About hotel and restaurants in Montreux

This is a food and hotel review post...please feel free to skip if these things don't interest you.

We stayed at the Grand Hotel Suisse Majestic. The location, across the street from the train station, and a very short walk from the lake and docks made it very appealing. It was hugely convenient for sightseeing. And we loved the room. Decently sized, very comfy bed, balcony with spectacular lake view, very good shower.

There weren't a lot of restaurants close by though. And the ones that were, also were in hotels and hence fairly pricy. In fact, this seems a recurring issue in Switzerland. There are expensive restaurants, mostly in hotels, many very good but feel overpriced. And there are less expensive, casual cafés where you can get pizza or sandwiches. But there really seems to be a missing category of moderately priced, independent places. It makes it very difficult to find places to eat.

We ate in our hotel's restaurant twice, the first time enjoying it very much, the second time not as much. They were busier on Friday night, and service reflected that. The staff is formal, a little stuffy really. The second meal we both order steaks. Todd had the sirloin which was quite good, I ordered the smaller "Paris Bistro" steak which I thought would be entrecôte, or a hanger steak. But no....it was like the tail of a ribeye...incredibly fatty and gristly. Also undercooked. It was nearly inedible, but no waiter came for me to send it back. By the time they came to ask if it was okay, I didn't want to have it cooked more, so I simply expressed my surprise at the fatty cut. The waiter was incredibly patronizing when he told that was the Parisienne style. I thought he must have eaten in very different Paris bistros than me, since I'd never been served such a thing. But I kept my opinion to myself.

We had a more comfortable Italian meal at a restaurAnt near the lake called La Rouvenaz. We both ate pasta, which we shouldn't....but my risotto with mushrooms and tallegio was such a treat, I didn't worry about it.