Haus Hiltl, Zurich

Haus Hiltl, Zurich

Haus Hiltl vegetarian restaurant is by all accounts a venerable Zurich institution and this is their new incarnation which, I believe, has only been in existence for a few months. We went there for lunch on a Sunday on a bank holiday weekend in May, which seemed to be the right thing to do; not only were there free tables (albeit not many), but they were also doing the table service as well as their pick'n'mix'n pay by the pound (or kilogram, as it may be) buffet. We opted for the á la carte menu and table service.

My omnivorous lunch companion had tagliatelli in a creamy tomato sauce with aubergine. His comments on the food included things like "yum" and "I could eat an awful lot more of that", so we can deduce that his meal was very, very good indeed.

Choice for me was surprisingly straightforward, once I managed to decipher the menu - there turned out to be only one vegan main course, artichoke with saffron and couscous. Artichoke was a new acquaintance, other than the unpleasant pickled variety, and had a pleasant, soft texture. Unfortunately it's difficult to say anything about the actual flavour of the food, as the sauce was horribly salty. You could sort of get the general idea of a curry through, but that was it, even if I was hungry enough to nearly finish the average-sized portion. The couscous, however, was perfectly cooked and subtly textured. Best couscous I've ever had, even, but still not enough to make up for the sauce.

For a drink, we both had their freshly squeezed strawberry and apple juice, which can only be recommended.

Now. The menu was in German (there might have been an English version available, but we certainly weren't offered one, despite our halting-to-nonexistent German), and so took some time for us to figure out. Each item on the menu had a list of abbreviations for the possibly objectionable things it contained, like milk, or egg, or garlic (no, I don't really get that one, either), so you could find anything vegan by a process of elimination: anything without Mi, Ei or Kä(*) was ok. This was a surprisingly challenging exercise and it took a while cross-reference and double-check.

No dessert was had, mostly due to time constraints. There may or may not have been a vegan option.

Service was friendly enough, if a touch amateurish. The decor of the vast interior was going for the ever-popular boutique hotel/club style, all patterned wallpaper and plush furnishings.

On the Tiwinaku scale of wheels of Swiss cheese, Haus Hiltl gets a third of a wheel for food, and half a wheel for both service and ambiance. From the completely biased, vegan-centric point of view, the menu gets one small slice for user-friendliness.

All in all, Switzerland doesn't seem to be all that vegan-friendly. The supermarkets (and what supermarkets they are! Dunnes Stores, eat your heart out.) have a reasonable selection of vegetarian things, and of course vast quantities of cheese, but by the looks of things veganism isn't all that popular in Central Europe. Didn't check out any specialist health food shops, though.

(* Milch, Ei or Käse, i.e. milk, egg or cheese)