The top Austrian ski areas seem to be moving ahead of much of the competition in terms of their investment in state-of-the-art lifts and comprehensive snowmaking systems, and now there's an increasing spend on remarkable mountain restaurants.
Solden and Hintertux are among the resorts announcing flash new multi-million Euro dining options opening for the coming winter.
The new Tux-Finkenberg restaurant is a €10 million transformation of the main Tuxer Fernerhaus restaurant.
The new building which will include a table service restaurant and sun terrace while those inconvenient things for skiers in - stairs - will be replaced by escalators bringing an end to the ungainly task of climbing up and down of stairs in ski boots.
At Solden the new €4 million Gaislachkogel restaurant, one of the highest in the area and the Alps at 3048m, has a modern design with glass exterior to project, the architect intends, a transparent feeling making visitors feel up close and personal with the spectacular ?tztal's mountain scenery.
The technical masterpiece goes one step further, as the roof terrace is connected to the Gaislachkogel mountain peak via a glass suspension bridge.
The restaurant will be gourmet standard and a planned highlight will be a new signature wine 'Pino3000', a cross-border wine project bringing three top wine growers their best Pinot Noir from Austria, Italy's South Tyrol and Germany to mature the wine in a special wine cellar at the Gaislachkogel.