Restaurant de L'Hôtel de Ville (Crissier, SWITZERLAND) ★★★★☆

An easy 40-minute drive was all it took for us to arrive at Crissier from Geneva and waiting on the wings was a much anticipated meal at the prestigious Restaurant de l'Hôtel de Ville in the Crissier town centre.

For almost three decades, Restaurant de l'Hôtel de Ville has been considered the best restaurant in all of Switzerland by food enthusiasts. Its fame all started from the days when legendary chef Frédy Girardet was at the helm. After Girardet passed the torch to his protégé Philippe Rochat in 1996, Rochat continued to cement the restaurant's reputation as a world-class dining destination by achieving 3-star rating from Michelin year after year. In 2012, current Head Chef Benoît Violier took over the kitchen from Rochat and despite having big shoes to fill, he was successful in maintaining the restaurant’s 3-star status. Adding to his already impressive start, Chef Violier was also named “Chef of the Year” by Gault Millau in 2013.



There were two 9-course tasting menus being served at CHF290 and CHF370 on the day. A more condensed 4-course menu was also available at CHF185 for anyone with a smaller appetite. That was the set we were after.

Amuse Bouche

Unfortunately, the amuse bouche did not provide the inspiring start we have hyped up for. We were expecting something far more interesting than a mini-burger with minced meat.

Foie gras terrine

The amuse bouche got us a little bit worried but our first starter quickly erased any doubts about this talented kitchen. This was a foie gras terrine atop with tomato puree made from tomatoes in the forest and crushed pine nuts. There was a thin layer of apricot jelly on each of the three slices of foie gras terrine to provide the perfect balance with the rich and creamy flavor of the foie gras.

This was a well executed dish that was both savory and enjoyable.

    

Steamed Luberon Asparagus tied with French Bigorre ham

It’s the harvest season for asparagus so we were seeing them regularly in the menus everywhere in France and Switzerland.

Luberon Asparagus is the cream of the crop when it comes to asparagus and the combination with French Bigorre ham certainly did not disappoint. Who could resist these perfectly juicy and sweet asparagus that was wonderfully complemented by the extremely flavorful Bigorre ham?

Blue lobster

Our first main course was a blue lobster poached and served with a lobster bisque-like sauce. This didn’t look like a particularly tough dish to make but to make it as flawless as they did, required top notch culinary techniques and of course, quality ingredients.

 

Noble cut of local mountain veal

We were down to our last main course here. While we had trouble believing that they could top the quality of the previous three dishes, the kitchen once again came through with a pleasant surprise.

This last dish featured a local mountain veal pan fried and was served on a pool of savory herbs, green peas and morel mushrooms. The key of this dish was really the thin slice of pancetta ham that was wrapped around the veal cut. It provided a nice contrasting texture and flavor making this one of the best veal I have tasted in recent memory.

Mixed berry sorbet

All good things must come to an end at some point. And it did. After four impressive dishes, here came an underwhelming dessert of mixed berry sorbet with light goat cheese cream.

Super sour. That was the only thing I could remember.

 

The petite four was again excellent. My personal favorites were the peanut butter tart (second on the left) and the crispy pistachio cream (on the right).

Apart from the amuse bouche and dessert, I thought the kitchen did more than enough to convince us that they are for real. However, the quality of service slightly ruined our overall experience.

While the staff was very friendly and courteous throughout the meal, there were glaring mistakes of not topping up water on a consistent basis. As a matter of fact, between our first starter and second main course, we had absolutely no water in our glass and that came totally undetected by the staff here. Another thing we didn’t like was their consistent effort to consolidate the leftovers from different tables into one or two plates before carrying back to the kitchen. That was totally unnecessary and should have never be done in the middle of the dining room of a 3-star Michelin restaurant.

Food Rating: 10/10

Price: $$$$$

Address: Rue d'Yverdon 1, 1023 Crissier, Switzerland
Tel: +41 21 634-0505

Website: www.restaurantcrissier.com/uk

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