Letzigrund, Badenerstrasse, Zurich
Apr
2011
Letzigrund Pommes
Letziburger
Things not quite going according to plan is normal, but outright disaster or abysmal failure do not adequately describe the situation of the football venues in the City of Zurich. Instead of a decent stadium, an architectural impressive, yet functionally flawed multi-purpose thing was created. One can argue wether placing a picket fence around the facility, where one can pass objects through the gaps inside the stadium, is inline with the architectural mantra of form follows function or not. Incompetence on the verge on neglect is the fact that Implenia which built the stadium, screwed up on the Steel construction of the year 2007. The roof and the accompanying beams were rusting and in danger of caving in. Hence additional supporting beams were added obstructing the view of the spectators, until a permanent solution was found. By the law of Karma, at least the food must be stellar. Strolling through the booths there’s an offering which could be found at any stadium – French fries, bratwurst, pizza and burgers. I chose a portion of fries. Unfortunately just adding a bit of herbes provencal to oversalted and underfried potato sticks doesn’t salvage the experience. Every Gruempelturnier has a guy working a fryer churning out fries, unsure why one of the biggest players in the catering industry ZFV can’t make it happen. Next up was a Letziburger, funny enough, towards the end of the game these are sold for a mere 3 CHF (and they had dozens left). The bread was actually okay, but the burger paddy was not 100% beef, was lacking any char on the outside and with that none of the smokiness a real burger should have. No wonder, they are apparently cooked on an electric grill plate. The whole setup was too ridiculous I skipped on having a bratwurst. The thing to do is, eat & drink outside of the stadium.Horber the butcher or the Restaurant Schlachthof both have real grills and serve real tasty grub. This is a prime example where instead of going for what the people like best, some caterer was selected because of their concept. There needs to be a campaign for real food for real football fans!
11/04/2011 at 10:08
100% correct.
and trust me, with the fries and the burger you picked the two best ones.
If you would have tried a bratwurst inside of the stadium you would have stoped eating after a mouthful.
horber and schlachthof outside is allways the much better choice.
11/04/2011 at 11:13
The Letzigrund is one giant economic distortion. The Gesslers of the Zürich city government paid for it with borrowed money. And now this prime patch of land and the Soviet-style concoction on top of it remain empty and unused except for handful of games per month and a couple of training sessions of local football teams. What a great example for malinvestment. The entire project is decoupled from economic calculation.
Nothing against stadiums, but they shall be built, financed and operated by private enterpreneurs who think about customer needs 24/7. The question is whether football fans are willing to bear the REAL cost of their amusement, just like film-goers bear the true total costs of a cinema. Or just as in the case of the privately-financed Hallenstadion.
Your experience of ultra-low food quality – as compared to nearby enterpreneurial butchers – is only a shy indicator of the real problem of Letzigrund.
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21/12/2011 at 17:38
As a neighbour – up Letzigraben – of the Letzigrund I hate to say that I agree 100% with the aforegoing commentators, the operators of the Letzigrund Gastronomy should really be tarred and feathered for the audacity they serve crap called food with. Go to butcher Horber or the Schlachthof close by or if you like asian food the Singapore or Raffles just a few metres up the Badenerstrasse will fit you fine.
RudolfTheSwiss
21/12/2011 at 23:44
It’s a shame! And the taxpayer is getting ripped off twice!