for a group to settle in for the night.
Elephant Restaurant Bar Pizzeria
The cheapest good meal in Courchevel, and the one people remember after spending five hundred euros somewhere else. Burgers, pizza, a pool table and a room with some life in it. Spacious enough for a group to take a corner and stay there.
Cafes and quick bites
Cake, good coffee and a beer on draught at the foot of the slopes in 1850, with the instructors and the locals for company.
Polar Café
At the foot of the slopes under the Jardin Alpin gondola, and it is where the locals and the ski instructors have their coffee, which in 1850 is a recommendation on its own. Cakes, good coffee and Peroni on draught. Five o'clock is the good time.
These are our own picks, not paid placements. Opening times and ownership change, so it is always worth checking before you set off.