Da Teresa Onkel Toms Hütte, Rotwandstrasse, Zurich

Da Teresa is somewhat confusing, since it’s also referred to as Uncle Tom’s Hütte. We show up for a relaxed dinner on a Friday night and I’m pleased to be inside after almost 4 hours of driving from Laax to Zurich in the rain, thinking that maybe I should give this automobile thing another try. The first dish puts us into a good mood. Hearty crostini, with strong flavours, nice tomatoes, arugula and parmesan convince us and make us long for more. The pasta sorpresa plate earns a rather mixed review, we liked the Gnocchi which were nicely done, but overall the plate is lacking the wow factor you get from great pasta. The linguine were homemade, which is a plus, but overall the pasta isn’t much better on what you could do at home. I value having four different types but was hoping that they’d be better seasoned and stronger in flavour. Overall comparing to the crostini it was somewhat lacking.

Now the main dish was an interesting veal fillet with porcini sauce and veal cheeks with a red wine sauce. Every component was good, especially the porcini sauce but it overpowered the tender veal, which wasn’t strong enough to stand up to the porcini. It’s slightly sad, since every component was nicely prepared it’s the pairing which didn’t quite work here. I’d like to commend on the saffron risotto, which was just the way it should have been. What really got me pissed off, was the fact that I ordered a Zabaione for dessert and the waiter returns that they can’t serve me one. We did later find out, that the chef was just to lazy to make us one, after he’d already had made one for the table next to us. If you look at the prices, at this kind of establishment this is simply unacceptable and very poor enterpreneurship and it isn’t fitting for a place called da Teresa.