With the easening of the lockdown here in Switzerland, I started to think about the first night-out with my Miss. As we had to celebrate our wedding anniversary during the lockdown (we cooked ourselves a nice meal - not surprisingly from Ottolenghi!) and given that we survived our joint home office quite well - I decided to invite my Miss to a romantic gateway! A nice restaurant, a cool hotel was the challenge, close to Zurich. Fortunately, I had an idea in mind - the Krone Regensberg!
Krone Regensberg
The Krone is a hotel and restaurant in Regensberg - a little village with a medieval feeling (village wall, cobbled streets, timbered houses) tucked on a hill about 20 min from Zurich. The owner turned the century-old house of its family into a hotel and restaurant preserving its historic charm while incorporating modern elements. It opened up in 2015 and is part of Relais & Chateau. The Chef is Ale Mordasini, a young chef and winner of the prestigious cooking competition "Goldener Koch". No wonder the restaurant featured 15 points in the GaultMillau 2019 right away! I booked a hotel room for the night and a table in the restaurant the same evening.
Ambience & service
It's just a wonderful setting - right from the start. The dining hall is a mix of modern elements (concrete floor) and the old structure, i.e. a stone wall. Throw in the astonishing view, the modern but comfortable furniture and`it's just splendid!
We were served by a young girl, very attentive and considerate, not intrusive at all. She really made sure that we felt at easy - despite all the Covid-19 challenges. The managing director is also present in the restaurant, I had the impression of a well-formed and performing team. Given the current situation, there were only 6 table in the dining room - so we had plenty of privacy.
Food
We opted for the surprise menu. Quite quickly, the amuses-bouches were served. My first thought was how well and neat they are! Fortunately, the taste also lived up to it - with my favourite being the radish.
The first starter then was green beans, green asparagus and morels. Very appealing in terms of colors, very fresh look! I was also surprised how good the beans, asparagus and morels go along, didn't expect that. Second starter was a fish - a char ("saibling" in german) in a buttermilk sauce. The fish was cooked to perfection, unfortunately the sauce was on the edge of being to salty! As far as the main course was concerned, the beef was again flawless in terms of cooking time, nicely red, very tender and juicy. There was quite a chunk of fat on the meat - the waitress informed me that I don't have to eat the fat as it was left on the meat on purpose, for reasons of the cooking technique. OK with me - but I would have wished a little bit more meat then, once cutting out the fat, I was left with quite a small piece. The highlight of the main course was actually the little ragout of beef, hidden in a celeriac ring. We then opted for the cheese selection - always a highlight for us and the cheeses (locally sourced) did not disappoint - neither the fresh bread they served with it! To finish the dessert - a small disappointment. It was a very well made ice cream, but we were missing the finesse, the surprise factor in it! A nice treat were then again the little mignardises to finish off the evening.
Regarding the wines, we started off with a sparkling wine from the little vineyard in the village. It was a nice surprise. For the red wine, I opted to stay in the region and went for a Pinot Noir from the "Aagne" winery in Schaffhausen. If the sparkling wine was a surprise, then the Pinot Noir was a blow off - I didn't expect that! A great Pinot Noir, nice structure, well balanced but still fully body. I made a personal note to go after this winemaker!
Good thing was that we only had to climb 10 stairs after the diner to our nice hotel room. By the way - breakfast the next morning was also perfect! Served on the sunny terrace, they provide you with a generous bread basket, homemade jams, an onsen-egg, selection of cold-cuts and cheeses, fresh orange juice and some sweets!
Conclusion
All in all - we had a wonderful stay in the Krone Regensberg! The little medieval village and the wonderful hotel provided us with the romantic gateway experience I was looking for - it's such a pittoresque setting! I did expect more from the restaurant - but decided to put it on some re-start challenges after the lockdown.
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