Hotel Zurichberg's restaurant, C21, seems to be quite hyped. Other Qypers write about delicious…read morefood. I don't think that the restaurant's food is particularly spectularly in any way. Service was competent and relaxed, but not exactly very friendly typical for Zurich. The hospitality I enjoy at Hotel Rigiblick's restaurant, Spice, was nowhere to be found.
I had burrata with tomatoes, pesto, bread and balsamico as an entrée for just CHF 16.-, great value for money, one of the evening's true highlights. But I actually came because of the desserts. The restaurant sports a dessert menu that looked quite interesting, featuring (amongst other things) two dessert variations.
The strawberry dessert variation was actually quite good. I particularly enjoyed the warm strawberries served soaked in caramel and pepper corn sauce. However, they serve me a strawberry semifreddo that was still completely frozen. I'll let such an embarassing mistake slide, because the head pastry chef wasn't working that day.
The chocolate dessert variation was something of a mixed bag. The chocolate ginger ice cream was simply divine, absolutely commendable! The candied ginger was, of course, a perfect match. But then another mistake happened: A relatively boring little chocolate cake was covered in ready-made chocolate topping (!), absolutely disgusting. Quite sad, because melting chocolate isn't such a big deal
The fruit plate was a definite disappointment. Instead of serving a coulis or sauce made from fresh strawberries, they used a ready-made sauce from Boiron that tasted far too sweet, like a low-quality strawberry jam they'd thrown into a blender. The fruit was okay, the whole ordeal was somewhat uninspired. An easy, viable dessert, nonetheless.
If one considers the fact that the kitchen's two pastry chefs have to produce over a thousand pieces of cake per week, then the desserts are in spite of the mistakes that were made quite alright. I'm giving this restaurant a relatively high score because of the value for money offered and its rather gorgeous view, particularly beautiful by Zurich's standards.
One star is missing. Why? Poor hygiene! My eagle eyes spotted a young chef (or apprentice?) testing some sauce with his finger and then prodding at a piece of meat with the just-licked finger yuck! The open show kitchen is quite clean, in spite of such displays of hygienic nonchalance.
For more German restaurant reviews and photos, please visit:
http://www.dessertblog.ch
