Restaurant Popcorn (Hotel Neufeld), Goldbrunnenplatz, Zurich

Sometimes I almost feel sorry that I visit restaurants in my capacity as a food critic, simply for the fact that they’re so bad. Finding points to rant about is like trout fishing with handgrenades (a day in my army career I’ll never forget). I’ve been to the restaurant Popcorn near the Goldbrunnenplatz once before and was disappointed. The place was re-decorated and a sign was posted which called out the fact that they were relaunching the restaurant. Not being resentful I was looking forward to great improvements. The place sports a distinct Americana theme and the small menu partially resembles that. The waitress tells me that they have a special of the day veal cutlets with marsala sauce and saffron risotto. I order a small Caesar salad as a starter. The salad made me chuckle, Romaine lettuce, large slices of parmesan, tomatoes and pre-fabricated, bottled french dressing. Really?! No croutons, no bacon, no sauce which at least resembles a typical Caesar salad dressing a little bit ? Things unexpectedly went downhill from there. The veal cutlets were tough and chewy, the marsala sauce indifferent and the risotto horrible. It literally tasted like one of those processed risottos from a box and reeked of white wine which wasn’t cooked off properly. The funniest thing of the evening was a german travelling salesmen sitting next to me who praised the chef about the high quality of the food. Either he was a notorious liar or the poor guy’s wife learned to cook in a paint factory. Even though the place was cheap, it wasn’t worth the money:

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