Words by Switzerland has a new three-star restaurant, and it’s in a mountain village of about 1,500 people. At the Michelin Guide Switzerland ceremony on Nov. 2, held in the Konzerthalle in Andermatt, The Japanese Restaurant at The Chedi Andermatt moved up from two stars to three. It was the night’s headline, and the host town got to celebrate one of its own.
Twins at the top
The kitchen is run by twin brothers Fabio Toffolon and Dominik Sato. The restaurant sits inside The Chedi on Gotthardstrasse, at roughly 1,450 meters in the Ursern Valley, where the brothers have cooked their Japanese menu at two-star level until now. Getting a third star anywhere is rare. Getting one for a Japanese counter high in the Swiss Alps says a lot about how much the dining map in this country has changed.
For anyone planning a trip, Andermatt is easy to reach by rail from Zurich or Lucerne, and it has grown from a garrison town into a year-round resort over the past decade, helped by The Chedi itself and the expanded ski area.
The full three-star list
The Japanese Restaurant joins four others at the top level:
- Memories in Bad Ragaz, with chef Sven Wassmer
- Cheval Blanc by Peter Knogl at Les Trois Rois in Basel
- Restaurant de l’Hôtel de Ville in Crissier, led by Franck Giovannini
- Schloss Schauenstein in Fürstenau, Andreas Caminada’s castle restaurant
In all, the 2026 guide lists 133 starred restaurants in Switzerland: five with three stars, 22 with two and 106 with one. Seven of the one-star restaurants are new this year, and the guide added 11 new Bib Gourmand picks for good cooking at moderate prices.
Seven new one-stars worth a detour
The new one-star group is where the guide gets interesting for travelers, because several of the picks are in places that don’t usually show up on food itineraries.
MYLE in Bern, led by Markus Arnold, won Opening of the Year. It’s set in a former 1970s cinema and changes its theme by city: the current menu draws on Mexico City through November, then switches to Athens.
Bärenstobe in Gonten, in rural Appenzell, earned a star for chef Michael Gollenz.
CAAA in Lucerne belongs to Pietro Catalano, whose résumé includes stints as a car mechanic and a trumpet player before he settled in the kitchen.
Origini in Morbio Inferiore, in Ticino near the Italian border, brought chef Guglielmo Curcio the guide’s Young Chef award along with his star.
The rest of the new list: Schlüssel in Oberwil, ad lib in Zermatt, and rémy in Zurich.
What the list says about Swiss dining
The spread of this year’s stars is worth noticing. Bern, Lucerne and Zurich each picked up a new one, but so did a village in Appenzell, a town in southern Ticino and a ski resort under the Matterhorn. Swiss fine dining used to be concentrated around Geneva, Basel and Zurich. That’s no longer the case.
Awards for the dining room
Michelin also recognized the people out front. Nicole Sawyere of ad lib in Zermatt received the Service Award, and Émeline Gigaud of Arakel in Geneva took the Sommelier Award.
How to use this list
Swiss fine dining isn’t cheap, and three-star tasting menus here routinely run several hundred francs a person before wine. The new Bib Gourmand picks are the better bet for most trips. For a splurge, though, this year’s list makes a strong case for combining a mountain stay with dinner: Andermatt for The Japanese Restaurant, Zermatt for ad lib, Fürstenau for Schauenstein.
Reservations at newly promoted restaurants tend to vanish fast after the guide comes out, so anyone hoping to get into The Japanese Restaurant this ski season should book now. Ski season is when Andermatt is busiest.