Le Clos des Sens Review, Annecy: Nature-Led Michelin 3-Star Tasting Menu

Annecy-le-Vieux was a deliberate detour from a business trip to Geneva. It was my first visit to Le Clos des Sens, a house that speaks of plants and lakes, of foragers and fishermen. I wanted to see how that promise reads in early November, when the light turns clear and the air sharpens. We chose the nine course Grande Fête, titled Nature in November, priced at 288 €.

Location & Atmosphere

The property sits on the hill above Lake Annecy in Annecy-le-Vieux, about forty minutes from Geneva Airport. As a member of Relais & Châteaux, it functions best as a restaurant with rooms. The bedrooms are handsome, with open fireplaces and balconies that take in the city and the lake.

Outside the gourmet dining room the afternoon offer is sparse. We were told there was only bread and cheeses from Haute-Savoie, nothing else. It sounded austere, yet it turned out perfect on a golden, sunny November afternoon. With a bottle of Prieuré Saint-Christophe Altesse, Roussette de Savoie 2020, the simplicity felt intentional. Good milk, good wine, quiet light, and the view. The region itself glowed copper and gold beneath a cloudless sky.

The dining room is modern yet warm. Old wood lines the walls and there is an open view into the kitchen. The room feels calm and measured. Service is precise and notably relaxed, present without pressure.

Culinary Style or Distinctive Character

The cooking is rooted in the immediate landscape. Herbs, vegetables and lake fish form the grammar, sourced from the region’s three lakes: Lake Annecy, Lake Geneva and Lake Bourget. Temperatures are clean, sauces are light, and flavours arrive in focused lines rather than broad strokes. Proximity to plant gatherers and lake fishers reads on the plate as clarity and restraint.

It’s a language of precision and quiet confidence, comparable in spirit to Steirereck in Vienna, yet more ascetic — alpine minimalism rather than urban refinement.

Dinner began in the lounge with a Bérêche et Fils Campania Remensis Rosé 2021, a serious champagne with red-berried depth and chalk. It matched a sequence of small, crisp bites that sketched the terrain with texture and salinity.

Menu / The Dishes

Crispy herbs opened the meal, a delicate finger salad of leaves that snapped and whispered green. A bite titled iodine without iodine followed: river fish layered with crackling trout skin and lake fish bottarga. A fermented shallot morsel brought gentle sweetness and lactic warmth. A crayfish satay, compact and direct, closed the prelude.

Peppery nasturtium reset the palate. A cool broth of nasturtium held a tangle of leaves, fresh and precise, the heat a quiet echo at the back of the throat.

Trout neither raw nor cooked arrived cured to tender translucence, lifted by lovage and berries from the garden. The acidity of currants and bilberries brightened the fish without crowding it.

The mushroom salad from Savoie became the evening’s lodestar. Beneath a cover of thin, raw mushrooms sat a warm layer gently braised with shallot. Alongside, an espresso cup held a concentrated mushroom cream, closer to a thick soup. The dish moved in three registers: cool and crisp above, soft and savory beneath, and silken concentration at the side. Balance, temperature and texture were exact. It carried a clean woodland scent without weight.

Shell tea with beef marrow cappelletti came next, a lucid consommé where the pasta released quiet richness into a broth that stayed clear and long.

Glazed aged pike followed, its flesh matured for texture, served with the intensity of fennel and oregano and finished with roasted bone juice. The fish was elastic yet yielding, the glaze adding sweetness and shine without weight.

Cheeses from Savoie and Haute Savoie were offered with respect for ripeness and proportion. A pre-dessert titled Grenobloise appeared as a green, fresh and fruity pause.

Quince and fig leaf whispered of orchard and leaf tea.

Memories of roasted bread explored bread and butter in shifting textures, a gentle study rather than a trick. Autumn undergrowth closed the arc in a final nod to the forest. Petit fours returned to the crisp herb motif, a tidy echo of the opening.

Wine

We chose bottles and glasses rather than a pairing. The Champagne Bérêche Campania Remensis Rosé 2021 framed the amuses with red fruit and structure. Maxime Dancoine’s IGP Allobroges Solar 2022 brought alpine snap to the cold vegetable courses, its energy meeting lovage and nasturtium cleanly. Jean Masson’s Apremont Coeur 2020 sat naturally with the trout and the shell tea, Jacquère scented yet restrained. For depth, Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey’s Saint-Aubin En Remilly 2018 carried the mushroom composition and the pike with tension and well-judged oak. Across nearly four hours, including a digestif, the sequence felt composed and discreet.

Verdict

Le Clos des Sens is for those who appreciate light, aromatic cooking rooted in herbs, vegetables and the fish of the surrounding lakes. The flavours are pure and balanced, never heavy, with a quiet confidence in every dish. The house itself is calm and elegant, a restaurant with rooms where everything feels thoughtfully composed. From the terrace and the guest rooms you look out over Annecy and the lake, a view that stays with you. It is a place where one feels immediately at ease, and one that makes the journey worthwhile.

Location: Annecy-le-Vieux, France
Chef: Franck Derouet
Michelin rating: ★★★
Visited: November 2025
Tags: Fine Dining, Michelin 3 Stars, Haute Savoie, Plant-Forward, Lake Fish, Relais & Châteaux, Tasting Menu, France

Readers interested in the opposite pole of fish cookery might explore Aponiente in El Puerto de Santa María, a very different fish restaurant where the sea itself becomes the pantry.