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: Stepping in the kitchen at “The Butcher”, getting introduced to all properties to prepare a real juicy burger

My passion as a foodie is to be there where the magic happens: In the kitchen! A big thank you to all of the staff at The Butcher Badenerstrasse, that made this happen. I can now much better understand the work in a Burgerkitchen! Quite a lot of procedures the cooks follow to prepare the perfect burger.

A large part of the dishes can be ordered as gluten-free variation or low carb without bread!

The base for the perfect burger are high quality and fresh products. The Butcher uses regional Swiss Meat. A paddy has 140g and comes always medium cooked!
A highlight for all Vegan lovers is The Greenmountain Burger that is 100% plant based and produced in Switzerland (Graubünden). It is rich in proteins and fibre made of organic soy, pea and wheat proteins.
Available with a vegan bun. I personally recommend their traditional bun. It is one of the best in town and has a crust that is super tasty due to its beer marinade! At Badenerstrasse you can enjoy your burger in the lovely outdoor terrace!

From the moment of the order at the table it takes only 7 minutes until you get your burger on the plate!

Try the Guest favorite: Bacon & Cheese Burger

Get a variety of burgers from classical beef, Chorizo Beef to Pulled Pork BBQ and Caesar’s Chicken. Absolutely to try the Goat Cheese Burger, too!

My favorite is the classical Bacon & Cheese. The cheese mixture is a secret mix, the cheese doesn’t melt and is mild but aromatic and is places on some flavorful caramelized onions. Every burger comes with fresh lettuce, tomatoes and special sauces! The fries are made of local swiss potatoes. A secret for you: The same potatoes as the legendary Zweifel Chips! Order their home made ice teas as the ideal non-alcoholic refreshment or some regional craft beers.

Burgers vary between 13.30 CHF (simple Butcher Burger) to 18.30 CHF for the Bacon & Cheese to 20.30 CHF for the Chorizo Beef & Cheese.

Address: Enjoy The Butcher offer at several spots in town, also available as outdoor delivery!

Zurich Badenerstrasse (the one I was), Badenerstrasse 101, 8004 Zürich
Zurich Altstetten, Altstetterplatz 11, 8048 Zürich
Zurich Niederdorf, Stüssihofstatt 15, 8001 Zürich
Zurich Heinrichstrasse, Heinrichstrasse 239, 8005 Zürich
Zurich Oerlikon, Hofwiesenstrasse 363, 8050 Zürich
Zug Metalli, Gotthardstrasse 2, 6300 Zug
Bern, Aarbergergasse 36, 3011 Bern

Opening hours: (check them online to be sure for each location) Monday – Wednesday, 11 am to 11 pm, Thursday – Saturday, 11 am to 12 pm,
Sunday: 12 am to 11 pm.

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

www.thebutcher.ch

My personal highlight: observing my friend getting attacked by the feeling of pure delight while swallowing a piece of tender meat

As a foodie apparently my job is to search new places for a great food experience. This time we stopped by at Fork & Bottle. Andreas, a friend of mine, had the pleasure to join me. He finally understands why a foodie never touches the food before taking at least 5 pictures. All the dishes were looking amazing. The labels of all the craft beer bottles were exciting to shoot.

Our dishes obviously did not only look good, the taste of every bite was an unforgettable food experience. Every course came paired with a delicious craft beer. At F&B you find over 80 different craft beers sourced by the owner, Mike Goguen, some of them are local, too. What made me very happy was the attention we got from Rena (events and marketing manager) and the staff.

Being a food blogger is contagious, too. My friend Andreas started to describe his food experience after every single bite! This flatters me and gives me the chance to exchange my impressions, too. Thank you, Andreas!

Let’s get a bit into the courses served

The Starter

I recommend to share the starters, if you choose a menu with more courses.
The first starter is a Warm Winter Root Vegetable Salad. It comes with fresh salad greens topped with grilled Halloumi cheese, roasted root vegetables, mango & chilli salsa and a Balsamic Dressing. Fingerlick’n good and really fresh.

The craft beer paired with this course was Gamma Ray by Beavertown from London. A killer American Pale Ale rammed with juicy malts and huge tropical aromas.  The can is cool and exciting to boot! A great picture for your instagram account!

After the first starter the show went on with some Asian Wings battered in a medley of Asian flours and spices and deep fried in duck fat. Drizzled with sweet chili reduction and topped with sesame seeds and mango and chili salsa. The duck fat gives that amazing tasty flavor.

The craft beer paired was the local beer “Corporate Monkey Lager” by Bier Factory, Jona. It’s a lightly hopped lager beer.

The Mains

This a 10 hour House Smoked BBQ Pork Ribs accompanied by hand cut fries and a cute pot of smoked beans. The fries were outstanding. They get fried 3 times and are really fingerlick’n, too. The best fries found in Zurich so far. The pork ribs are so juicy that they melt on your tongue.

This main course was paired with Gin Inspired Gose, made in collaboration with Pohjala from Estonia and To 0L from Denmark. The taste is mildly sour has a gose with pink Himalayan rock salt, coriander, juniper berries, spruce tips, rosemary, ginger, and rose petals. It’s an explosion of flavors. It was bit too much of flavors for me but a good choice for a summer beer I think.

The F&B Classic Burger was waiting on the second plate for us. It’s a 200 gram Swiss Premium Beef with cheddar, house corn relish, tomato, gherkin and lettuce.

This course was paired with a Tipopils by Birrificio Italiano from Northern Italy. It’s my absolute favorite beer here. The taste is fresh. It’s a crisp hoppy pilsner with a hint of sweetness.

The dessert

As you can imagine our bellies felt quite satisfied after, but it’s a duty of a foodie to go through the dessert menu. Rena suggested a traditional desert of the house: the Chocolate Brownie Sundae. It’s a crumbled brownie with homemade Daim ice cream, chocolate ganache and a marshmallow fluff. The pistachio in the chocolate brownie was an exotic and excellent combination.

Rena and her staff spoiled us with super delicious food and drinks. The atmosphere at F&B is very cozy and invites you to stay for a few hours and forget home.

I like their farm to table concept that will be expanded in future to more local products. F&B works with local farmers. I like the idea of supporting local suppliers. And we will definitively hear more about this farm to table concept in Switzerland, too.