Apollo

Modern Cuisine at Altitude: Davos and the Case for Serious Dining

Davos Platz sits at roughly 1,560 metres above sea level, which makes it one of the highest cities in Europe and, for most of the year, a place defined by extremes: the density of January's World Economic Forum crowd, the silence of the high-Alpine summer, and the logistical reality of being a two-hour train ride from Zurich through increasingly dramatic mountain scenery. What resort towns at this altitude rarely produce is a dining room that takes its food seriously enough to earn sustained external recognition. Apollo, operating inside the Grischa hotel on Talstrasse 3, is one of the exceptions that tests that assumption.

The Graubünden Context: What Altitude Does to Ingredient Supply

The editorial angle that matters most at a restaurant like Apollo is not the menu format or the room design — it is what the Alpine geography does to ingredient sourcing, and why that constraint either limits or defines a kitchen. Graubünden is Switzerland's largest canton by area and one of its most sparsely populated, with an agricultural tradition built around dairy farming, mountain herbs, cured meats, and a short growing season that compresses the availability of local produce into a narrow window. Kitchens working at this altitude cannot rely on the year-round horticultural supply chains available to restaurants in Zurich or Basel. What they can access, in season, is genuinely distinct: Alpine pasture milk and cheese, wild mushrooms from the surrounding forest floors, river fish from the Inn and Rhine tributaries, and game from a hunting culture that remains active in the region.

Swiss modern cuisine, at its more considered end, has moved toward treating these supply constraints as a creative parameter rather than a limitation. The kitchens at Schloss Schauenstein in Fürstenau and Memories in Bad Ragaz — both Michelin three-star addresses in the broader Graubünden and Rhine Valley region, have built their reputations in part on a dialogue with the landscapes they occupy. That approach filters down through the tier, and a Michelin Plate recognition, held by Apollo in both 2024 and 2025, signals a kitchen that is cooking at a level Michelin's inspectors consider worth recording: technically sound, with an identity, even if not yet at the star threshold.

Inside the Grischa: Where the Restaurant Sits

The Grischa describes itself as a Davos hotel, and its position on Talstrasse places it within the town's central corridor, accessible from the main rail artery that connects Davos Platz to Landquart and onward to Zurich. For travellers arriving by train, which is the practical default given Davos's road distance from any major Swiss city, the hotel sits within reasonable walking distance of the station. Apollo operates as the hotel's principal fine dining address, which in resort-hotel terms places it in a recognisable category: a room that must serve both hotel guests seeking serious food and local or visiting diners who come specifically for the kitchen. That dual audience is a structural challenge that the leading Alpine hotel restaurants resolve by anchoring their menus in the regional supply chain rather than defaulting to internationally portable luxury formats.

See the full Davos Platz restaurants guide for a broader picture of where Apollo sits among the town's dining options, and the Davos Platz bars guide if you are planning a fuller evening.

The Michelin Plate Tier: What the Recognition Actually Means

A Michelin Plate is the guide's designation for restaurants that serve food of good quality, one tier below the star threshold. In Switzerland's densely competitive restaurant scene, where properties like Hotel de Ville Crissier and Cheval Blanc by Peter Knogl in Basel occupy the upper star brackets, the Plate recognition is a meaningful data point for a kitchen in a town of Davos's size and seasonality. Earning it in consecutive years (2024 and 2025) suggests consistency rather than a single exceptional showing, which is the metric that matters most for a restaurant dealing with the staffing and supply volatility that high-altitude resort destinations impose. For comparison, 7132 Silver in Vals and Da Vittorio in St.

For broader reference on Swiss modern cuisine at the upper tiers, focus ATELIER in Vitznau, IGNIV Zürich by Andreas Caminada, Einstein Gourmet in Sankt Gallen, and Colonnade in Lucerne offer useful calibration points. Internationally, the modern cuisine format that Apollo operates within has parallels in kitchens like Frantzén in Stockholm and FZN by Björn Frantzén in Dubai, where Scandinavian-influenced modern technique meets local sourcing discipline.

Davos Beyond the Slopes: Planning a Dining-Led Visit

The practical case for including Apollo in a Davos visit is direct: it is the most credentialed kitchen in the town proper, and Davos is not a city where serious dining options are numerous. The Golden Dragon offers an alternative register for Chinese cuisine in the same town, and the broader Davos Platz experiences and wineries guide can help structure a fuller stay. For hotel context, the Davos Platz hotels guide covers the accommodation tier in which the Grischa operates. Booking through the hotel directly is the most reliable route given that Apollo operates as part of the Grischa's dining programme; specific availability and seasonal hours should be confirmed at the time of reservation, as resort-town restaurants commonly adjust their schedules around peak ski season (January to March) and the summer walking season.

What Apollo Represents for the Region

In a Swiss dining scene where the most decorated kitchens tend to cluster in Zurich, the Lake Geneva corridor, and a handful of rural Graubünden addresses with international reputations, a Michelin Plate kitchen in Davos Platz carries a specific kind of weight: it signals that the town's dining ambition extends beyond après-ski convenience. The price positioning at €€€€, consistent with Switzerland's top-tier restaurant market broadly, places Apollo alongside restaurants spending significantly more on ingredients and service infrastructure, which at altitude requires a deliberate supply strategy rather than proximity to urban wholesale markets. That logistical reality, and the recognition Apollo has earned despite it, is the most useful thing to understand about this kitchen before booking.