At GstaadLife we find it odd that such a fuss is made over such an outdated approach to reviewing restaurants, with 45 professional testers having made over 1,000 visits to 796 establishments to make up this year’s tome. Much fresher and frankly more accurate is the more consumer-oriented approach used by the Zagat Survey, where ordinary people rate restaurants on a combination of food, service, and décor, and the editors splice together the words of their actual submissions to create the descriptions. But until such gastronomic democracy is accepted around these parts, the mighty GaultMillau has once again declared 12 area restaurants worthy of its coveted GM points, with Robert Speth at the Chesery once again winning top local honors with 18 points (Markus Neff at the Fletschhorn in Saas Fee is this year’s overall Chef of the Year).

The Bellevue’s Prado restaurant picked up 16 points, and it will be interesting to see whether GM deems new chef Richard Mebkhout worthy of the extra two points he held at La Grande Cascade in Paris. Also of note is the arrival of Ticino star chef Martin Dalsass at the Chlösterli, who will be taking over the kitchen at Alain Ducasse’s much-maligned Spoon location in Feutersoey. See below for the full listing of GM points awards for Gstaad area restaurants.

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18 points: «Chesery», Gstaad, Robert Speth
16 points: Grand Hotel Bellevue, Restaurant «Prado», Gstaad, Richard Mebkhout; «Le Grand Chalet», Gstaad, Stève Willié
15 points: Gstaad Palace, Restaurant «Grill/Gildo’s», Gstaad, Peter Wyss; Grand Hotel Park, Restaurant «Le Marco Polo», Gstaad, Franz W. Faeh, «Sonnenhof», Saanen, Erich und Louise Baumer
14 points: Grand Hotel Bellevue, Restaurant «Coelho», Gstaad, Richard Mebkhout; Hotel Alpenrose, Restaurant «Azalée», Schönried, Michael und Carole von Siebenthal, Ermitage-Golf, Restaurant «Ermitage-Stube», Schönried, Peter Dosot
13 points: Bernerhof, Gstaad, Andreas Berger; Spitzhorn, Saanen, Martin und Dolly Riedi; Golfhotel Les Hauts de Gstaad, Restaurant «Belle Epoque», Saanenmöser, Alexandre Schmitt
12 points: Golfclub Gstaad-Saanenland, Restaurant «Golfclub» (new), Saanenmöser, Robert Speth, Marco Plaen
Not yet rated (but for some arbitrary reason still in the guide): Dalsass, Grund b. Gstaad, Martin Dalsass