F39, Fröhlichstrasse, Zürich

The restaurant f39 is so new, even the homepage isn’t really ready yet. Stating the obvious, the f39 is a very welcomed addition to the dining scene in Zurich. It’s small with about 20 seats and is fine dining establishment with serious ambitions.

The whole menu has a japanese influence and it starts with green & white beans, a play on edamame. Continues with fresh vegetables, sliced and sauced. Luck would have it that the producer growing the vegetables was sitting at the next table. The first highlight was the onsen egg, accompanied with croutons and two swiss chard sauces. One small detail, we weren’t told about the sauce, which considering it’s a very nice and important part of the dish, would have been important to make the dish stand out even more. But high spirits continued, the eggplant (aubergine) truly tasted more like a smokey piece of fish and together with the shiso & miso it was a great and surprising dish. Next up was perch (felche) served on sliced vegetables (again) and a bit of very special rice. Now this dish had a few issues. The fish was marinated nicely, but the rest was off. Not only was the rice not quite that special, but all the elements felt disconnected from the fish.

Things stayed rocky, the palate cleansing course consisted of dessert cucumbers and yoghurt chips. The dish while carrying a few interesting ideas, was too busy and excited the palate instead of calming it. But things started looking up again, main course was spot on, strong sauce and a flavourful short rib. Cheese was followed up with a dessert, that had a juicy and soft piece of cake with a dollop of reineclaude sorbet, nice little touch to end the meal. The meal was great and I’m thrilled to see such an ambitious restaurant in the Seefeld. However, some of the dishes had too many ideas on a single plate and further focus would enhance them.

Prices are Seefeld compliant, 7 courses for 110 CHF are okay. I hadn’t noticed that my cherished dining partner, ordered a second bottle of wine without me noticing. So not only was the price slightly higher than anticipated – driving my bike back home was also more illegal than I had hoped for.