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Chez Pepe Nicholas Restaurant Review

An evening of fondue and cheese in a blizzard

featured in Restaurant reviews Author Gemma Hunt, Val Thorens Reporter Updated

Chez Pepe Nicholas is located on the main road just past Les Menuires and before the road starts climbing up to Val Thorens and we couldn’t have picked a snowier night to try out the evening restaurant last week.

The business started off as mainly a farm restaurant opening in the summer months and a couple of years ago, much to many skiers delight, opened their doors for the Winter months too.

Previously the restaurant could only be accessed during the day either by car, on foot or via off piste when conditions allowed. This season however a new piste has been created “La Chasse” which has had a delayed opening due to weather conditions but this week is now ouvert!

If you are arriving from Courchevel or Meribel you will need to take the ‘Cote Brune’ lift followed by the piste ‘Mont de la Chambre’ then ‘Plan du Bouquet’ and then onto ‘La Chasse’. From Val Thorens just take the ‘Plein Sud’ lift then onto the ‘Pluviometre’ piste, followed by ‘Boulevard des Escahuds’ and then ‘La Chasse’ and voila, you will arrive.

The restaurant at nighttime provides a real mountain experience as you need to walk up in the dark but don’t let that put you off, it’s all part of the evening. The car park is easily located and afterwards there is a snowy track leading up to the restaurant with torches to light the way. It only takes around five minutes to walk and afterwards you see the welcome sight of a warmly lit restaurant ready to welcome you in.

The restaurant has been expanded in the past year and there are two sections to the recently refurbished building, the cave and La Laiterie. The décor is really nicely done with lovely touches throughout to create a modern mountain refuge. There is everything from milk bottle light fixtures to hay bale seating and cushions. There was a large group booked into the main part of the restaurant the evening we arrived and so we sat in La Laiterie which was bright and had large windows to watch the blizzard whirling outside, as we sipped our vin rouge and tucked into fondue!

The staff are really friendly offering recommendations from the menu for food and beverages. We started with the house kir which went down very nicely indeed. The menu itself is quite limited with a few starter options along with some main platters to choose from. Our group all opted for platters and the tomme de savoie option included a quarter of a lump of cheese! Luckily they were very accommodating with an amazing grasp of English offering to wrap up our platter leftovers in a ‘doggy bag’ to take home to enjoy the next day.

Having sampled the homemade terrine for starter which was nicely accompanied with fruit bread, (although we could have done with a little bit more for the size of the potion), I followed this with the Beaufort fondue which was certainly not lacking in bread and yumminess. The rest of the group had steak and the pot au feu which might not have been to everyone’s tastes with marrow bone sticking out, but our French foodie was pretty happy with his choice. The main courses are all priced around 20 euros + and for four people dining for two courses with wine it worked out at around 50 euros per person which is pretty reasonable for a meal in Belleville.

There was no pressure to leave the table at the end of the meal and when we were ready to head home we were presented with a flame-lit torch to help us find out way back down the snowy path to the car, a real adventure!

Chez Pepe is a family business and they also have restaurants further down the valley in St Martin de Belleville, Jardin Josephine and Le Montegnard. Each restaurant with their own unique style and whilst each offers a similar menu with local dishes each one is individual.

Location

Map of the surrounding area