The place to savor top quality meat in a stylish brasserie ambiance:

When being in Zurich as a meat lover, a good place to go is Restaurant Baerengasse. If you are a fan of well-made electronic music, all the better. One of the dining spot’s owner is the musician Dieter Meier, member of the Swiss duo Yello, and because he is a gourmet “carnivore” himself, he has his own beef cattle farm in Argentina. The meat, called Ojo de Agua Bio Beef, can of course be tasted here, and it is well-worth to be tried out.

Location

Baerengasse is situated just off the famous shopping street of Bahnhofstrasse in the heart of the city. Its proximity to the main station and to the banking district – it is directly inside the building that houses the Credit Suisse’s headquarters at the Paradeplatz – makes it one of the best locations for a restaurant in Zurich.

 

Ambiance

The restaurant is kept in brasserie style although not your average one, but it is a rather upscale establishment in a high-ceilinged former banking hall. It is rather large, a bit formal and quite dark in the back part of the room where I was seated on both visits. The dishes are close to each other and the noise level is quite high, especially during lunch time, when the place is packed and filled with bankers. Having said that, you feel comfortable in here as  the atmosphere is distinguished. In summer time, there is also a pleasant outdoor seating.

Food concept

As mentioned, this is your place if you are into top-quality beef, directly imported under the brand of Ojo de Agua Premium Beef in limited quantities from Dieter Meiers’s own farm in Argentina. As not to be expected otherwise, the menu is meat centric. Beef can be found here as carpaccio, as tartare, roasted from the trolley, as hamburgers, in raviolis and grilled. Sliced veal “Zurich style” and some fish dishes from the grill are also on offer.

The menu features an array of appetizers and soups as well, some of them sound quite inventive. Desserts are tempting yet rather on the heavy side (meringue with cream, trifle, chocolate mousse with double cream).

 

When having lunch here, you have the additional choice of a reasonably priced menu as well as some light dishes with meat or fish accompanied by salad.

 

Sampled food

My son and I were here for lunch on our recent visit. I went for the menu, consisting of a tasty truffled parsnips soup

and a duet of beef, once braised, the other time roasted, with truffled mashed potatoes and braised vegetables.

This was indeed a heavenly combination. The meat was juicy and tenderly melting, the side dishes full of taste and a perfect supplement to the beef. My son, who had some hard business to do in the afternoon, opted for a lighter option, jumbo prawns from the grill with salad,

which was a delicacy too.

 

Service

We were nicely welcomed and had a personal farewell, but in between service was not quite seamless. We had to signal to our waiter that we were ready to order. This was probably due to the fact that the place was packed. Apart from this incident, service was smooth and fast, albeit a bit impersonal.

 

Pricing

While prices are in the upper price range, there is nothing wrong with this, as top-quality produce, immaculately prepared, is served here and this in generous portions.

 

Overall

If you are a meat lover and looking for a corresponding high-end place near the main station and the banking district, there is no way around Restaurant Baerengasse. Here you get this kind of fare in an elegant brasserie atmosphere. The beef and also the wine stem from a farm in Argentina, which belongs to Dieter Meier, co-owner of Baerengasse and musician.

 

·      Costs: starters from 14 to 28 SFR, mains (with fish or meat) from 36 to 76 SFR (regular sizes), desserts from 14 to 17 SFR

·      Cuisine: fine-dining, high quality meat specialties from own production

·      Awards: 13 points Gault-Millau

·      Address: Bahnhofstrasse 25/Baerengasse, 8001 Zurich, Tel. +41 44 210 08 08, E-Mail reservation@restaurant-baerengasse.ch

Date of visit: November 2017