My personal highlight: Choose by your own the piece of meat that comes on the charcoal grill and join Manager Dominik in the wine cellar to get the wine of your choice!

What if you get access to the kitchen and have the unique opportunity to taste the menu with the staff before it is officially available for the guests? I said yes and joined the team at Restaurant Coco Grill & Bar on a rainy Monday in Zurich close to Paradeplatz!
What makes this place special is the direct interaction between the staff and the Chef. You choose directly the wine and piece of meat you’d like to have prepared!

The menu changes ever week at Coco’s and is rich of fresh seasonal ingredients and stays a surprise until it is served on your plate!

The ambience at Coco’s reminds me of an ancient idyllic boat, decorated with lovely maritime items all over the restaurant.

Dominik the manager welcomes me to the restaurant with fresh homemade apple aperitivo and introduces me to the staff that is hungry waiting to taste the menu of the week. Chef Patrick Frischknecht (before at Eleven Madison Park, New York) explains to me the week’s menu consisting of 5 courses including a Swiss Fish (Belper Quellwasser) or juicy cuts of beef or veal, some seasonal vegetables such as for example beetroot or celery hand made “Schupfnudeln” and waffles as a dessert. Coco Grill is famous for its charcoal grill, so watch out for their meat or fish!

The garden outside invites you to have a gorgeous tasty plate and a glass of wine for example with homemade spreads such as hummus or grilled veggies and meat!

Say yes if Dominik invites you to discover their wine cellar!

Find different wines from Switzerland, Spain, Italy or France for example that pair well with your menu! Choose it by yourself in the cellar located in the sous-soul of the restaurant. The cellar can be rented for private small events! Get more here.

Visit Coco for your lunch break, business dinner or a friend’s night! The food is the Mediterranean with a personal touch from Chef Patrick!

Address: Coco Grill & Bar, Bleicherweg 1A, am Paradeplatz, 8001 Zürich, Telefon: +41 44 211 98 98

Opening hours: Monday – Friday 11.00 – 15.00 and 17.00 – 24.00 Uhr
Saturday 17.30 – 00.30

In the mood for more food inspiration? Get them on my food guide!

http://www.restaurant-coco.ch

My personal highlight: Probably the most tender deer scallop and fluffy home made Spätzli of my autumn 2017

Rubina is a cozy place located at Universitätsstrasse 56 that serves local Swiss food with a French accent. Their products are all selected from regional suppliers. I love the romantic interior design with the long wooden table and the beautiful candle lights.

During my blogging I had the chance to try the seasonal wild menu. There are different specialties available as sausages, deer or duck paired with delicious autumnal veggies and chestnuts. My deer scallop was super tender, cooked just to the point. It melted on my tongue like butter.
A typical Swiss wild menu comes with Spätzli, red cabbage and chestnuts.

A secret hint that makes their red cabbage really tasty

Observing the food preparation in the kitchen I talked to the Chef and found out, that the red cabbage has been pickled and prepared with some slices of oranges, spices, red wine and fresh herbs as juniper. Its taste is not too sour, exactly as red cabbage has to be. The Spätzli are super fluffy, guess why? They add a bit of curd to the dough.

A signature dish of their Autumn card is the Jäger Salad. It’s a corn salad with grapes, Crôutons and a tender deer-Bresaola. It comes with a cowberry Vinaigrette for veggies with a poached egg.
A complete 3 course menu is available for 57 CHF (veggie) or with meat for 68 CHF. Find the wild menu here.
Discover a variety of seasonal and local  dishes on the menu of Restaurant Rubina.

Encounter a very friendly and very helpful staff. By the way, the place is ideal for a quick lunch menu, too.

www.restaurant-rubina.ch

How curiosity brings me to a Foodie Hotel in Celerina/St. Moritz with one of the best Swiss Gin

Thanks to my continuous interest in food and drinks I found out about this place in the Swiss Engadine Alps. The Hotel Chesa Rosatsch is located in Celerina, not far from St. Moritz, directly on the Inn River.
This region is world famous for its natural beauty. The Silvaplana Lake situated very close to Celerina is a kitesurfer’s paradise. The Lake of Sils close by is a great challenge for sailors. Myself I took some cool sailings lessons up here last autumn, the power of the wind is astonishing! If choosing this destination, be prepared for some great fun and a large choice of activities.

