Lorena - Champagny-en-Vanoise

My last visit was in feb 17 , I have revisited with a friend with a spring skiing holiday.After my first review.I don't think the situation has changed much.still the best views in Champany and nice crockery.But the cooking and the service is lousy. MY last review made the host laugh, well this simply sums up the inadequate comprehension needed to succeed in hospitality.Doubt they will be there next year.I HOPE NOT !

The restaurant has certainly found its feet! We have tried a few pizzerias in Champagny, however this is our favourite. We ordered pizza to take away and I can honestly say, it was delicious. The restaurant inside is also beautifully decorated, with an amazing view. I would definitely recommend stopping by during your stay in Champagny. The staff are friendly and the pizzas are great!

Got there early as we had children in tow, and ordered fairly straight forward meals to ensure a speedy turnaround - or so we thought. The kids food (penne bolognese, and carbonara) took 45 mins to appear but our food was nowhere in sight. When we complained they said we had received all our food (as if we had forgotten that our mains hadn't arrived!) and then said "no problem, it'll all be out in 4 mins". So we waited over an hour for food that took them 4 mins to re-heat and serve. Food was inedible, unsurprisingly. On top of this they overcharged us on the bill (charged full price for the children's meals). No apologies, but we were offered a free iced tea! Shame as the restaurant there originally - the Poya - was amazing... so I'd hate for this sad excuse for a dining establishment to taint that memory. Shame for them too as we all own properties in Champagny and regularly dine out during the season... but they've blown it with us. My advice - don't risk it! Plenty of lovely places in town that actually make an effort and care about the food they serve.

We visited the restaurant despite the poor review on TA given that 3 months had passed and therefore any niggles should be well and truly ironed out.Really nice warm welcome but from there you gauged it was an inexperienced team.I counted 8 busy tables,3 front of house staff,under pressure but still smiling .The chef in the shed ,with windows,stuck at the front of the restaurant was clearly out of his depth and a front of house member had to give him a hand to bail him out.The lower windows of the shed were blocked out by pizza boxes that were strategically laid in a way to block off the line of vision of the prep tables which is a shame as everyone loves culinary theatre.The wait was long but only tolerable as the chef in the shed gave us all something we could only speculate as to what was happening below the line of vision So we had to watch from the waist up.Nice wine was poured by nice waiter man but he missed the glass.Simple mistake but I was paying for the wine.I opted for pizza as I have eaten pizza every where else in the small village but this is Italian !! so you've gotta hava pizza!I ordered the Parma ham pizza.it delivered on the ham,lashings of it laid over the top of a cheese and tomato.stop! This is where the pizza fell flat.What did they do with the sauce.A red super saturated solution of salt and sugar. I guess enough to send any diabetic into orbit! Seriously too much salt and sugar.it needed oregano ,garlic and something acidic and a little Italian flair and passion to deliver a flavoursome well balanced tangy tomato sauce to arouse the appetite .Lorena does not know how to make sauce.Top tip buy it in but don't keep making it please.The dough base is just sad and unloved.cardboard has a similar texture and has had more effort into making it.The cheese mix on top needs revisiting and failed to deliver anything except calories .Bit of homework and recipe development needs to be done ! Gnocchi was served plain and simple but over cooked.its easy to do if you don't know what you are doing.They have some lovely looking crockery so well done for that.But please don't dust decorate with so much black pepper try using freeze dried spinach and beetroot powder to keep Brand Italia going.The shop bought dried pasta was a let down compared to fresh, however at least this wasn't messed up but they are missing a trick by not making fresh pasta if they were capable of doing it well.The chef could hang it in his Theatre of Culinary innovation open for everyone to see...Italian music I hear you cry ! didn't hear a thing...The waiter did ask if everything was alright but I had the time to drink almost a whole bottle of wine by myself during the wait that I simply didn't want to enter into a conversation of critical acclaim of the food.Lorena is Branded as Italian so customers expect the best pizza and pasta in town please,Alarm bells are ringing in every direction that shows inexperience at every level.They need to work on the ingredients, recipe development ,preparation, time to prepare and cook.Presentation and delivery .Ambiance and dinning experience.The chef in the shed has nice ovens and they have seriously nice staff and the best restaurant location in town with fabulous views over the valley but require training and experience in bucket loads and pull their finger out quickly in order to survive in a very competitive boring pizza environment .