Lunch on the slopes in Val Thorens: stopping without losing your afternoon

Lunch is where most time disappears on a skiing day, usually without anyone noticing. A few simple adjustments change the balance between time at the table and time on the snow.

What a lunch break really costs

A lunch stop on skis rarely costs what you think. Between the descent to the restaurant, taking your skis off, waiting for a table at the busiest hour, the meal itself and then the ride back up, a break of one hour easily takes two. On a day with six hours of actual skiing, that is a third of it.

Two strategies compete. The short stop, thirty to forty-five minutes, with a single dish and a bill settled quickly. Or the deliberate stop, an hour and a half, where lunch becomes a part of the day in its own right. Both are defensible, but deciding in advance stops you drifting into one by accident.

Timing matters more than location

Between 12.30pm and 1.30pm the whole resort eats at once. Terraces are full, kitchens are saturated, waits get longer. Two windows stay calm: before 12.15pm, and after 1.30pm.

The second has an extra advantage: the pistes empty while everyone else is eating. Skiing from 12.15pm to 1.30pm and then sitting down at 1.45pm often gives you the best snow of the day followed by the quietest meal.

Snow front or mountain restaurant

A mountain restaurant offers the panorama and direct access, but imposes a constraint: you have to be able to get back up, which means watching the lift closing times if you are a long way from your home sector.

A snow front restaurant, like ours, is reached at the end of a descent. It requires no return calculation, it lets you drop off a tired child who is going back to the flat, and it gives you indoor warmth, proper lavatories and a full menu. The trade off is that the view is of the bottom of the pistes rather than the summits. Our guide to the Val Thorens snow front explains how the area is laid out.

What to order according to the time you have

For a short stop, the piattini are designed for exactly that: arancini, polpette, montanare, rolled pizza. Piattini are small Italian plates meant for sharing; you eat them with your hands and you leave. A pizza works well too, since it takes ninety seconds in the oven once it goes in.

For a long stop, the fresh pasta and the meat dishes take more cooking but repay the wait. Avoid tartiflette and raclette before going back out, though: melted cheese and a technical descent do not agree with each other. Our article on Savoyard specialities sets out which of them works at midday.

What to drink, and what not to

A glass of wine on a sunny terrace is a resort tradition. It is worth remembering that at 2,300 metres alcohol acts faster, and that alertness falls precisely when the pistes harden up at the end of the day.

Water, on the other hand, is almost always in short supply. Mountain air is dry, effort dehydrates you without visible sweat, and thirst arrives late. A large glass of water at lunch measurably improves the quality of the afternoon.

The other lever is breakfast. A proper one, taken before the first lift rather than swallowed standing up, changes what you need at midday: you can then afford a short stop and a single plate instead of arriving at half past one with the appetite of someone who has skied on a coffee. We open at 8am for exactly that reason, and the first hour is the calmest of the day.

Organising a group

With a group or a family, two habits save half an hour. Book, even for lunch, even midweek: the table is ready and the wait disappears. And agree a firm time in the morning rather than meeting up “around midday”, because coordinating by telephone on the pistes is the single biggest cause of delay.

For large tables, direct contact remains the best route: we set the table up in advance and adapt the pace of service to the time you have. Our piece on eating out with the family covers children’s portions and timings.

Check the weather before deciding

In fine weather, terraces are taken by storm from 11.45am. In cloud or high wind the logic reverses: the dining rooms fill and the terraces stay free. Reading the Météo-France mountain bulletin the evening before is enough to anticipate. The Three Valleys site publishes lift and piste openings each morning, which matters on windy days.

If part of the ski area closes, allow extra time: everyone converges on the bottom of the pistes at once. On those days the snow front works in your favour, since you are already at the point everyone else is trying to reach, and you can wait out a squall over a coffee rather than in a lift queue. It is also the moment when a booked table stops being a nicety and becomes the difference between eating at one o’clock and eating at half past two.