23. July 2011: The Restaurant at the Dolder Grand
Dining in “The Restaurant” of Heiko Nieder in the Dolder Grand Hotel is a truly amazing and unique experience. The journey starts with greetings from the kitchen: Bread cracker with Fridolin (cheese) and lovage; blini sponge with boletus, chive, and crème fraiche; green almonds with apple and stevia; and a surprisingly great combination of cherry tomato slices, a little mozzarella ball with almost liquid mozzarella inside together with kiwi and mango vinegar – absolutely tasteful. The 5th part of the greetings from the kitchen was a simple but great combination of honey melon with bacon spice and a slice of cornichons.
After the greetings from the kitchen, we were served a selection of three different types of bread accompanied by four kinds of spread – the ciabatta in combination with the lemon butter was like having a sweet dream!
The next course – again greetings from the kitchen – was a combination of trout hen with avocado, cilantro, kefir, and bacon. The combination was absolutely tender in taste but still great and surprising.
The second greeting from the kitchen, goose liver with raspberry and beetroot was a great combination of fluffy tender liver with sweet raspberry and balanced beetroot – three complete different ingredients leading to a great whole one. Absolutely great.
The first course of the 5 course menu (CHF 178.00) were prawns with melon, basil and eucalyptus. The dish was a good combination of the down-to-earth consistency and taste of the prawns with the sweetness of the melons and the freshness of basil and eucalyptus. This combination was followed by turbot with apple vinegar, celery and wild herbs.
The next course, the third dish of the menu, duck fattened liver with vanilla and pumpking seeds oil was truly great. The duck fattened liver had a top crust of burnt sugar like when you have a créme brûlée. On top the vanilla ice cream. Good food makes me smile, and I had the biggest smile ever. It was absolutely fantastic!
The main course – wagyu beef with beer and horseradish – was not bad. The meat was a bit disappoting not in the way it was prepared but in general I was just expecting a bit more from wagyu beef – not the chef’s fault but a personal disappointment. But what was truly great was the potato foam (the glass in the back of the plate on the picture). I’m not a big fan of potatoes really, but honestly speaking, the potato foam was just a dream!
On the menu, the desert is simply called “cherry cake”. Well, yeah, it is a cherry cake but it’s nothing like a cherry cake. The cake is basically split into its parts: sponge cake with mascarpone, cherries, sour cherry sorbet, shortcrust, thyme, cherry foam, and cherry jelly. A very interesting combination to see the single parts of the cake and still to be able to “build” your own cake out of the parts. Truly inspiring and great in taste.
After the desert from the menu, we were served yet another selection of little deserts: Herb drops, ginger tonic sorbet with wasabi and cucumber, elderflower styrofoam, lemon margarita, “Green Tea Dolderli” with ginseng and chocolate, dried chocolate cake with banana and pepper, rice crispies with nougat, hazelnut, and milk, and last but not least caramelized cream puff with acacia blossom ice cream.
After the amazing selection of deserts the waitress offered us a selection of chocolates. While some were good but nothing special (e.g. chocolate with some paprika powder), others were absolutely great (chocolate with liquid marzipan). Overall, pretty great although I’m usually not a big fan of chocolate.
To sum it up: The dishes in The Restaurant in the Dolder Grand are truly amazing! Of course, the menu is not really cheap but it is absolutely worth it. The ingridients are of high quality, the treatment happens on a high level, and the combinations are just great. I can recommend everybody who loves eating to go there and just enjoy it!
The service is great: They are always there but you don’t realize that they are physically present. Your glass is being refilled at all times – there was no single moment when my glasses were empty. The dishes are served from the right side, in the right order and also taken off your table correctly. Plus the service is friendly and helpful and even when we had some difficulties in agreeing on what wine we wanted, they gave us time and were not pushy at all.
The only thing which is not absolutely outstanding in The Restaurant is the atmosphere – the place is nice, the interior design is pretty okay but overall somehow the special element which makes you feel completely comfortable is missing. Actually, a true pity considering the fact that everything else is pretty much perfect. Still, it’s nice. So overall, I can definitely recommend to go and dine at The Restaurant in the Dolder Grand Hotel and experience the dishes of 2-star chef Heiko Nieder.
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Contact Details:
The Restaurant
The Dolder Grand
Kurhausstrasse 65
8032 Zurich (CH)
Tel.: +41 44 456 60 00
Fax: +41 44 456 60 01
E-Mail: therestaurant@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. 
