DAS BERNHARDS

The story

Das Bernhards in Oberaudorf – Swiss Accent, Bavarian Heart | Wattafork

Das Bernhards in Oberaudorf – Swiss Accent, Bavarian Heart

In the small Bavarian town of Oberaudorf, just a breath from the Austrian border, Das Bernhards has been quietly perfecting a singular idea: Alpine hospitality with a Swiss accent. The restaurant, which began as a family dream in the 1970s when Peter Bernhard left his native St. Moritz to cook in Bavaria, now enters its sixth decade with a new generation at the helm. The result is a place where the welcome is warm, the cooking is precise, and the setting — overlooking Marienplatz with the Alps as a backdrop — feels both timeless and alive.

The story is personal. Peter Bernhard trained in St. Moritz, worked in Montreux and Zurich, then settled in Oberaudorf, where he and his wife Yvonne took over a local inn. In 1999 they opened their own restaurant, transforming the former "Suppenmoser" into what is now Das Bernhards. In 2024, their daughter Rebecca and her partner Oliver joined Yvonne and Peter to lead the business forward, preserving the house traditions while adding fresh energy.

That tradition is a cuisine that marries Swiss classics with Bavarian produce. The menu reads like a map of the region’s best ingredients: Bavarian Oberland beef in a walnut crust, Züri Gschnätzlets with real Swiss Röschti, and a Cordon Bleu made with Greyerzer cheese and local pork. But there are also vegetarian and vegan options — a roasted beet hummus, an Alpine trilogy of dumplings — and the kitchen takes care to source from nearby farms, like the Sockhof for its organic beef. Seasonal dishes, such as the Skrei from the North Sea or the Bavarian duck with maroni and homemade red cabbage, change with what is fresh.

The atmosphere is deliberately unhurried and unpretentious. There is no dress code, and the restaurant is split into two areas — one for relaxed meals, another for breakfast — so that every guest can find their pace. The restaurant’s recognition in the 2026 Michelin guide, listed as Recommended, reflects the consistency of this approach: a kitchen that respects its ingredients and a dining room that treats every guest like a regular.

Das Bernhards is also a fixture of the Kulinarischer Herbst, a network of chefs in the Chiemgau and Inntal region dedicated to promoting local gastronomy. It is a place that understands that the best cooking is rooted in place — and that a meal here, whether you come for the Wiener Schnitzel or the Schoggi-Mousse, is as much about the view of the Alps as it is about the plate.