Hotel Chesa Rosatsch: More than a hotel – a paradise for foodies

This house was built in 1633 and consists of 4 houses today. They are all connected together like a little labyrinth. The owners put much care and love to keep it still so graceful and traditional as it is. This “Foodie hotel” is a secret hint. You get spoiled with the choice of choosing out from 3 restaurants. The minimum of nights you should book is 2 so that you get a taste of their culinary program starting from local food to Slow food, nose to tail or dry aged meat. Jonas Gantenbein is the Manager of the house.

Additionally I found a puristic premium quality Gin called GINUIN here. I am the proud owner of 1 bottle out of 100. The Gin’s taste is aromatic and kind of strong. The fresh branches of thyme and lemon skin in the glass deepen the flavor. I can drink it pure, that’s a good sign Michael a close friend of Hotel Chesa Rosatsch tells me, since only good quality Gin can be enjoyed pure!

Accommodation

By walking through the corridors you easily get thrown back in time by the antique photography hanging on the wall. The rooms have a classic decoration with the right touch of modernity. Book a double room or a spacious family room with private kitchen. Use the sauna where you can relax after your hiking or skiing adventure. Find more details here.

Restaurants & Drinks

Restaurant Heimatli

This place is casual and concepted for people that love simple Swiss Cuisine in a homey ambient. 400 years ago you could have found a butcher shop here. Today it lives from its authentic interior. It’s outfitted with glasses, plates and single pieces of furniture from Engadine second hand shops.
Local people appreciate it due to its simplicity paired with the excellent quality price ratio. Get a 3-course lunch menu for only 19 CHF.

Gianna the manager of the restaurant has lovely stories to share, for example where to go for a cheese manufacturer tour during your stay. Or how a Chef of the kitchen brings hand picked plumes of her garden to work to produce the delicious liqueur vieilles prunes (plums) for hotel guests.

My food experience

I got some flavorsome Engadine curd pizokel with a mild mountain cheese sauce, chard and bacon as a starter followed by tender beef cheeks with mashed potatoes. The beef was marinated for 3 days and prepared 48 h sous vide to get that delicate and juicy taste. The dessert served a exquisite apple juice cream.

Gianna and her staff are happy to serve a matching craft beer with the food. They have pleasurable local craft beers. I had a Black Boval, it’s a dark and bit sweet beer brewed at the Brauerei Engadiner Bier. I even tasted a bit of a chocolate out of it.

Restaurant Stüvas Rosatsch (14 Swiss Gault & Millau)

At Restaurant Stüvas Rosatsch (Stüvas means parlor) you can enjoy Slow food dishes prepared from Chef Jan Gassen and his team. More than 95 % of the ingredients originate from the Engadine or the close by “Veltlin”. Here Slow food is lived daily not only on the paper but served on the plate. The Stüva is the first official Slow food certified restaurant in Switzerland.

If you get the chance, make a tour in the cellar and explore their stock of fruit and vegetables. They are preserved during summer time to offer quality food all year long. Pears, apples, berries, figs, old varieties of carrots, I saw some Engadine artichokes!

Your nose to tail menu

Try a Variation of the Terra Retica ox Oxtail consommé with vegetable pearl and a Raviolo filled praline and tartar or the Grand Alpin Lasagne with calf’s milk piccata Jura Truffle and boiled Lömmenschwiler Beans.

Their wine choice is variegated; choose out of almost 400 wines. There is a vast selection of Swiss wines. Marco and Daniela know a lot about their wines ask for recommendation.

Restorant Uondas

Uonda means wave. Being located directly at the river the wave was an essential element to be included while designing the interior of this restaurant. I find the outcome really classy and intimate. Restorant Uondas is known around St. Moritz for its unique home maturated meat called “madüra” which means maturation. The Master butcher Ludwig Hatecke stands for the exceptional quality of this regional meat.

