Le Tonnelier

We stayed for two nights, Friday & Saturday. Both the Hotel and its Restaurant and Bistro/Bar were very busy. Dinner reservations are recommended as the hotel suggests when you book. We booked direct as always; they have a very good and easy multi-lingual website, though the booking process worked much better on MS Bing than Chrome. The hotel is midway along the main part of the high street with outdoor tables on the ground floor. The restaurant is on the first floor. The hotel rooms seem to be spread over the first, second and third floors. You check in to the hotel at the bar on the ground floor. Online check in is offered in advance, but you still need to present ID on arrival. The hotel rooms are not large, in fact the single rooms looked pretty small. But all rooms seemed well designed around the available space and ours worked well for us for a short stay. Good bathroom and great shower, though in our Superior Double room, the bathroom’s textured glass wall isn’t quite as semi-opaque as it could be, especially with the bathroom lights on. Our room had a balcony overlooking the lane behind the hotel and to an unrelated bar across the street. That bar is noisy, but with the room windows closed at night it was fine. The rooms don’t have Air Conditioning, but the ceiling fan is effective, though it is either on or off. The bed and bedding were good quality as were the towels. WiFi was strong throughout the building. Breakfast was served in the ground floor bistro/bar and at an optional 10fr per person was pretty good value. Hot drinks, orange juice, bread basket, croissants & pastries basket, butters and confitures. They also have a small extras menu that covers cooked dishes like omelettes. We had dinner in the hotel each night. The first night as a couple and the second night as part of a small group. The service couldn’t be faulted. Our waitress was the same each night, super friendly and efficient. All the staff obviously speak French but pretty good English too. The food was great. It’s not a big menu, but what they do they do very well. Value for money seemed good for Switzerland. It’s the same menu in the bistro and restaurant. The only slightly negative comment was that on the first night, despite a reservation made when we checked in online, we were given a small table downstairs in the bistro by the busy bar service area and next to a roof pillar. Not sure how they allocate tables, perhaps as bookings come in, but we thought hotel guests might have had a little more priority. The location didn’t affect the good food or great service, but. The large table the second night upstairs in the restaurant was perfect. This hotel is a surprisingly big operation, but it works really well. A well-oiled machine. It was obviously the place to go in Bulle, full each night and busy during the day too. The young, well drilled team are to be commended. Keep it up and thanks for having us.

The staff was congenial, the room was very clean with a private bathroom, restaurant had good food, and the hotel is in a great location. The only negative was that the room had no A/C, and the windows had to be closed because the noise from the street was fairly loud. Would definitely stay here again in the future.