La Réserve Eden au Lac Zurich

If there’s one angle for criticizing the best of Switzerland’s grand lakeside palace hotels, it’s their predilection for stylistic conservatism. But this is, to say the very least, not a problem shared by La Réserve Eden au Lac Zurich. After all, you don’t bring in a designer like Philippe Starck just to freshen up the century-old Empire-style décor — the owners, Michel Reybier’s La Réserve brand, went in for a thorough transformation.

The result is what you might expect of Starck in his upscale mode, which is playful but not pranksterish, full of luxe touches that recall late modernism — earth tones, wood, leather, and plenty of mirrors and metal. His inspiration was an imaginary yacht club, or, in his words, “like dancing rock and roll with the Queen of England.” As always, it’s an unmistakably singular vision, edgy enough for design freaks and dignified enough for luxury fiends, and never distracting from the relentlessly high-end comforts.

Equally upscale-hip are the Eden au Lac’s public spaces, the ground-floor Eden Kitchen & Bar providing the solid Mediterranean-influenced option, and La Muña, on the rooftop, serving a more adventurous Peruvian-Japanese menu.