Didi's Frieden

Having heard this restaurant from our friends, we made a reservation for a Saturday evening. We also happened to read a review about it on a restaurant review magazine called "Zürich Geht Aus". 

As we went there (7:30pm), the restaurant was nearly empty but it started to fill out during our dinner and it was completely full around 9pm.

After we settled down to our table, we ordered Prosecco while we are checking out the menu. The menu consisted of 4 starters, 5 main courses and 6 desserts. They also have a degustation menu which is supposed to be renewed each month. I went for the 4-course and my husband chose the 5-course degustation menu.  5 courses are the maximum you can choose and 5th course is the cheese plate.

As we ordered, the waitress served some bread in a basket. Actually, I would have expected to have a selection of breads. The one we had was dry and not so tasty. Instead of butter, there was a olive oil bottle on the table, which also tasted nothing but ordinary. The small olive oil cup also happened to be broken on the edge. 

Our amuse bouche was the following: Corn soup with a drop of balsamic vinegar, beef tartar, avocado puree topped with jacobsmuscheln. Actually, I wouldn't call it amuse bouche but a pre-starter since the portions were fairly large for amuse bush as you can see in the photo below.

The corn soup was delicious and the consistence was just perfect. The beef tartar and the avokado puree were good but nothing special.

Our first was course was "Lobster dumplings served on a tartar of smoked Lake Zürich whitefish, Jerusalem artichoke salad and poppy seed oil mayonnaise".

The combination of dumplings, fish tartar and the artichoke salad was a good combination and tasted good. The points around the dish made with the poppy seed oil mayonnaise was very interesting, tasty and accompanied the overall this very well.

We also had two glasses of pinot grigio 2009 albenice, which gave a fresh and light taste with the first course. The open wine prices on the menu were ranging from 6chf to 15 chf, 15 chf ones being the sweet wines.

As a second course, we had "Farm chipolata of Aargau wild boar, served with braised shallots and radicchio risotto".

Chipolatta was a little dry but intense in taste. It was the first time I tried it but I didn't like it. If it could have been juicier, the chance of me liking it could have been higher. According to my research, The word „chipolatta“ is French and is believed to derive from the Italian cipollata, which essentially means "made with onions“ and may have referred to an onion stew with sausages. Even though braised shallots were mentioned to be the side dish on the menu, we had sauteed red cabbage and this was not mentioned by the waitress. One thing that I like about this course was the risotto. It was tasty, the consistence was right and looked good with the radicchio in it.

Our main course was the „Entrecôte and ragout of Waldviertel venison served with cassis and red cabbage, dark beer sauce and bread crumbed quark dumplings“.

The ragot was tasty and it was topped with the grilled entrecote, which was cooked medium and pink from the inside and we found it optically perfect. Tastewise, it was not gorgeous but tasty.

As a side dish we had again red cabbage, an unccessary repetition of the second course. It was good with the meat though. The other side dish, quark crumblings, were very good. As for wine, we had the Emilio Moro- 2006 from Spain.

After the main course, my husband cancelled the cheese plate as he was quite full due to the considerably big portions and wanted to have the dessert only.

As dessert, I asked for a change and had the „Leckerliparfait (speciality of Basle), served on a Williams pear compote and nougat and pear sauce" and my husband had the one listed on the degustation menu. „Boskop apple tart on a cinnamon and calvados parfait, served with vanilla sabayone„. This way, we got to try different things.

My parfait was good but the pear compote and sauce was too sweet for me. My husband's parfait was also good but together with the apple tart and and the vanilla sabayone it was nothing special.

There were small figures painted around the plates, which were funny and cute details.

The overall atmosphere of the restaurant was simple and clean. As you enter the resturant, you face the bar and it is located in the middle of the restaurant which is catching your eye as you eat. The restaurant can hold nearly 40 people and since it was full that day, it was considerable loud inside. There were 3 waitresses and a barmaid. The waitress who was serving us was not very polite. She poured some red wine on our table and didn't even apologize for that. I would have also expected to hear some words about the courses, as they serve. For such degustation menus, they should be remind the menu as they are many combinations for each course.

Synopsis: Of the 4 courses we had, the first course was the best for me but the overall experience hasn't been unique. We paid 270 Swiss Francs and for the quality of the food, it was overpriced.

Didis Frieden
Stampfenbachstr. 32 - 8006 Zürich
Tel. 044 253 18 10
Fax 044 253 18 12

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