Where to eat and drink in Davos: rösti high, dinner up the valley
Davos is a town and eats like one, so dinner depends on where you are staying. Restaurant Strela-Alp is the lunch even a walker can reach, Restaurant Teufi up the Dischma valley is the easy evening out, the Sonne in Klosters is the dinner to book, and Mountain's Akt is the beer bar.
Davos eats like the town it is: plenty of choice, nothing showy, and better than it lets on. Lunch is Swiss cooking on a mountain terrace, rösti and capuns and a long sit in the sun. Dinner depends on where you are staying, because Davos Platz and Davos Dorf sit at either end of a long promenade, and the evenings we would plan around are a short ride up a side valley or a train down to Klosters.
Start high. Restaurant Strela-Alp sits a little way past the Schatzalp station rather than beside it, and getting there on foot is half the pleasure: order the Strela Rösti, sit out facing down the valley, and stay longer than you meant to. Somebody who does not ski can walk up from Davos Platz in about an hour and have the same lunch.
For dinner, Restaurant Teufi, a little way up the Dischma valley from Davos Dorf, is the easy one that still feels like a night out: a small, warm wooden room, a cheese fondue, and a short list of local wine and beer. The Sonne in Klosters, about fifteen minutes on the train, is the one to give a whole evening to, with a carefully paced dinner in one room and a fondue stübli in the other. When the group wants something louder, Restaurant Bräma in Davos Platz does wood fired pizza, and does it fast.
Mountain's Akt on the Promenade is the bar to know: an international beer list, a Guinness people cross town for, and staff who keep them coming back. Go to the Weber bakery in Davos Dorf in the morning, for the sourdough and a seat, because a table there after the lifts close is a long shot. Book dinner ahead, the small rooms up the valleys most of all, and work out how you are getting home before you set off.
Mountain lunch
The house rösti on a terrace facing down the valley, with a short walk past the Schatzalp to earn it.
Restaurant Strela-Alp
A short walk on from the Schatzalp station rather than one of the places sitting right beside it, and that walk is the whole point. The Strela Rösti is the house dish and the thing to order. It runs from breakfast through to dinner, which almost nothing else up here manages, and the terrace looks straight down the valley. There is no wifi and the service is unhurried, so it suits a long stop rather than a quick one. If you would rather earn it, the walk up from Davos Platz takes about an hour.
Dinner
Fondue up the Dischma valley, a long and careful dinner in Klosters, and wood fired pizza in Davos Platz for the loud night.
Restaurant Teufi
Out along the Dischma road from Davos Dorf, close enough to be an easy evening and far enough to feel like you went somewhere. The deer schnitzel with rösti is the order in the game season and the cheese fondue is the order the rest of the time. It is small, wooden and warm, with the view running across to the St Jakobsberg, and it takes dogs and children without fuss. The local wine and beer list is short and good. Book, because the room is not big.
Sonne Restaurant & Fondue Stübli
The occasion dinner on this list, and it is in Klosters, about fifteen minutes by train from Davos Platz. Two rooms run in parallel, a lower restaurant doing a properly paced multi course dinner and a separate fondue stübli, and regulars move between them depending on the night. The cooking is precise and local, plated rather than piled, with real gaps between courses. The owners are a couple, the chef comes out to the table and the owner seats you. It is dinner only and it sits at the CHF 50 to 100 end, so book it and give it the whole evening.
Restaurant Bräma
Wood fired pizza out of the oven by the entrance is the thing here, and the Italian one with ham, cherry tomato, rocket and parmesan is the one to order. Capuns and cordon bleu cover the Bündner end of the menu, and the game comes on during the autumn hunting season. Portions are large and the food is fast, inside ten minutes when the kitchen is on. It gets loud when full, which is the right kind of loud. Book ahead and take a terrace table for the mountain view when the weather allows.
Bars
Beer from all over, a Guinness worth the walk, and enough small rooms and garden that a busy night still finds you a corner.
Mountain's Akt
A beer bar with a serious international stock and a Guinness people cross town for. The double cheeseburger is the order and the food generally is better than the room lets on. It is a warren of small spaces with a Biergarten attached, so a full house does not mean you are turned away. The staff are the reason people come back, and it takes bookings for a table. Dogs and groups both fine.
Cafes and quick bites
Bread, cakes and a full kitchen under one roof in Davos Dorf, and a morning stop rather than an after ski one.
Bäckerei-Konditorei-Café Weber
A bakery, a konditorei and a full restaurant in one building, and the local test is that it is busy at half past ten on a weekday morning. The sourdough is the thing to buy, and there is a sourdough panettone in season. If you sit down, the rösti with sausage and caramelised onion gravy is the Swiss order and the chef's burger with gruyère, egg and pickles is the other one. It is close to impossible to get a table when the lifts close, so make it a breakfast or a mid morning stop. Most of what the kitchen uses now comes from the local commune.
These are our own picks, not paid placements. Opening times and ownership change, so it is always worth checking before you set off.