Restaurant Triibhuus, Altstetten, Zürich
Oct
2008
Brunch
Brunch
I should have known and I should have stayed away from the Triibhuus. In the middle of nowhere, on the outskirts of Zurich is this gem of event dining. I had reserved a table for two for sunday brunch a couple of days in advance, because I got suckered into believing eating among plants in a greenhouse is a great idea. We showed up at the entrance and stood by a sign asking us to wait until we were seated. A couple of minutes no one seemed interested in us and more guests started to show up behind us. Being the unfearing man of action that I am, I set out to hunt down a waiter and found one, who told me the manager would be right with us. Finally someone shows up and walks towards us. After me smiling at him friendly and telling him how grateful I was that he’d found some time for us, he just look at me with big eyes, started to act surprised and asked if we had been waiting for a long time…. Idiot. Seated at a table we waited again for someone to show up and explain us the deal. Some waving finally did the trick. He explained us that it’s a buffet affair and that he’d bring us some drinks. We ordered a coffee and an espresso, I was informed that an espresso is charged extra. No idea why, but it all fits into the picture. We headed to the buffet and it was a joke. Big and lots of stuff but nothing exciting. Bread, croissant, jam, meat, eggs, taboule, mussels (…), fruit virtually everything was available, but Zopf was missing. The biggest joke was the guy making fried eggs sunny side up. I’m guessing he’s an auto mechanic by training. The only cooking he’s used to doing, is the one where he sits at the table while his mother stirs in the pan. Greasy, undercooked, sloppy eggs and he wasn’t even able to handle two pans at once. Where I got really suspicious, was when the guy started opening oysters and tricking fat and unwieldly buffet brunchers into eating them. After seeing the mussels on display, which screamed dubious leftovers reused, I decided to pass on the oysters. Fresh high quality seafood in a landlocked country on a 45 CHF all you can eat buffet is not possible. To top it all off, the 4 CHF espresso was absolutly disgusting. This is a horrible place – a not so well oiled machine to get my money without delivering any value. I was suprised to see how full it was, even though it qualifies as a total rip-off. This is the first time in a long time – where I paid with exact change:
Rechnung
31/10/2008 at 13:31
Well…don’t expect us to feel sorry for you, I have never heard anything good about the “Triibhuus”, expect from couples celebrating their wedding apéro there, but I guess they have to be positive about it. The words “Brunch” and “Altstetten” are an awful combination.
Btw, if you write a comment and forget your e-mail, you fall back and your comment is lost. And after all those lovely compliments I wrote! Too bad 😉
18/07/2011 at 22:18
I’ve been there almost one year ago, summer 2010 and I can undoubtly say that my experience was much worst than yours! The waiters were very unfriendly, poorly-trained professional and bad-mannered, the toilets were really disgusting, I found suspicious things in my meal and i saw a mice running between the plants.
Of course, the bill was extremely overprieced. The same critic works for the other Tony Navarro’s restaurant Turm in Niederdorf.