I had the chance to admire some big piece of meat in their in-house maturation cellar. There are different cuts of meat as lamb, beef or veal. Maturation time varies due to the size of the piece. Lamb takes about 4 weeks, veal 6-7 weeks and beef up to 12 weeks. The meat is stored in a special fridge at a temperature of 1-2 degrees. Humidity is ideal for the maturation process. It looses up to 30% of water, this makes it reducing weight and getting a prestigious delicacy. A tradition of meat aging on the bone improves the taste and tenderness of the meat.

Meat lovers order an own piece of meat and get a detailed report about its maturation process. When it has reached the ideal maturation Daniela, the manager of Restorant Uondas calls you and you organizes you a table for dinner! Reserve your meat here.

My food experience

The madüra meat is available in different ways of preparation. Take a combination of starters to get the whole picture. I loved the vitello tonnato, the roast beef and veal tartar. I put only a small drop of lemon olive oil and bit of black pepper to that natural very divine meat savor. They have a menu called “Tavolata” that gives you a good selection of dishes for an evening.

The nose to tail offer is superb; too, go for a spider veal steak for example or a hanging tender steak. I got a veal steak as a main grilled over lava stone. Honestly, it’s one of the best steaks ever had in my life. The most tasteful piece is the one at the bone! The meat comes with veggies, quinoa, crispy pommes-allumettes or a spicy eggplant parmigiana. Whatever you desire.
In the hope that you still have some space in your stomach, try the homemade soft ice cream. It’s preparation follows a secret recipe and offers different toppings. I loved it natural.

My personal highlights

Discovering this place enriched my food horizon. The whole team welcomed me hearty and spoiled me with all of their attention. I felt like attending a private gastronomic class. There is so much passion for everything they do. It’s kind of viral! All the insights about the madüra meat, nose to tail and the Slow food preparation are values I will never forget.

I am not a Gin connoisseur, but after having tried their Gin called GINUIN I am officially starting exploring. This Gin follows the Slow food concept and contains only genuine botanicals, exactly 25 of them. The juniper used is collected in the local forest of Pontresina. Even hotel guests collect juniper branches for the Gin when they go for a walk. I love the fact how people feel involved to support their projects. The lemons originate from a village called Limone at Lago di Garda. They explain to me, that it is still in an allowed geographical distance parameter, since even closer, than taking it from Geneva. The Gin is distilled with a special procedure of a double bain marie. This creates its premium quality. The fresh handmade marsh mellows matched perfectly with the Gin!

Thank you Hotel Chesa Rosatsch, Michael, Jonas, Daniela and Gianna for this unforgettable experience. See you soon again.

www.rosatsch.ch

My personal highlight: Fresh meat dishes, traditional place for a Zurich tourist

Spätzli & Co.

If you are curious to know more about local Swiss cuisine this is the place of your choice. You get fresh food every day mostly selected from regional suppliers. On the menu you find a variety of local dishes, mixed with some international food.

Try some homemade “Spätzli“. It’s a kind of Swiss gnocchi let’s say. Often they come with meet but at Neumarkt you can also get them with vegetables like lentils for example. Very healthy.

Try their selection of good Swiss wines. Neumarkt is located in a wonderful alley in the old town, Neumarkt 5.

ww.wirtschaft-neumarkt.ch

My personal highlight: Zürich Geschnetzlets is a must here, crispy meat, fresh potatoes, the portion is huge, it’s worth every Swiss Franc

If you are looking for a place to eat traditional and tasty Swiss food in a high class ambience do not miss this place. The Kronenhalle is in the heart of the city close to the lake. Did you know that artists like Picasso, Strauss or Coco Chanel used to come here for a drink and food?  It was founded 1924 and is still very recommended in every food guide of Zurich. I absolutely recommend the “Zürich Gschnetzlets”, it is a must try when you travel or live in Zurich. The Schnitzel with Röschti is a good option, if you do not like the creamy sauce.

What is Zürich Geschnetzlets?

A potato dish called “Röschti”. They are grated and fried till they got golden and crunchy. Röschti are served with veal meet in champignon sauce.  The restaurant is located at Bellevue, 2 Minutes from the tram station Bellevue.

www.kronenhalle.com