L’Ulivo, Seefeldstrasse, Zurich

L’Ulivo is a smallish restaurant almost in Zollikon. Two people (assumedly wife and husband) are running the show, creating what some people call “italian charm”, other people like me would refer to a chaotic approach at running a dining establishment. The chef (and presumed owner) himself runs around in the middle of service in the dining room, chatting to seemingly buddies of himself. But then again it’s the food that counts. There was some miscommunication, which manifested itself in the fact that I was served the Papardelle l’Ulivo, which I had ordered as my second appetizer (instead of the antipasti as my first. I’m sure that in a less hectic environment this confusion could have been avoided.

Now the Papardelle were billed as the creation of the chef and I was expecting more than meat, tomatoes, arugula, splinters of parmesan and dabs of balsamic vinegar. It wasn’t badly cooked, but lacked imagination. The tagliata was good, I would have prepared some more sear on the potatoes, but certainly an above average italian main course. Dessert was a tiramisu, again somewhere in the land of average. Service remained on the sloppy side, I asked for the espresso to go with the dessert and they forgot. They noticed when I asked for the bill and offered me one, which was a fair way to correct a mistake. Overall this is the place you need to like, if you’re willing to accept that “italian charm”, you’ll do fine, personally I want a higher standard of service, after all you pay for a certain level of professionalism.