ENI’T, Claridenstrasse, Zurich

It’s is rather odd to be beaten to the punch by Insideparadeplatz.ch a publication which is even more reputable than ourselves. Restaurant ENI’T opened up on Claridenstrasse and their website should do (part of) the talking:

The restaurant [...] offers customers an unforgettable, unique meaty experience.

We are unsure what an unforgettable unique meaty experience is, it sound rather “saucy” (pun intended). But then again gastronomical adventures are not for the faint of heart.

We sit down on a quiet evening and start our dinner with an Etruscan bread salad. We loved it. Strong flavours, lovely greens and vegetables tossed with large croutons of (assumingly) etruscan bread. This was one of the better salads I’ve had in quite a while. Since they feature a maturing cabinet for their meat, we go for an entrecote, served with pommes allumettes and shallot sauce. The meat is very tasty and tender, the pommes allumettes are nicely cooked and the shallot sauce really makes the dish special. So from a taste perspective everything’s good – save for one challenge that has to be fixed quickly. The meat was slightly overdone (we asked for saignant) and the pommes allumettes cold. We ask for another serving of pommes allumettes and the young manager expertly handles our complaint. Then we notice something – the food is sent to the first floor using a food elevator. Most likely our plates came out of the kitchen perfect but sat in the window or elevator too long until they arrived on the first floor. It’s tough having to deal with an elevator but this is something that needs to be ironed out quickly.

Dessert was a Linzertorte, hence as long as delivery time is lower than half a day, no quality impact should occur and none did. The dessert was nice, but not spectacular. We need to mention the wine – a Cabernet from Macedonia. Rather expensive (95 CHF / bottle) but surprisingly drinkable!

Overall the restaurant needs to iron out some kinks with the food elevator. Back to the “unforgettable, unique meaty experience” – the claim wasn’t fully achieved. The food is pretty good, so if they let their culinary skill do the talking instead of their PR agent, they should be in good shape.