Kempinski Grand des Bains has several restaurants: Ca d’Oro the 2 Michelin star restaurant, only open in winter, Ristorante Da Adriano with 14 Gault Millau points (Michelin plate) in the Michelin guide and Les Saisons, the general restaurant.
Da Adriano serves Mediterranean (Italian) food with Swiss ingredients. The restaurant was fully booked when we wanted to eat here. We were lucky that a table just became available when we arrived.
Mandy Schleifer welcomes us with open arms. We start with a glass of champagne (Veuve Clicquot) and make our choice.
As amuse-bouche we receive briefly seared tuna with cucumber, fish eggs and a yuzu soy sauce. The combination of yuzu with soy is special; salty with sweet. The fresh tuna goes very well with this.
Menu
As a starter, Cees takes duck liver terrine with marinated apricots and sheep yogurt. The liver terrine has a very good taste, what makes the dish very interesting is the ice cream of foie gras. This one with the foie gras terrine is a great combination. The apricots provide a sweet taste. What a delicious dish. So far the best starter Cees has eaten in Switzerland.
Thomas takes Char with granny smith. A very nicely presented dish. The granny smith makes it a very refreshing dish. The fish is smoked and served cold. Delicious.
To tame the taste buds we take a sgroppino. The sgroppino is made from yuzu ice cream, yuzu juice, lime zest and mint. Veuve Clicquot is used as Champagne. What an extremely delicious Southern Italian drink made by Alfonso who is from the Naples area.
As a main course Cees has ravioli with wild garlic, fried mushrooms and a foam of Parmesan. I don’t know what I taste with the first bite of ravioli. I taste full garlic, spicy, but not extreme. Thomas also has to taste a bite because otherwise the smell will not match. The ravioli is al dente, how the garlic filling is made is a mystery to us. The fried mushrooms are abundant and the foam of Parmesan is so delicious. This is a great dish!
Thomas takes spaghetti Puttanesca. A Neapolitan dish of spaghetti with tomatoes, olive oil, capers and garlic. Extra olives and peperoncino (chili from Italy) have been added to this. As mentioned, Alfonso comes from the Naples area and indicates that this is one of his favorite dishes. We know why.
As wine we take a Barbera D’Alba a DOC wine from Piedmont from Pio Cesare from 2018. Delicious with both pastas.
No dessert for us today. We are full. We do take coffee with sweets.
Interior
You step into a trendy wine restaurant on one hand and a very classic-looking restaurant on the other. Good mix of both worlds. Along the side walls are many wine bottles. Guests can sign their Gaja wine bottle and these bottles will be included in the collection. In addition, wine fridges and shelves full of wine. You are in an Enoteca. You will also see expensive empty bottles of wine on display. For example, there is a wine worth more than €25,000, namely a Romanée Conti. Purchase price many times higher…..
Chandeliers hang from the ceiling. The furniture is sleek, wonderfully decorated.
Service
The service is top notch. You don’t get any better. Dishes are always put on the table at the same time. The service likes to have a chat, no wish is too much. Mandy and her team are very well attuned to each other. We feel very valued as guests. This team knows what service is.
Overall
We do not know why this restaurant does not have a Michelin star. The kitchen is top notch. Service is very good and interior is stylish. The chef cooks together with the chef of Ca d’ Oro (2 stars), making the dishes sublime. I expect that they can get a star soon if they aspire to that of course.
For an Enoteca I had hoped that there would be more wine to order by the glass. Perhaps that is the case in the winter. I hope we can eat here soon in the winter.
Our next reservation is already in place, not for the winter, but in this holiday.
Second visit
Today we take champagne pink Veuve Clicquot as an aperitif.
Just like last time, Cees takes foie gras with apricot. This is such a very good dish.
Thomas takes a salad with marinated strawberries and green asparagus beforehand. The dressing is magnificent. The strawberries give an exotic taste to the salad.
As a main course, Cees takes spaghetti with fresh summer truffle and truffle sauce. The summer truffle is shaved over the spaghetti. This time a small portion, last time a large portion of ravioli and then there was no room for dessert.
Cees takes a glass of pinot noir with the spaghetti. Earthy taste with earthy flavors.
Thomas liked the spaghetti Puttanesca so much last time that he chose the same as last week’s main course. This time the spaghetti Puttanesca seems even more intense in taste.
We want to neutralize our taste again and decide to take strawberry and raspberry ice cream with Veuve Clicquot this time. Wonderful to calm the taste buds.
Thomas takes Italian meringue as dessert. We ourselves make it for tartelette to find out how it is here. The meringue is served with strawberry and raspberry. Alfonso smashes the meringue to make it an extra spectacle. The strawberries are hidden in the meringue.
Cees takes parfait with chocolate. The parfait is quite icy, the taste of the parfait is extremely good, completely parfait in taste.
Again very good service from Alfonso, Mandy and Adriano (the manager). How wonderful to be able to eat here twice. If we go on winter sports to St. Moritz, we definitely want to eat here again.
Mandy and team: Thanks for the hospitality! We will definitely come back!
