Restaurant Greulich

We have been to Restaurant Greulich for the first time and according to the information I gathered, it was re-opened in August under it’s new guiding light, the young chef Marco Hartmann.

The restaurant is a member of the non-profit organization Slow Food, which is an alternative to Fast Food and tries to promote and preserve local products. Explaining this movement with several sentences would be unfair but it was great to see that Restaurant Greulich is a member of such an organization. I guess this is why you get to see the list of local suppliers on the back page of the menu.

With its clean and bright interior design, it forms a nice environment to dine. The table decorations were simple, perfectly clean and comfortable.

The menu offers several starters, the so-called "In Betweens", two Fish and two meat, two vegeterian dishes and also several desserts which can be followed by some different tea variations. It also offers three different degustation menues, one being vegetarian and the other two comes as 3-course and 4-courses. We both had the 3-course surprise menue.

After our orders were taken, we were served with handmade butter with a fleur de sel topping, green olives and fresh garden cress with a small scissors. The presentation of this combination looked very nice over a wooden plate. The butter was very tasty, even though the olives didn't taste bad, I think they would have needed more time for curing. We had some white and crispy flat bread. The white one was too usual but I liked the crispy flat bread pieces, they matched the butter perfectly.

Our first course was a veal tartar topped with some mixed green lettuce and a creamy parsnip soup. Veal tartar was very good  and it had some truffles flavour and I liked the parsnip soup a lot. They both accompanied each other vey well and the rooty  taste of the soup has enriched the flavour of the tartar. For me, this dish was the highlight of the dinner. We had the recommended wines together with our courses and the the one we had the first course was a very nice Gavi from the Castellari Bergaglio winery (Castellari Bergaglio Rovereto Vignavecchia Gavi di Gavi Gavi DOCG 2008)

The main course was beef entricote on a bed of green beans and beef cheek with a crispy potatoe siding. It was served with a very tasty carrot sauce. The entricote looked promising but somehow it was missing some flavour but I found the cheek tender and tasty. With the main course, we had a glass of red wine made of the Mourvèdregrapes in Valencia (Rafael Cambra- Uno-2007)

As dessert, we were served with a creation of chocolate and berries. On the right you see chocolate ice-cream which had a strong minty flavour and then two small pieces of brownies which were so good and melted in my mouth and the one served in a shooter glass was a combination of berries, chocolate mousse and some cruncy chocolate pieces. As for dessert wine, we had theAustrian sweet wine Tschida Beerenauslese 2006. It was so good with exotic fruit aromas and we both had two glasses.

After the desserts, we went for some cheese and we had a plate of Camembert, Schweizer Bergkäse, Gruyere and Schimmelkäse which was served with peach honey. My favorite out of this plate was the Gruyere.

We paid 277 CHF, where the menu costed 82 CHF per person and the wines costed 10 to 15 CHF. I enjoyed the dinner and the only think which could have been better was the main course. For the ones who want to have a nice dinner combined with a friendly service, I highly recommend Restaurant Grelich. I would go back !


Restaurant Greulich
Herman-Greulich-Strasse 56
8004 Zürich
043 243 42 43

Wagamama Zürich

Wagamama is a restaurant which we visit quite often. We are not exactly asian food admirers but we
think Wagamama is a place which manages to deliver good quality food and provide a nice atmosphere. Wagamama focuses on asian style dishes including noodles, rice dishes, soups. Wagamama is actually a  chain of restaurants. The birth of place of this chain is Bloomsbury, London.  At the time of this writing, there is only one restaurant in Switzerland but I would not be surprised if they open a couple more restaurants in cities like Bern or Basel.

The restaurant has a minimalistic but not distant interior. The kitchen is open, so you get to see what the cooks are doing all the time. There are 135 seats inside and 40 outside. The outside sitting is very pleasant in summer time since it is right near a small river. There is also free wireless internet, you just need to ask for the credentials.

Most of the service staff is very friendly. The service in general is very good,  the only time that was I really annoyed (after not getting any food for than 1 more hour) was due to the restaurant really being overcrowded.

