Gruental, Breitensteinstrasse, Zurich

Moules avec sauce vaticane

Trinser Birnenravioli mit Hagebuttensauce und roten Zwiebeln

Schweinsfuss

Griesschöpfli

The Restaurant Gruental is now run by the former proprietor of the Tessinerkeller and I was trying hard to get a table on the first day. Due to some bureaucratic licensing issue, it took a bit longer to open the restaurant than anticipated, but I guess that’s our tax francs at work… The place is a bit cool in the interior, try to secure a table in the back of the restaurant, it’s cosier. The menu is small and even gutsy, so I was looking forward to eating at this establishment. On the appetizer side, they offer three different salads, tripe and pig’s trotter, certainly a mix which is unusual. We decide to kickoff our meal with a helping of Moules avec sauce vaticane. The french fries need some tweaking, but otherwise a good dish. The sauce has a tad of cream with it and goes well with the mussels. I really liked the ketchup/cocktail/ajoli sauce that came with the fries. A small mix up in our order led to the main course being served before the second appetizer. Since the previous owner also served Trinser pear ravioli I order the same and was disappointed. The version here was served with red onions, a cream cheese and rosehip sauce. There should have been a much stronger salty taste (eg. strong cheese) to balance the layers of sweetness which overpowered the dish. My second appetizer was a pig’s trotter, something I’ve never had before. It was an experiment on my part and I’m not going to repeat it the ratio of weird gobbely pig parts to tasty morcels is not favourable on this cut of meat. Dessert was a Griesschöpfli, which was ok, but I would have left off the fruits on the plate. Overall I can chalk of the pig’s trotter to my personal taste and the moules to the first day of opening, but the ravioli need tweaking, the dish wasn’t something which will get people to revisit the place. Prices:

Rechnung