“Taste of Lebanon” – with an overly fancy dessert: Restaurant Saltz (11. September 2016)

The “falafel balls on chicorée marinated with a pickled cucumber” was a nice start of the “Taste of Lebanon” (menu, CHF 90.00). Not sure how Lebanese the dish actually is respectively to what degree it is a Swiss adaption. However, the start was fine …

… and was served with a glass of Swiss champagne, called “Züri Perle”. While the butter which was served with the bread actually looked quite good, the waiter did not bother to explain what he just had served. Only upon requesting him to explain what was served, he managed to elaborate that there was “salted butter with rapeseeds, butter with grapefruit, and tomato ricotta spread”.

The first course of the evening was “Mezze – Hummus, Tabouleh & Friends” served with two glasses of wine (wine pairing, CHF 20.00), a Johanniter “Dolder Grand”, 2014 and a “Rosé im “Steinkrug”, 2015. While the mezze were delicious, especially the hummus, the wine pairing was rather boring.

For the main, you could chose between lamb chops and “Sayadieh sea bass, onions, lady’s finger, nuts, and oriental rice”. I went for the sea bass and while the dish was absolutely okay, it was rather straight forward. And, unfortunately, only white wine was served again (Blanc Fumé Centenaire 2014 and Chardonnay Otelfingen Barrique 2015). I got to try the lamb chops and O M G! They were absolutely mouth-watering. Incredibly tasty, just plain outstanding!

While the dessert looked absolutely delicious it was completely over-engineered. The “Layali Beirut, farina, Sfouf & Sorbet” was somewhat artificial in taste. It really tasted perfumed. Not to my liking. The “Pinot Gris, Chillesteig Höngg 2015” was rather pale again but at least the “Vidal Blanc, Spätlese Lattenberg 2014” was a nice sweet wine.

To end the dinner, some chocolates were served – but in a very odd number. We were four people that evening, and we got 2 chocolates, 6 cookies and 2 jellies. I mean, I was never outstanding in math, but it kinda really doesn’t split well by 4. After showing my “math skills” to the waiter, we got the missing number of candies so we got to try all of them and the chocolates were truly delicious.

To sum it up, the experience was a truly interesting one. It started well, went down with the main and reached bottom with the dessert. Frankly, I was a bit disappointed. If they’d have stuck to the mezze, this would have done the trick. Like that I must say you pay a lot for the brand.

And the view – and admittedly, the view is fair to pay for but the dishes were definitely not what I had expected. The wine pairing neither. And last but not least, the service did a good job – still some room for improvement but that was among the best elements of the evening.

Funny enough, I have heard of someone dining at the Saltz lately (not in the context of the “Taste of Lebanon”) and that person was also disappointed. Frankly, if you have a two starred restaurant in your premise, maybe send someone over to teach a bit – might help.

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Contact Details:

Restaurant Saltz

The Dolder Grand Hotel

Kurhausstrasse 65

8032 Zürich (CH)

Tel.: +41 44 456 60 00

Fax: +41 44 456 60 01

E-Mail: info@thedoldergrand.com

Homepage: http://www.thedoldergrand.com

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.