The Wagamama menu is large enough. You have a good selection of starters/side dishes including:

- Gyoza which come filled with chicken, duck or prawn (3 or 5 pieces). My personal favorite is the one duck. Gyoza sauce is very nice and it is not very hot.

- Grilled skewers of chicken or meatballs. I've the tried meatballs, there is one version which comes with peanut sauce and another one with sweet yakitori. Both of them are very nice.

- Some typical asian stuff like edamame(soya beans), miso soup, salads.

 For the main course you have different categories noodles, rice dishes, salads, noodles in soup. Here are the details for some  of the categories:

- Noodles: The dishes are with either the soba or the udon (thicker white ones) noodles, there are versions with duck, chicken, tenderloin beef steak or vegetarian. The one with beef steak is my favorite, depending on the day the quality and the size of the beef can vary but in general it is good quality. Most of the dishes include onions/garlic, chillies, ginger, coriander (on top)!

- Rice: You can choose from the stir fried and the katsu curry versions. Stir fried versions are pretty similar to their noodle siblings, i.e. versions with prawns, chicken, beef meatballs. They are all ok but the other version namely katsu curry is the real interesting dish.  There are three versions of katsu curry, one with fired chicken, one with grilled chicken and one called yasai katsu curry.

My favorite dish in Wagamama is the Chicken Katsu. The description of this dish is as follows: "chicken fillet deep-fried in panko breadcrumbs, served with a lightly spiced curry sauce and japanese-style rice garnished with leaves and red pickles".  First of all, I have to mention that the chickens are always perfectly fried, the chicken meat stays as tender as it can and the extremely thick katsu curry sauce which covers part of the chicken and the rice is exremely delicious.

In the menu there also around 6-7 deserts to choose from including cakes server with ginger or wasabi sauces, ice cream/fruit combinations. I've tried almost all of them, none of them are bad but they are also not very good.


The drinks: On top of the typical sodas, you can choose from a variety of fresh made juices (apple+lime combination is my favorite), home made ice tea(very nice as well). There around 6 red and white wines to select from (which can also be ordered by glass) and asian export beers.


The prices are reasonable for Zurich, the starters go between 6-10 CHF, the main dishes between 20-35 CHF and the deserts are 6-10 CHF.


I think Wagamama offers good value for the money, I certaily recommend this place if you are into asian food.


Wagamama, Zürich Sihlporte
talstrasse 83 sihlporte 8001 zürich switzerland
tel:  043 888 64 54
email:sihlporte@wagamama.ch

Cupcake Affair

When I heard about Cupcake Affair, I was very curious and excited. Cupcakes remind me of the good old times in Covent Garden, London and the cupcake shops where I used to go on some weekends.

Cupcake Affair offers a range of cupcake flavours in two size, regular and mini.

I have been to this place twice and tried several flavors so far. My favourites are Gigolo (Amaretto Cake with Marzipan & Amaretto Topping)  & the Cinnamon and Apple Cake with vanilla topping with is named as the "Special of the Month". The cakes are soft, moist and tasty. The frostings are just perfect, creamy and light.

 Gigolo - Amaretto Cake with Marzipan & Amaretto Topping

The shop has clean decor and accessories. The cupcakes are displayed in a fridge which is faced as you walk in. They also have funny names for the cupcakes, such as Monica Lewinsky, Marilyn Monroe, Casanova, Romeo & Juliet, etc.

The prices are 5.90CHF for the regular-size cupcakes and 3.50CHF for the minis.

I haven't tasted any of the mini-size ones yet but I am very curious about the Tonka (Tonka bean cake with rose flavoured topping ) and Salt'n Caramel (Chai flavoured cake with caramel topping with Fleur de Sel).  Nex time, I will get my usual regular-size ones for take away and these two to try immediately over the white fluffy mat outside the shop :-)

So, what’s our final take on Cupcake Affair? It’s definitely worth a visit, especially if you love to mix and match your flavors.

