27. February 2014: Restaurant Maison Manesse

What I had experienced that evening at the Restaurant Maison Manesse I haven’t had in a long time – moments of pure food-related joy and happiness when you take a bit of a dish. I had heard of this restaurant approximately three months ago but only managed now to go and it is a pity I was not able any earlier. Such lovely food! I perfectly understand why it is ranked #2 of all restaurants in Zurich on TripAdvisor!

As I was curious what the restaurant had to offer, I went for the “maison. set. menu.” (CHF 95.00) which started with a “little salty nothing” which was “rocket salad foam with a fake olive”. The foam was nicely salty, aromatic and the fake olive was a little ball of liquid olive. The cherry tomato which was accompanying the dish was a bit too intense and overwhelming the other tastes though.

The first dish of the menu was called “Oysters” (oyster vacuumed in the shell and poached for 2 hours at 55°C. avocado with madagascan wild pepper. yellow king tomato with champagne vinegar. lemon jelly. slow poached bone marrow. oyster water foam. blinQ blossums) and would usually account for CHF 23.00. Now, I am usually not really fan of oysters as they are not much more than salt and lemon to me but this was actually great. The combination of the tomato, lemon and the bone marrow together with the distinct taste of oysters was a nice start into the evening.

The “beets” (usually CHF 16.00) (baby beet. chioggia beet and burpee’s golden beet. all roasted on salt and lightly pickled. pumpernickel. almonds. fresh cream cheese. sphere of burrata and basil. beetroot and horseradish caviar. orange. mustard cress. sorrel) sounded rather boring at first but once I had the first bite I was in food heaven. The burrata with the subtle taste of basil was mouth-watering. The combination of the different beets with the orange slices did its trick to make it a perfect dish.

The next course, the “63° Organic egg” (usually CHF 19.00) (100% organic egg from Richterswil where each han has 10 square meters of land to play in. cooked for 60 minutes at 63°C. gluten free whole grain bread with quinoa and coriander seeds grilled on the big green egg. purple cauliflower. pinenuts. cumin. pomelo. orange zest. beurre noisette. parsley cress) was definitely top-notch! The egg was at the perfect state of being between liquid and solid, the grilled whole grain bread provided this note of grill and smoke and the pomelo provided it with the necessary acid to make it a perfect explosion of flavour in your mouth!

And yet another favourite was served “confit suckling pig” (usually CHF 25.00) (Swiss suckling pig belly brined and confit sous vide for 14 hours. green pea puree. peppermint essence. smoked and cured wooly pig bacon from Ennetbürgen. 4 days gluten free beer fermented green peas. Schwarzenbach verjus. lucuma salt flakes). The pig belly was perfectly crispy, dry, aromatic, taste-intense and in combination with the green pea puree and the peppermint essence it just made a lovely dish. But that was not yet making it perfect – only when I tried the pig bacon together with the pig belly my taste buds went nuts! Moments of pure joy and happiness – and I guess I had a huge smile on my face that very moment.

To round up the dishes, another surprise from the kitchen was served – this time a “little sweet nothing” which was basically a “carrot cake” but more like an icecream sorbet with small slices of carrot. Just lovely.

And the last course of the night was yet another great dish – “white chocolate” (usually CHF 15.00) (valrhona white chocolate and olive oil ganache. earl grey ice-cream. earl grey fluid gel. fennel compressed in rose syrup. rosé and rose jelly. rosehip and white chocolate crumble) had an incredible combination of different flavours which in the end all added up to a sound and tasteful dish.

A little surprise from the kitchen was offered to finish up the evening consisting of a little nice chocolatey macaroon which fit to the double espresso (CHF 5.50) and the Grappa Nonino 8 (CHF 22.00) very well .

Besides the amazing combination and quality of the dishes, there is more to the Maison Manesse – part one is the atmosphere: Lovely, somehow a bit hipster, but very stylish place which attracts a certain type of people (where I can totally imagining coming in summer, sitting outside, reading a good book and having a glass of white wine). Talking about white wine, I asked for an aperitivo and was offered a “Scheurebe” (1dl, CHF 12.00) which was a lovely, creamy, aromatic and tasty white wine. For the menu I went for red and after explaining that I was looking for a strong, taste-intense and heavy red wine, I was offered a glass of red wine made from the tannat grape (a French wine, unfortunately, I did not take note of the name of the wine) and it was absolutely great – exactly what I had looked for (bottle price CHF 88.00). The only downside was that only after we had specifically asked if the wine fits the dishes, we were told it does not really as it was too strong. Now, we were allowed to change the wines without hesitation from the waiter (good job there) but somehow I would have appreciated if this information was given before trying the wine.

A word about the waiter: dedicated, passionate, jovial, friendly. He did definitely a great job but they were a bit understaffed that night (we later were told that the other waiter was ill) which was a pity as there was sometimes quite some waiting time involved which was still within the acceptable boundaries but at their very edge (although I am complaining here on quite a high level).

Now, to sum it up – this experience was definitely among the best I have had in Zurich for quite a while: interesting, new, surprising cuisine, price-wise very fair (e.g. CHF 8.00 for 0,77L mineral water), great atmosphere and respectively nice crowd of people and outstanding service. Personally: probably my new favourite restaurant in Zurich!

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Contact Details:

Restaurant Maison Manesse

Hopfenstrasse 2

8045 Zurich (CH)

Tel.: +41 44 462 01 01

E-Mail: info@maisonmanesse.ch

Homepage: http://www.maisonmanesse.ch

About the Author: Sven

I started the blog in October 2009, while living in Milan which I definitely consider to be one of the food capitals of the world. I was in touch with food since my early childhood (as my father is a former chef). Whenever I can, I travel the world to discover new places, to meet people but mostly to try local dishes and to find hidden gems! If you know a place worth going, please drop a line to: info@thediningexperience.org. Currently, I am a member of the following food-related associations: Chevalier @Chaîne des Rôtisseurs Zurich-Ville; Membre Gourmet Dégustateur @Ordre Mondial des Gourmets Dégustateurs [OMGD]; Gesellschafter @Goldener Fisch and Member @Slowfood Convivium Zurich City.