Piazza Uetlihof (Kantine), Zuerich

Menusalat mit italienischer Sauce

Kalbssaltimbocca mit Safranrisotto und Marsalasauce

A quick lunch at a staff canteen in Zurich. The selection is surprisingly large, from the upscale market buffet to the all-you-can-slap-on -your-plate-of- yesterdays- leftovers “Budget Teller” there’s a big variety. The friendliness and ambition of the staff is remarkable, when did you ever see someone at a canteen wipe your plate, because sauce dribbled on the plate while serving your food ? I opted for a menu salad and saltimbocca with saffron risotto, ofen tomatoes and marsala sauce. My standards for a place like this is it needs to at least match, what I’ve been fed in the army by the unit cook, whose budget is 8 CHF per person and day for three meals.
The risotto even though it had saffron in it wasn’t very nice, It was too mushy and I’m suspecting that it’s kept in some kind of “cook and hold” magic device, which kills it. Oven tomatoes I find offending, even in top restaurants, i’ve never had a good tasting oven tomato. Why not add some herbs and a bit of cheese and this would at least taste acceptable. The saltimbocca was lacking a leaf of salvia and the meat (according to the declaration it was veal) was cooked very, very well done. Salad was okay, standard prepackaged fare, I really like the italian sauce, even though it’s delivered in the 25l bucket. I could have mixed my own with the provided aceto, spices and olive oil but I’m just too lazy. For 10.50 CHF what you get exactly what you pay for, just don’t get carried away and take your fiance to a fancy lunch here