Cupcake Affair
Spitalgasse 12
8001 Zürich
+41 (0) 76 461 _ 04 64

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Cakefriends

Cakefriends is a cafe/pastry shop close to Bellevue and Niederdorfstr in Zurich.

We've already been to this place multiple times and finally decide to share our opinions about it.

Cakefriends is decorated nicely, mostly in white, with newish style cool furtinure. The environment is quite cosy, you really feel comfortable there. There are around 20 seats. They also do take away.

 The menu books go into a pocket inside the table 

This morning, we were there again for breakfast. First we had croissants with butter(floralp brand) and raspberry jam. The jam and butter were nice, the croissant as well. The croissants were not warm today but if you get lucky and get them when still warm (like we did couple of weeks ago), try not to eat your fingers with it. After the croissants, we had some caramel/walnut cake. The cake was not bad either. It comes in two pieces and with some chocolate cream which complements the cake nicely. The cake was baked nicely, it was not dry and it still had that slight humid consistence which I really like in my cake. We had some tea along with our food, the tea was good quality. We ordered the 75 cl lazy dazy(early grey) which comes in a glass tea can, it was quite nice. Tea comes with rock candy. For 3 croissants, 2 portions of butter & jam, 1 portion of caramel cake and 75 cl we paid 28 francs.

The food selection you can find in Cakefriends is large I would say. (For german speakers: Here is the menu here is the menu) They have all sorts of normal cakes. On top of that they have muffins,tarts,cakes with cream, quiches, salads, sandwiches, even a daily soup. Most of the stuff is good and price is reasonable for Zurich. The place is quite popular, on weekends you might have difficult time finding a free table.

 My personal favorite food in this place is the latte machiato muffin. If you are close to Bellevue/Niederdorf Zurich, go visit this place, you will probably like it.

Cake Friends
Torgasse 3
8001 Zürich
044 262 28 08

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Le Dezaley

If you are in Switzerland, Fondue is a must to try... Especially in winter!

Le Dezalèy is located in downtown Zürich and the restaurant is a 11th century Swiss-German house which has several interconnected rooms. Some rooms are decorated with modern furtinure and some are with neatly maintained old furniture. As you walk in, you see the new part on the right but I always prefer to sit on the old part which is decorated with old wood decoration. They also have a cute terrace for summer.

If you are planning to go on a Friday/Saturday evening in winter, I would recomment to make a reservation.

Fondue is originally a swiss and there are different types of it. There is cheese fondue where you put your cubed crusty bread or potatoe into a caquelon of melted boiling swiss cheese. The cheese types included in the fondue differ according to the region. In some regions it is just Gruyère and Emmental and in some regions they add Vacherin, Sbrinz or Appnezeller to it. The idea is based on mixing a hard (Gruyère) and semi-hard cheese (Vacherin, Emmental). There is also Chinoise and Bourguignonne fondues where you put raw meat into either broth (chinoise) or boiling oil (bourguignonne) to cook the meat. There's also the chocolate fondue for desert, where you put slices of fruit or pastry into melted chocolate. My favorite is the cheese fondue.

At Le Dèzaley, they offer cheese, Chinoise or Bourguignonne ones. The menu also includes other dishes, ranging from salads to sausages.

We had the cheese fondue with morels on our last visit. They bring cubed crusty bread with it but we also ordered boiled potatoes in their jackets to dip into the cheese as well. As a side dish we ordered the pickled gherkins and onions and baby maize too. The fondue was very good. It tasted mild and the consistency was very good. As for wine we had "La Tour blanche"- Assemblage blanc du pays de vaud, AOC which contains Chardonnay, Blauburgunder and Pinot Gris  grapes from the Vevey town in Vaud. The price for a 50cl bottle was 35CHF.

The fondue with morcheln is around 200g per person and costs 32.50CHF. So, for the cheese fondue, potatoes, water, side dish and wine we payed 128 CHF.


Le Dèzaley
Römergasse 7+9
8001 Zürich beim Grossmünster
Tel.: 044 251 61 29
E-Mail: restaurant@le-dezaley.ch

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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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