Hotel Plein Sud — Restaurant in Briançon

We are a group of six friends who get together every year for a week of skiing. This year, we stayed at the Plein Sud in January 2025.|I have delayed this review as we have been in discussions with the tour operator regarding our stay.|We originally booked the hotel in mid-2024, based on a group decision influenced by the information available online, which indicated that the Plein Sud hotel was a full-service, three-star, family-run establishment. The amenities advertised included a choice of main course for evening meals, daily hot breakfast options, a swimming pool, sauna, and a bar featuring occasional live music.|Upon our arrival at the resort, we were informed that the hotel was being operated by a young team rather than being family-run as previously indicated.|We later learned that the hotel had been taken over by Skilink for the winter season and was being managed by a mix of young staff as a Scandinavian Style Club Hotel format.|A buffet was offered on the first evening, with three-course meals provided on subsequent nights, but without any choice of courses or a salad bar. For breakfast there was a good choice fruit, yogurt, cold meat & cheese, but the daily hot option was a boiled egg, also no British style tea bags. I must add that the food was mostly very good. Access to the swimming pool was limited to the hours of 15:00 to 17:45. The sauna was unavailable as being used as a store room, bathrobe and slippers not as advertised in room, but later advised available if requested. The room mini bar was a small domestic refrigerator, but not switched on and had to be lifted from a shelf to a nearby socket. There was no daily housekeeping, but towel and bed linen changed on request. There was a small, comfy bar, but no live music during our stay.|As previously mentioned, the hotel was staffed by young personnel who were friendly and did their best, but required further training to deliver a three-star service. Additionally, the maintenance of the hotel was poor, with issues such as leaking taps, a broken room safe, and faulty light fittings.|Had we been made aware of the change of management and style of the hotel, prior to our arrival we would have chosen a diffrent hotel, as a plesent resort...

If you’re travelling with a group of adults, the Plein Sud is unlikely to disappoint. The rooms are fairly basic, but it offers a good position and the food is excellent – among the best I’ve had in a ski hotel. Other aspects, however, were pretty dire.||||Maybe we arrived at a bad time, but it felt like our entire group was an unwanted distraction from the moment we got off the bus. There were no pleasantries at all when we checked in with the owner.||||The hotel was specifically billed as Family Friendly by our tour operator, so one of the first things I did was to enquire about kids’ meals and earlier sittings. I was told that neither were available – the earliest we could eat was the beginning of the main sitting and all they could offer was a smaller portion of the adult meals.||||“Well, I can tell you right now, I won’t be doing chips or anything like that!” was the owner’s initial comment. It seemed like an unnecessarily robust response given I hadn’t asked for junk food, but simply enquired what sort of thing they could do.||||In fairness to the hotel, this was eventually resolved with an earlier sitting and simplified versions of the adult meals, which worked well. But it took a couple of days, the intervention of our rep, and an inordinate amount of huffing and puffing from the management to reach that point. We also received some less than constructive comments, such as being told that the owner’s kids “would have eaten anything on the adult menu [which contained things like frogs’ legs and carpaccio] at that age” and even a suggestion that it’s what we should expect for bringing a kid outside of half term.||||The rest of the staff were great, but the owners continued to glare at us like we were the ones ruining their holiday. Overall, the pervading attitude was very much “if you don’t like it go somewhere else”, which is precisely what I would recommend anyone with young...

My son and I stayed at the Plein Sud for a week in mid March and were really pleased that we chose this hotel.||The hotel is an easy 5 minute stroll to the gondola and ski repository which we used for the week, and provides excellent access to the Serre Chevalier ski area.||The room we had was fairly spacious with a south facing balcony which gave excellent views of the mountains, piste, gondola and chairlift yet still maintained privacy. ||There was enough storage space for all of our clothing (we do bring more than we need!) and the beds were quite comfortable, with additional pillows in the room.||The bathroom was okay with a small(ish) bath and overhead shower which provided plenty of hot water under good pressure. A nice touch were the dressing gowns which came in very handy!||The room was kept very clean and tidy every day by the staff.||The food was excellent! ||The buffet breakfast had a good choice of pastries, cold meats and cheeses, fruit, cereals, tea and coffee etc.||Dinner was 3 courses with options for starters and mains, and a dessert buffet. The quality and presentation of the food was really impressive and we enjoyed every meal we had.||The staff were all friendly and helpful, making our stay a very enjoyable experience.||As a keen skier for over 45 years I have stayed in many hotels around the world and would have no hesitation in recommending the Plein Sud to anyone and we would definitely choose this hotel if we come back to...