Kupfrgrill, Schruns: Japanese A5 Wagyu Under 17,000 Wooden Rods at AMRAI Suites

I have eaten a great many steaks in a great many dining rooms that call themselves grills, and most of them have taught me to expect less than the menu promises. The Kupfrgrill in Schruns did the opposite. This Kupfrgrill Schruns restaurant review is about an evening where almost everything exceeded my expectations: the room, the produce and the cooking. If you follow our restaurant reviews, you know that a near-perfect score from me is rare. This one earned it.

A Dining Room Built on Copper

The Kupfrgrill is the à la carte grill restaurant of AMRAI Suites, a design hotel in Schruns in the Montafon valley of Vorarlberg. The name is no accident. The design draws on the history of copper mining in the Montafon, and the restaurant connects the hotel’s old and new buildings.

Straight-line distances. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

The arrival already sets the tone. At night, the entrance of AMRAI Suites glows under a round canopy carved with a floral pattern, the light spilling onto the cobblestones of the driveway. Inside, the Kupfrgrill is one of the most striking restaurant interiors I have seen in the Alps. Copper, ash and spruce meet black accents, a sweeping banquette in warm, pleated upholstery curves along the room, heavy black curtains frame it, and above it all hangs a ceiling made of around 17,000 wooden rods that gives the space depth and movement.

I am not the only one who thinks so. The Kupfrgrill has won the German Design Award 2026 in the category Interior Architecture – Public, designed by Alpstein Planung. The jury praised the combination of regional identity and contemporary design and the warm, elegant atmosphere it creates. Having sat in that room for an evening, I would add one thing: it is not only beautiful but genuinely comfortable, which is far rarer than it sounds.

The heart of the room is the open kitchen. AMRAI promises that guests can watch the grill master tame the flames, and that is exactly what makes the evening feel alive. You see your steak before you taste it.

Getting here could not be easier. The hotel stands on Außerlitzstraße, a few minutes’ walk from Schruns station, with the Montafon’s mountains all around. For hotel guests, dinner is simply a walk down the corridor.

The Drinks

The drinks list matched the menu: Austrian wines by the glass from the Wachau, the Wagram and Burgenland, signature cocktails such as the Kupfr Blossom with hibiscus and Tyrolean flowers, and, for guests like me who skip alcohol, proper alcohol-free options rather than an afterthought: a Hibiskus Spritz, a Berry Basil Non Smash made with alcohol-free gin, and even an alcohol-free Merlot. And this is where the evening had its only real flaw: our drinks arrived after the starters had already been served, only two or three minutes later, but later all the same. It is a small thing, and the team was otherwise attentive and warm. At this level, however, the glass has to be on the table before the plate. Four and a half points for service.

A Greeting From the Kitchen: Bread and Two Butters

The evening began with a greeting from the kitchen: two bread rolls in a slatted wooden box, served with two butters in small black dishes, one with garlic and one with sour cherry. Nobody told us so when they were served, though; I only learned what they were when I asked. At this level, a greeting from the kitchen deserves a sentence of introduction. The garlic butter was the classic opening for a grill; the sour cherry butter was the surprise, fruity and gently tart, and a clever nod to the Alpine pantry. A simple gesture, beautifully presented, and a good sign of the care that would follow.

Starter: Grilled Prawns in Garlic Butter

The starter, listed simply as grilled prawns in a pan with garlic bread, arrived in a small cast-iron pan: prawns bathed in garlic butter, one of them still in its shell, topped with pea shoots. Beside the pan came the grilled garlic flatbread, a fresh herb salad with an edible pansy and two halves of a cherry tomato. The prawns were plump, perfectly cooked and fragrant with garlic, and the flatbread made sure that not a drop of the butter went back to the kitchen. At 20 euros, a starter that I would happily order as a main course.

Main Course: Japanese A5 Wagyu, and the Sauces Stay With the Sides

Then came the reason I had booked: the Original A5 Wagyu steak from Japan, 200 grams, at 75 euros the most expensive single steak on the menu. A5 is the highest grade in the Japanese system, and it shows. The steak arrived sliced on a dark platter, its crust deeply caramelised from the grill, the inside a uniform rosy pink, the marbling melting into the meat, finished with a scattering of crunchy flakes. Next to it: grilled fennel and courgette and a generous herb salad.

The sides came in their own little bowls: the house’s triple-cooked chips, which come with every steak, golden and crisp, and sweet potato fries. A separate tray carried grilled asparagus, peppers and courgette and no fewer than five sauces: Jack Daniel’s barbecue sauce, smoked aioli, chimichurri, a vegan garlic sauce and a pink peppercorn sauce.

Now, a house rule. The sauces were excellent, the smoked aioli in particular, but not one of them touched the Wagyu. Putting barbecue sauce on A5 beef would be a crime against the cow and the grill master alike. The sauces went with the chips, the sweet potato fries and the vegetables, where they belong. The steak needed nothing but salt, fire and the confidence of the kitchen to leave it alone, and it got all three. It was, quite simply, sensational.

Four point eight points for the menu and the food. And the menu itself is worth a second visit: dry-aged steaks, including a rump steak from the butcher Salzgeber in neighbouring Tschagguns, a Sizzling Seafood pan with lobster, and a vegan section that is more than a token gesture.

A Room Worth Returning To

By the end of the evening, I had stopped looking at the details and simply enjoyed the room: the glow of the copper, the warmth of the wood, the theatre of the open kitchen, a friendly team that, apart from a few small slips, did everything right. One more of those slips came at the end: after the main course, no dessert menu arrived, and in the next fifteen minutes nobody asked whether we would like one. A small thing, and it did not spoil a wonderful dinner, but it is the kind of detail a restaurant of this calibre should not miss. Everything I saw was immaculately clean. And for a dinner of this quality, with A5 Wagyu at 75 euros and starters around 20, the value was outstanding. A full five points for both.

The Kupfrgrill is the kind of restaurant that makes a hotel worth booking for its own sake. If you are in the Montafon, this is where to eat. If you are not, it is a reason to go.

After Dinner: The AMRAI Bar

After dinner, we moved on to the AMRAI Bar. Visually, it is every bit as stylish as the restaurant: rows of jars filled with dried orange, lemon and lime slices line the back bar, the counter glows in copper light, the menu comes in a wooden cover, and drinks arrive on coasters printed with AMRAI’s floral pattern.

The team behind the counter, however, cannot keep up with the restaurant. Where the Kupfrgrill’s service felt polished, the bar staff seemed untrained, uncoordinated and not yet working as a team. German was in short supply, too, which matters in a hotel in the heart of Vorarlberg. They were friendly throughout, and nobody could fault their goodwill, but a bar that looks this good deserves a team that matches it. AMRAI has built a beautiful stage here; it now needs to train the cast.

AMRAI’s Kupfrgrill, AMRAI Suites, Außerlitzstraße 23, 6780 Schruns (Austria) · amrai.at

About the author

Roger Hohl

Roger Hohl has been at the helm of Luxvisor since 2006. From his base in Switzerland he travels to test what the luxury travel industry promises, from the seat at 40,000 feet to the last course of a tasting menu, and writes about it with an independent eye.