Hotel Kettenbruecke is favorably located at the edge of Aarau’s beautiful historic old town. The property is steeped in history. It was built in 1830 as a customs house and was later converted in a hotel. Hotel Kettenbruecke had been one of Aarau’s most prominent gastronomic institutions before it was used as a location for a nightclub. A few years ago, it was decided to remodel it as a hotel again. After a long construction time it was reopened in spring 2016 together with the affiliated restaurant of the same name.

Ambiance

The restaurant is divided into three parts, a bar, a more casual restaurant with bare tables covered with white table runners and a fine dining part with white table cloths. The later – where my husband and I were seated on our visit – is housed in some kind of addition. It looks like an ancient form of a winter garden, without the plants but with windows on three sides. The fine dining restaurant is a bit separated from the other one which makes it a pleasant and quiet room. And because of the many windows you can sit here and observe what is going on outside, which is a nice thing to do.

All three parts of the restaurant are tastefully decorated in a contemporary style. Everything is kept in dark brown and creamy beige colors. While the casual restaurant has a light parquet flooring, the fine dining space has a patterned tile floor.

While my husband decided to order Scottish salmon accompanied by lukewarm cauliflower salad and a spicy coriander dressing

as a starter, I chose the lukewarm scallop carpaccio paired with celery and black truffle.

Both dishes were immaculately prepared, worked well and tasted nice.

As a main, he opted for a game dish, venison stew with a delicious elder sour cream sauce, hazelnut pizokels (some kind of spaetzle) and apple red cabbage.

I went for the Swiss Prim beef entrecote on a chorizo jus that came with exquisite pretzel knoedels (dumplings) and flower sprouts.

Both of us were delighted at the quality and the originality of the creations.

As the portions were generous enough yet not too big (I was asked after the main whether I had enough, what I confirmed), my husband and I had room left for desserts. He had the chestnut tiramisu with mandarin sorbet,

I chose the white brownie on caramelized milk cream paired with sour cherry sorbet.

The sorbets were sublime – I am usually no big fan of them –, and the rest was also quite convincing although not terribly exciting. Here is still room for improvement.

As we visited the restaurant in the pre-Christmas period, the place was very busy and both dining-rooms (the more casual one and the fine-dining space) were filled to capacity. We had to hang up our coats ourselves and were a bit concerned about what would lie ahead. Fortunately, our fears were groundless, at least when it came to the pace of the meal. Staff was gracious and accommodative, partly even fun – we had a nice conservation with the only male server –, however not seamless (some minor slips).

Overall

Date of visit: December 2018