L'O — Restaurant in Horgen

L’o is no doubt a beautiful place- right on the water, Italian Riveria vibes. On a sunny day it can really feel like vacation. Unfortunately everything else just doesn’t live up to standard.

I went with two friends for a late lunch yesterday. We called in advance to make sure they had space for us and made a reservation. We were seated quite quickly, which was great. However it all fell apart after that. We ordered a drink, a starter and a main each. The drinks came relatively quickly, but then it took an HOUR for the food to come. We were super patient at the beginning, but after the drinks ran out and we ordered another round without it coming, we started to get a little annoyed. We asked about the drinks, the finally came. We asked finally about the starters after we saw the table sat before us was already done with their food and leaving before we got anything. No apology, no recognition that we’ve been waiting ages- nothing. When the starters came we told our waiter that he could bring our mains asap as we were super hungry by then (we hadn’t eaten all day and it was well past 3pm at this point). We waited and waited- food didn’t come. We saw the table in front of us get their mains (they came about 45 minutes after we sat down) and I asked again where the food was. Again, no apology. Just saying that “the kitchen was backed up”. (For reference, we ordered mostly cold food- salad, beef tartare.) The food finally came, we ate and chilled for a bit and finally asked for the bill to pay. ANOTHER 20 minutes!!!! I had to go up and ask for the bill again. Again, no apology, no acknowledgement that we really had been waiting for ages.

I can fully understand how busy it is at a place like that on a nice day, but it’s not opening day. The restaurant has been around and should know the needs of a nice day. Unfortunately nearly every restaurant in this group has the same issue- having a monopoly on the Zurich lake can allow for lazy and arrogant service with super high prices.

I’ve been to L’o twice now over the span of a few years and each time the experience has been the same. Last time was in winter, but just as bad (and less people).

For the prices, it needs to get better. Also, can we please revisit the whole “10 chf for tap water” BS? If the service was impeccable, I would be able to get behind...

The location is certainly nice. Assuming, of course, that you like to stop your conversation every 10 minutes when a train passes by the nearby railway. I guess it's certainly something if you are into trains. The view on the lake is certainly extremely nice on a sunny day, but hardly something you'll treasure for your life. The service was "polite". Uninterested and cold, as some other reviewer said, but I don't think I can blame them for being in line with the average Swiss service. The cherry on the top was receiving the wrong wine and not being offered an exchange, but I'm willing to go over this. On the other hand, the food was under the bar. Presenting a menu with iPads for every customer and having fancy names and high prices sets expectation to a certain level, and as a restaurant you have to live to them. I don't think we have a success story here. To begin, I had a raw fish starter. This set with the right food with a nice idea of salted sashimi, but the rest of the dish went down with an average tartare and a somewhat convoluted culinary construction of which I could not quite pinpoint the ingredients (but, supposedly involved Daikon Radish). The main course was a duck rusted in acacia honey, with caramelized peach and ravioli. I accepted the ravioli and they tasted as feared but as an Italian one never judges pasta outside the country. The duck however, while well cooked, reminded me of some Ikea dishes were I was supposed to assemble the taste divining it from meat and fruit. It might have been a bad night for the kitchen and for the staff - those happen from time to time - but if you are taking the road of a premium price outside of the city it's simply something an expert management...

The location is very good, no doubt. The restaurant has been re-done / renovated in 2020 and now looks a bit like a Paddy Reilly’s inside. Dark wood, blue paint… definitely too dark. Outside the dehor is nice, again because of the location, but there are too many tables and feels crammed.

In summer the personnel is young and I experienced so do not hope for a service in line with the menu prices!

The food is ok, average good but certainly not special and slightly overpriced for what it is and compared to other Zurich restaurants where quality is much higher.

The overall style, from what it used to be a classy ambiance and very good quality-food restaurant, is really “average” (see comment above about Paddy Reilly’s). For instance, if you order a sorbet, you are going to have a little dish (often chipped on the edge) and a Sprungli sorbet served still in the Sprungli paper cup, no berries, no sugar or syrups decoration … nothing at all! In the summer if you order a coke, you are going to get a glass full of ice and some coke…! Main dishes are ok, but for the prices you are better off at some Italian restaurant (e.g., in Richterswill) that are same price and almost Michelin...