Baltho Küche & Bar, Marktgasse, Zürich

The former Zic Zac Bar will be remembered for two things. First of all on a Sunday night there used to be a fantastic hotel staff party, where even people with 9-5 jobs could sneak in if they knew now. And the second thing Zic Zac will be remembered for is “die Bar” a reality tv show on the now defunct TV3. I guess you can understand what type of bar this was.

Anyhow – it’s now called Baltho Küche & Bar and is clearly a play of a casual dining place. My dining partner thought it looks like Globus, not sure whether that’s a good thing or not. We chose a table and are asked wether we’d like a glass of Franciacorta. A nice touch to mix it up from the usual Prosecco. The menu is small and has only few dishes. When the table next to us ask what the concept of the kitchen was, the answer was “International”.

First Dish was named “Bang-Bang Chicken”, which raises a few inappropriate associations, but we’re here strictly for the food. Four pieces of chicken were breaded served with various greens & pickles and a slighlty spicy mayo. Pretty great dish. Lots of action in terms of textures and taste, maybe the pickled ginger was too much, but certainly a nice way to start a meal.

Next up were home-made Papardelle with pulled pork. Now interesting, since pulled pork was the meat of the food festival 2014 and now seems to pop up all over the place. The dish had a tex mex feeling to it, especially the slighly chewy corn in combination with the pulled pork gave it that cowboyish touch. Dessert was an immaculate chocolate cake, slightly salted – my charming dining partner though it was too salty, I liked it.

Overall the place feels sleek, geared at upscale female diners and certainly drawing a different crowd than the Zic Zac. Hence the remark that it feels a bit like Globus is not all that far off the mark. Prices are normal and the only real weird thing was that we were served by at least five different waiters during our stay.