Not as good as it used to be – a bit disappointing: Restaurant Maison Manesse (4. January 2020)
It’s about three years ago since I’ve last been to the Maison Manesse – and my expectations were accordingly high, given every single time I’ve been there in the past, it was a blast. Now, to state the important things upfront – they aren’t anymore as they used to be. I went for the “I eat everything” tasting menu (CHF 160.00) which consisted of six courses.
It started with an amuse bouche from the kitchen, a “smoked onion soup with lamb tongue and apple” which was refreshing and good to start. So, so far, all good.
The “poached lobster with raw pumpkin salad, pumpkin mousse, grapefruit, and cedri lemons” was okay but the dish wasn’t really warm anymore when it was placed on the table which is something, at least in my opinion which is completely unacceptable. I am asking from warm food, so I do not want to get something which is isn’t warm.
The “sandwich with luma pork, salmon roe, marinated in sherry, and served with perigord truffles” was served in an interesting way as the sandwich was put on the plate in an open form and you had to ‘create it’ yourself. Now, the sandwich was interesting and generally good but somehow far from inspirational – flavor-wise.
The “grilled broccolini with yuzu hollandaise, crispy kale, and kombu algae” was actually my favorite dish of the evening. The broccolini was incredibly aromatic and the yuzu hollandaise quite intense yet delicious. However, in terms of size portion, I think the amount of yuzu hollandaise served was overwhelming the rest of the dish.
The course to clean your palate, “frozen air with passion fruit and fennel” was interesting in terms of how it was prepared.
The “hash brown made by potatoes from the Albula valley with fermentedred cabbage, lovage mayonnaise, apple, and red cabbage soup” was good but ultimately just a hash brown. Admittedly, prepared in a refined version but somehow – again – the dish lacked the surprising element. Just remembering how the dinner started with a sezchuan flower head which kind of made your taste buds explode and now, this was just missing entirely throughout the whole evening. I’m not saying I need a flower head to get that but somehow it was just not living up to my expectations.
The “mountain lamb from Puschlav (loin cut) served with a lamb tortellino, cucumber salad and parsnip purree” was, luckily, one of the better dishes. The meat was good as it did not taste like lamb which lamb so often does. The tortellino was great, and the sour taste and freshness of the cucumber salad really made it a good dish all in all but the amount of cucumber salad served was too much so, again, there was an overwhelming element in comparison to the whole dish.
Given, we had a little complaint at the table, we were offered cheese. And while I think that’s a nice gesture, I was relatively surprised when a group of four people got one plate of cheese and one more with three tiny slices of bread. I get it, cheese and bread both cost something of course and you want and have to make money – which is nothing but fair. But honestly, if you offer cheese, then you should a) either be specific about it that it’s a shared plate for the whole table, or b) offer it to everyone, or, at least c) make sure you have the appropriate amount of things on the table so it is dividable by four. In any case, the cheese was okay.
The little refresher for the palate, a “soy yogurt espuma with peppermint” was refreshing and overall enjoyable.
The “Coupe Maison (vanilla cream with pistachio pine nut crumble, pine cone ice cream and pomegranate granite)” was good.
The last course is one they have for quite a bit which is the possibility to roast your own marshmallow over the fire. And frankly, the marshmallow is good and enjoyable.
So, to sum it up, I was a relatively disappointed by the dinner – which, of course, was also tightly tied to the fact that I had rather high expectations. But it wasn’t only the food. I remember the Maison Manesse to be an incredibly fun place which is super enjoyable and you would just joke around with the waiter. Well, that wasn’t possible. I almost had the feeling like we were bothering to be there.
When I had asked if it is possible to do the “Big Wine Flight” (CHF 90.00) which is the wine pairing with mainly red wines, the reaction of the waiter basically was ‘I do it with a lot of white wines’. Okay, sure, fine, I just asked. I didn’t ask you to do everything differently. So, I’m gonna give the Maison Manesse another try soon just to check if it was bad luck or actually a deterioration of service quality and how they do the menu.
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Contact Details:
Restaurant Maison Manesse
Hopfenstrasse 2
8045 Zürich (CH)
Tel.: +41 44 462 01 01
E-Mail: info@maisonmanesse.ch
Homepage: http://www.maisonmanesse.ch