The Alphorn Restaurant — Restaurant in The Blue Mountains

I was severely disappointed with my experience here. My girlfriend and I went here for a nice get away meal while her car was being serviced as we thought it was very high end and a traditional Swiss restaurant.

Short of the atmosphere which did seem Swiss, perhaps leaning German almost, that's where it ended.

We arrived at about 11, and was told they would not be serving lunch, which was already a disappointment as their lunch/ dinner menu was what looked the most appetizing.

Now perhaps they were having an off day, or perhaps their main chef and servers were not in as it was breakfast, but I was disappointed from reading the menu.

First thing we noted was a special price for "shared dishes". Basically they want a chunk more money to split your food and MAYBE add extra portions? I didn't ask as I didn't want to know and have a bitter feeling, but if they charging an extra 10 to 20 bucks as I remember to split a portion with nothing extra to cover the loss of someone not ordering another meal? That kind of sucks.

Short of any other options I decided to go with my usual poached eggs on an English muffin, eggs done easy. On the menu this was just eggs Benedict, so I asked to hold the hollandaise sauce. My girlfriend ordered their pancakes with fruit, whipped cream, and real maple syrup (that was an extra $2-5 I believe, and if memory serves it was $5). I also asked about their different sausages they had on their menu, as I recognized weisswurst and wondered if that was the white sausage where the skin is not eaten due to its bitterness (it is). The waitress had no knowledge on that whatsoever, which, fair enough... A quick google confirmed I was correct and I happily and politely shared that information for future encounters.

Our food arrives shortly later, my eggs are hard as a rock with no runny yolk. The sausage arrives charred to a crisp rather than a slow broil which allows for the skin to be removed easily, again speaking to the lack of authenticity.

My girlfriend's pancakes arrived after, and we're already cold (who knows, maybe that's authentic for the Swiss!) Our real maple syrup that we paid extra for? Arrived in a small jam sized package and clearly the waitress recognized the absolute awe and perhaps disgust at the $5 processed package of "real maple syrup" and came back with a second, bless her heart! We ate quietly and tried to make the most of it by taking in the Swiss music and the decorations around the ski chalet-esque diner.

We left most of our meal and I got to have a look at the dinner menu about 3/4s of the way in after the waitress remembered, which I would have been fine if she didn't.

We politely paid and tipped for the 3 face to face encounters we had with the waitress (order, oops I forgot your maple syrup and made you waive me down and here's your dinner menu too, and here's the 80 dollar bill for your cold, over cooked food)

We're in our thirties so perhaps the server thought we weren't the clientele to leave a good tip or to waste much energy on, or again, maybe something else was happening, but with only two other tables being served, the service was slow, our extra requests (such as real maple syrup, and a dinner menu to peruse) were forgotten about until near the end of the meal.

Either way, despite the positive reviews we read, that was not our experience. Maybe this is solely a dinner spot to be enjoyed, but expect to be playing around $60-90 a person as the dinner menu seemed much more pricey.

Again, make up your mind for yourself, maybe it...

Worst food I’ve had at a restaurant EVER. We decided to stop by this place as it’s only a few houses down from where we’re staying for the month and the atmosphere looked cosy. We always support local mom and pops type restaurants, and try to avoid chain restaurants, but let me tell you, if I could give this place -5, I would. Really plain rye bread that comes in a plastic bag came to the table, served cold, with a side of Becel.

I ordered the Swiss Onion soup for appetizer. The stock was so salty I had to drink water every other spoonful, and It tasted like your standard bullion cube stock, with a piece of stale, air dried (not crispy) bread, topped with melted Raclette. Good thing you can’t screw up cheese. I ordered the chicken for main course. The chicken was pre-frozen and boiled so long that the top was light brown, topped with your favorite canned mushroom gravy sauce with a few teaspoons of salt for that extra flavor. The sidedish was boiled frozen veggies pale green, orange and yellow tossed in margarine. (You know what I’m talking about here). Now, the hash brown potatoes (Rostini) sidedish was the most impressive. I mean, how can you screw up potatoes so bad? I almost gagged. (This is a first for me) The hash brown was undercooked in the middle and had that burnt margarine taste on the outside, dry as hell and yes you guessed it with a teaspoon of extra salt for flavor. First time in my life, I couldn’t eat anything on my plate and politely pushed it away and asked for the bill. When the waitress came over, she asked if there was a problem. I didn’t want to be rude, so I said “Oh it’s just a bit salty for me, doctors orders sorry” She looked super offended and walked away. Now, I’d be upset if I even paid a quarter of what we paid for the food, but it’s $20-$40 a plate for food that tastes worse than TV-dinners. I would have gladly eaten microwaved TV-dinner over what they served us. The schnitzel my girlfriend had was below par at best, but also after a few bites, she politely asked for a take away box, as she couldn’t eat it. We took the takeaway box to be polite but I won’t even feed this to our dogs. Honestly, what was on my plate can be purchased at no-frills for under $3.00 and chucked in a microwave with a few teaspoons of salt and margarine. It’s sad because the place has a cosy atmosphere and I’m sure they’re lovely people. We were hoping for this restaurant to be our goto place on the weekends. In the end, we weren’t upset because it was so shockingly bad that it was impressive. I highly recommend you go here once and experience it for yourself. It simply has to be experienced to...

JP would not be impressed!! As locals we have been dining at the Alphorn for over 40 years-2 years ago for Mothers Day, we had a very good brunch experience- this year on Fathers Day we decided to do the same-our party was disappointed with the entire experience! We were seated on the patio by a manager wearing a dew rag on his head, we ordered drinks which he managed to spill all over me and the balance of the table. When our brunch arrived, we were to say the least underwhelmed by its presentation and portion size. The ridiculously small portion of included rosti potatoes were hidden under the eggs,, toast was just slightly warmed "wonder bread", no option any longer for a multi grain type, the saving component was the knackwurst. Mgmt did "comp" my meal, which can be argued was warranted, but did not compensate for the food that was sadly lacking. We feel very strongly that new ownership has grossly "cheaped down" this iconic eatery. We question whether we will return! Further, we had a discussion with local friends that were at the Alphorn the same wknd for supper, their experience was described to us as, well below previous standards of expected portion size, inclusions per order & quality of food. We sincerely hope the current ownership will react positively to this constructive review-in reading other reviews it seems apparent that other diners share this reviews sentiment.

Ask D Barry M about Alphorn Swiss...