Gault Millau Gstaad 2008: the critics' critics

Another week, another gourmet guide. Restaurant ratings have become something of a tiresome affair in Saanenland. Not only is there a drive to decorate restaurant windows with as many Gault Millau and Guide-Bleu signs as possible, but the tourist office relentlessly bangs on about Saanenland having the highest Gault Millau point density in all of Switzerland. But making real sense out of this jungle of recommendation is difficult (continued...)

Left: Robert Speth with wife Susanne. Chesery has once again scored tops among local restaurants in the 2008 Gault Millau guide.

Tell us what do you think...

                     

Firstly the selection criteria for restaurants are inconsistent. Take the Gault Millau guide for example. It is hard to understand why they choose to rate the golf club restaurant (which, do not get us wrong, is very good), and yet completely overlook such an established gourmet venue as the Hotel Olden. After all the recent turmoil at the Chlösterli, can we really say that big-brand By Dalsass (17 points) is better than the Sonnenhof (16 points)? It is also curious why Gstaad is so well-represented in the book; Grand Hotel Bellevue’s Gault Millau Hotel of the Year award in its first year of operation as a five-star, Gault Millau’s endorsement of Davidoff Saveurs, and continued stellar ratings for such a wide range of establishments. Perhaps it's just because our restaurants are good, but there have been rumblings about a lack of transparency for years. When all is said and done, one can't help but wonder why in this sea of Gault Millau pointitude, we are bedazzled by just a single Michelin star (Chesery) in all of Saanenland (actually there's a whole other story there, but not now). For its part, the Guide-Bleu claims to remove all arbitrariness by introducing paid-for restaurant audits, but ultimately while the concept sounds nice, it amounts to little more than a glorified Yellow Pages.

Ultimately what we are left with is a number of very good restaurants, and a pile of questionably informative guidebooks chock full of ratings plagued with methodological problems and PR bias. Harsh maybe, and who's to say we know best. Well, we don't claim to. The only thing we are sure of is that the most important restaurant critics are, well...you. So GstaadLife.com invites you to tell us your favorite restaurant in Saanenland. No mystery diners, no press kits, no complex weighted-averages of food, decor and service. Just your gut...when you go out to eat, what's your favorite spot? (Please vote above or comment below).