Telephone: +41 219 645 230
fax: +41 219 645 530
Last visited September 2004
Situated in a small village
just on the main road and next to a bridge, it should be noted that parking can
be a problem. The dining room is cosy
and pleasantly decorated, with half a dozen tables in a one room and a further
room off to the other side of reception.
Amuse guele was rather ordinary, mainly a
series of things on croutons or rather mediocre pastry bases: crab, chicken
liver pate, cheese with tiny potato crisps, tomato with radish and olive,
tomato with olive and cucumber, a vol au vent with
leeks, a couple of cheese straws and (oddly) a pair of French fries (7/10 at
best for the amuse guele). A second nibble was
better, a flaky pastry base on which were tiny anchovies with a tapenade and tiny slice of courgettes, tomatoes and
gherkin, together with a little lettuce with good dressing. This was decorated prettily with a tomato
skin that had the top of the tomato and cut-off skin that was blanched and
shaped as flower petals (8/10). Bread
consisted of rolls of olive and cereal, and white slices (7/10). Service was capable but by no means perfect
e.g. topping up was a problem on several occasions, and at times there were no
staff at all in the dining room.
Our starter was each of three
langoustines, superbly fresh and perfectly timed, served partly in their
shell. This was offered with an
excellent mixed leaf salad with a lovely dressing, and a few baby artichoke
hearts. The dish was decorated with
smears of mint-green sauce vierge (9/10). For main course, we shared a whole John Dory,
filleted at the table. This had
remarkable flavour, and was served with a diced tomatoes and black olive
slices, as well as a selection of fresh vegetables: carrot, courgette, potato,
baby turnip, caramelised onion, roast garlic, baby squash stuffed with tomato
puree and spinach leaf stiffed with finely diced root vegetables, and the dish
was decorated with a deep-fried sage leaf and a couple of sprigs of thyme. There was also a whole baby tomato topped
with herbs and breadcrumbs; the vegetables were very fresh and had excellent
flavour (10/10).
Cheese was in great condition:
Munster was nicely soft without having gone too far, two fresh goats cheeses
were excellent, an aged gruyere tasted very like aged Comte, while there was
also the best Colombier I have ever tasted
(10/10). These were served with rather
ordinary walnut bread.
For dessert I had a chocolate
mousse in a circular shape, surrounded by a series of chocolate-covered nut tuiles; the mousse was glazed and topped with some gold
leaf. The mousse had superb intensity
(9/10). Stella had plum crumble, where
the crumble consisted of a biscuit base at the bottom of the dish, topped with
plums and served with a scoop of plum sorbet and a scoop of intense almond ice
cream and a fresh fruit salad of blackberry, strawberry, raspberry and
plum.
Petit fours were a superb
raspberry macaroon, a lemon tart, orange rind dipped in chocolate, a strawberry
jelly, a blackcurrant jelly, an almond tuile, a
hazelnut tuile, a chocolate tart, a tart with
raspberry and mint, a tart of wild strawberries, a min plum crumble, two coffee
éclairs, slices of chocolate with hazenut cream, a
chocolate butterscotch, a white chocolate with coconut and a dark chocolate
with rich chocolate filling. These were
superb (10/10) as was coffee. We had Mas de Daumas Gassac
white and a glass of Swiss Gewürztraminer dessert wine, the bill for two coming
to CHF 570.
Telephone: +41 21 634 05 05
Fax: +41 21 634 24 64
(closed two weeks in August and 2 week over Christmas and New Year)
Last visited September 2004
The restaurant is in the
pretty
Bread is a selection of rolls:
olive, cereal, white, brown, country and black bread (9/10). Amuse guele was a
slice of vegetable terrine served with a little artichoke and an excellent
small salad with a fine grapefruit dressing (8/10). Stella started with ravioli of celery, served
with tiny diced potato, pistachios and chopped vegetables served with a celery froth (9/10).
Even better was my starter, two beautifully presented hemispheres
consisting of ceps mousse surrounded by a perfect fan of cep
slices, almost like a 3D tarte tatin
in appearance, the mushrooms resting in a frothy sauce of the cooking juices. The taste of
the ceps was as sublime as the presentation, and I would rate this dishes one
of the most memorable I have ever eaten (10/10 is insufficient).
We shared a large slab of
turbot carved at the table, served with a creamy vin jeune sauce laced with
crushed peppercorns, which worked really well to give an edge to the sauce
without overwhelming it. Alongside were
some perfect baby tomatoes, some carrot, fennel, a skewer of black olives and a
small potato filled with roasted onion (10/10).
Cheese was in fine condition:
Brie was runny, Camembert tasty, a fresh goat smooth, St Maure
silky rather than chalky and
A pre dessert of sorbets and
ice creams were all in perfect condition: apricot, blackcurrant and strawberry
sorbet, caramel, vanilla and lemon ice cream (10/10). Our main dessert was a perfect passion fruit
soufflé served with passion fruit coulis. After all this, you are presented with a
selection from a large dessert trolley (which, rather sneakily, you are charged
extra for though this is not announced).
Here is a wide selection of tarts and fruits; I had a lovely
Coffee was excellent, though
perhaps only 9/10 but served with fine petit fours: a passion fruit macaroon, a
raspberry sponge, a chocolate truffle, a tart of mixed fruit (strawberry,
raspberry, blueberry with a spear of sugar) a red fruit jelly, a lemon sponge, a choux bun, a palet d’or chocolate, a chocolate
with hazelnut filling, some chocolate covered almonds and a chocolate with a
liquid raspberry centre.
We had Cuvee Frederich Emile from Trimbach
from a mostly French wine list. Overall a really magnificent meal.