For more than a decade, Mesa has been the go-to address for haute cuisine in Zurich. I first heard of the restaurant when Austrian-born chef Marcus G. Lindner was at the helm. He was brought in to lead Mesa's kitchen back in 2006 and quickly made the restaurant one of most classy fine-dining establishments in Zurich. After awarded two stars in the 2012 Michelin Guide, chef Lindner left for The Alpina Gstaad to become their opening executive chef. Chef Antonio Colaianni (3 years), Maximilian Klein (1 year) and Marcel Schmitutz (1 year) all followed his footsteps to take the reigns at Mesa with different degree of success (by then dropped to one star) until earlier this year when chef Sebastian Rösch arrived.
German-born Sebastian Rösch previously worked in the kitchens of Ecco (Ascona) and now-defunct Spice (Gourmet restaurant on the first floor of the Hotel Rigiblick in Zurich) before joining Mesa. His cooking style is considered a great fit at Mesa with the fine dining restaurant now switching to more of a contemporary eatery with international influences. This is where chef Rösch seems to fit in well with his classical oriented approach but interpreted in a slightly contemporary manner. I guess in layman terms, we should be expecting a more casual cosmopolitan cuisine that's more playful and produce driven.
Mesa was just a 7 to 8 minute walk from our hotel so I decided not to drive tonight and instead walk over in the rain. Turned out we're not the first to arrive despite showing up at 6. A group (of nearly 20 guests) from Taiwan was already there ahead of us.
We're offered a choice between 3 (CHF 95), 4 (CHF 115) or 5 courses (CHF 135). Since everyone was more tired than hungry, we all went with the three-course menu with our own choice of starter, entrée and main.
Some interesting nibbles to start off the meal, first with some dehydrated peach topped with a dash of beetroot purée, horseradish and hazelnut.
Those were accompanied by some crispy pork cheek.
Our last amuse bouche was a little tofu salad with different types of tomatoes, cheese and mixed peppers. These looked like a sign to come that it won't be a traditional meal after all.
Our starters were a mix of classic and fusion dishes beginning with seared line-caught tuna that was served with avocado and green mango. The sauce was a chili soy with mild spiciness that provided the lightly seared tuna something extra to work with. Not bad.
The other starter was pâté of poussin from Grison with homemade brioche and cherries marinated with local vinegar. This was a little lighter than what I've expected.
Entreé again provided an interesting mix of classic and contemporary dishes. Most of us went with their Secreto pata negra, a dish with pork collar, walnuts, kale and cheese all on a bed of fregola risotto. Some Mediterranean flavors there further highlighted by the alp gras oil on the bottom.
I personally had the sole fillet with lemon beurre blanc, parsnips and leek. This was pretty tasty with some lovely acidity coming from the lemon butter sauce and the baby leeks provided some interesting grassy garden note to the fish.
For main dish, almost everyone went with Angus beef aged 30 months served with mushrooms, parsley root and ratte potatoes in what I thought was a light red wine reduction. Not bad from the little corner I stole from Jelloman.
Again I went with the fusion dish featuring Breton monkfish from Roscoff, wrapped with seaweed and served in an aromatic Anapurna curry broth. There were seasonal vegetables like okra, Indian cress, carrot, green peas, broccoli, corn and pumpkin in there as well. Did I miss anything?
Like my first dish with seared tuna, avocado and green mango, I thought there was a bit of Thai inspiration in this dish. Personally, I'm not a big fan of fusion cuisine (except Japanese-French) especially the mix of modern European and Thai, and they're going to the well a little too often in this meal.
Young chef Sebastian Rösch came out to greet us at this point and introduced us to his petite fours, a combination of macaron with coffee cream, chocolate brownie and chocolate ball infused with rose water.
I thought everybody enjoyed dinner tonight although it's not the elegant fine-dining experience we were all hoping for. Service stood out as exceptional throughout the night, which was indeed worthy of their star but the cuisine wasn't enough to warrant the same accolade, at least not based on the small sample of dishes we had this evening. It could be just an off-night from the kitchen but the more I looked at these pictures again, the more I felt like the elegant cooking that used to set Mesa apart from the others was long gone when Lindner and Colaianni both stepped through those doors.
Note: It's worth noting that Mesa retained its Michelin star in the 2018 guide despite the change of guard.
Food Rating: 5/10
Price: $$$$
Address: Weinbergstrasse 75, 8006 Zürich, Switzerland
Tel: +41 43 321-7575
Website: mesa-restaurant.ch
Opening Hours: 11:45am – 3:00pm, 6:30pm – 12am (Tue - Fri), 6:30pm – 12am (Sat)
