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Story and Photography by Manos Angelakis
Rive Gauche
Talstrasse 1,
8001 Zurich
+44.44.220.5060
Open Monday to Saturday, 11:30am to 2:00pm and 6:00pm to 10:00pm
The Rive Gauche Restaurant and Bar is the less formal of the three restaurants located in the “grand dame” five star Baur au Lac Hotel, in Zurich. The Rive Gauche has replaced the century-old Baur au Lac’s Grill Room and can be reached  either through the hotel corridors or from an outside entrance. It is a chic, yet fairly casual dinning venue and top toque Olivier Rais has created a sensational, seasonal, Mediterranean-inspired menu. Currently only Le Restaurant Français and Rive Gauche are open, while Le Pavillon – the third - is undergoing a total renovation. The restaurant also has access to Baur au Lac’s exceptional wine cellar and the bar features an extensive collection of single-malt whiskeys. Even the by-the-glass wines featured some outstanding libations.
 I was there towards the end of April, and German white asparagus were in season. So, numerous dishes were created using these delicate delights. I decided, since I am a white asparagus aficionado to start with a plate of steamed asparagus in garlic and pimento vinaigrette. They were fat, perfectly prepared, and soft and velvety, NOT stringy; a problem I many times have whenever I order white asparagus in the US.
The person sitting next to me (we were 10 at the table), ordered what the menu called O Tempura, O Morels (a wordplay on Cicero’s O Tempora, O Mores oration).  It was a creamy asparagus soup with tempura-battered morels floating like a white flower in the center of the liquid. She made it disappear in a flash.
As a main course, I decided on what the menu calls Ladies’ Cut, a small prime Swiss tenderloin (150 grams), that was delivered cooked exactly as ordered, medium rare. I love European beef as it might not be as tender as American prime filet, but – because it is from grass fed free-range cows – it is considerably less fatty and with far more taste. Sautéed spinach with shallots was the perfect side dish.
My neighbor ordered the “Frere Jacques”; 5 good-sized scallops brochette on a bed of asparagus and morels, with a wild garlic vinaigrette.
The person sitting across from me ordered what is named on the menu as “The Big Bertha”, a giant veal chop. According to him, it was the most tender piece of veal he had ever had. A side of braised fennel seemed to make him very happy.
Pored at dinner were Swiss wines, made from indigenous Swiss grapes. I did not keep notes, as I would normally do, because I was very tired from the overnight flight. Even when traveling in SWISS business class, where the new “lay flat” seats turn into beds (see SWISS in Events section), and are very comfortable; it is still for me a toss-and-turn situation. But my companions seemed to enjoy the wines.
 The final treat was the dessert. The chef decided that a dessert-tasting platter, available on the dessert menu as “D for Two”, would be the appropriate end to our dinner. It had smaller versions of four of the menu items. “Burnout”, a lovely crème brûlée flavored with Tahitian Vanilla; “Slip and Slide”, a creamy millefeulle of iced vanilla cream with strawberries and rhubarb mouse; “Magic Madagascar”, chocolate mousse, cake and sorbet of dark chocolate; “Mango a Gogo”, caramelized mango tartlet and lychee sorbet.
Washed down with a lovely double espresso, with crema galore, it made for a very inspired evening.
My congratulations to Chef Rais. Even though the restaurant has been renamed, he has taken on a restaurant with a great past and is guiding it through an equally illustrious (I hope) future.
© May 2009 LuxuryWeb Magazine. All rights reserved.
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