Esshalle (Schmucklerski), Badenerstrasse, Zurich

Esshalle, Weinhandlung und Bar is the new concept at the Schmuklerski. Dining hall, wine shop and bar sounds like a good idea. Your favourite & most current food blogger does not get invited to pre-opening events. On the one hand that’s good because pre-opening has nothing to do with real business and consists of free food and drinks being tossed around to soothe the crowd. On the other hand an obscure food blogger would fit right in among the semi-famous actors, former football players, stylists and my favourite – a gentlemen which was once banned from Globus for having a moment in the men’s room with another gentlemen he met at the fruit counter.

The menu is small and it doesn’t distinguish between main courses and appetizers, it does offer you a choice of small and large for every dish. The first course was a truffle egg, served on a roeschti circle, spinach and a dab of red wine jus. All the components except the roeschti were spot on, which assumingly was cooked in two steps and not a la minute. From the seasoning on the spinach to the quality of the truffle this was a good dish and also fairly priced. The lamb dish missed the mark slightly on the taste of the meat, even though it was cooked perfectly. The lamb shank stuffed cigar, the polenta and the vegetables were good in taste & flavor. Since it’s also a wine shop, all the bottles can be bought to take out at a discount. Which is fine, but what’s hard to understand why the price difference for drinking in the restaurant fluctuates wildly & uncorrelated with the shop price (30-80 CHF difference). Why not work with a simpler system ? To finish our meal, my dining companion had a fantastic idea, instead of dabbling in sweets he suggested going for a plate of cheese with a plate of salami for good measure. My kind of guy.

Overall the food prices are pretty fair and if you do read throught the 25 page wine list you can find some interesting bottles, for example our first bottle of Lagrein. Two small notes on the service, the dry white wine and the different cheeses were served without any further explanation, so unsure what they were. If you balance the central location, quality of the food and price of the dishes, the deal is fair and the food is good.