Spices Kitchen & Terrace — Restaurant in Stansstad

First thing that one notices here are the extravagant prices. For a 4 course menu and drinks, expect to shell out CHF 180/pp. For that amount of money, one expects something extraordinary for lunch. Something imaginative. Something creative. Something we have not seen before. Unfortunately, that was not the case. There are plenty of other restaurants where one can get creativity, passion, and genuine value for money (where we receive more than what we pay, or at least receive what we pay for), and this restaurant is definitely not one of those. Perhaps for high-society that want to be away from the commoners. But as a well travelled person, who also owned restaurants, and am also from the hotel business, who has been to some of the best restaurants around the world, I would not rank Spices even on 'the list.'

Second, let's go into what is technically wrong with this restaurant: the Menu. If we wanted a green curry, red curry or Pad Thai, we can get that in any Thai restaurant or takeaway. If we wanted a butter chicken or a Methi chicken, we can get that in any Indian restaurant. In fact, on the streets of Thailand and respectively India, these dishes are commonplace. What has Spices done to elevate these dishes? Nothing really except for good quality ingredients. Take a look at the way our Naan bread was served in the attached picture. It was waiting to be picked up for 5 minutes, was not even put in some sort of basket, and not served in any unique way, and delivered to us cold. Why not serve a CHF14 piece of naan with a dipping sauce, herbs, or a unique style?

Third, the Indian food was not anything better than one would find on a street in India. For CHF48, we were given 1 standard copper bowl (the same way all basic Indian restaurants serve these dishes) of butter chicken. There was no accompaniment, not even rice or bread, no pickles, no raita, no pappadam, which had to be ordered separately. Just a bowl with 4 pieces of chicken.

Our guests had the CHF135 pp 4 course set menu, and was given a small bowl of methi chicken to share with 2 people (picture also shown herewith). They at least received some white rice (not even basmati rice) to share.

Fourth, the desserts were nothing special. Not at all if one is a seasoned well travelled person in Asia, the U.S., Australia or the Mid-East. Mochis for CHF7 each, Mango Sticky Rice (also available on the street in Thailand). There is no creativity here.

We are fortunate in Switzerland that there are many Thai takeaway & Thai restaurants which do a wonderful job for between CHF17 and CHF25 for a main course, where one gets a wonderful curry with rice included. In London, some of the most outstanding Indian restaurants exist where they have taken basic Indian food and elevated it to new heights with passion and innovation. Throughout Asia, where Japanese food is such a craze, restaurants have lifted the standards to new heights. And when it comes to Dim Sum, the creativity of restaurants in the Shangri-La, Rosewood, Park & Grand Hyatt, Regent and Four Seasons, and even Madame Fu in Hong Kong, have all taken Dim Sum to new heights. But not here at Spices where myself and my guests certainly did not receive anything inspirational.

Our staff said the Mango Salad with Soft Shell Crab is 'Indian' food, and called an Indian Curry a Thai dish. At the very least, the staff may want to take pride in knowing their own menu, or the training department is doing their job.

There was no bread and butter offered to us, not even prawn crackers or something to nibble on except for the standard honey sauteed walnuts with sesame that has been around for decades in Asian Restaurants in Asia. Nothing to say - let us give you for this price a sorbet between courses, or some Asian petit-fours at the end. A parting chocolate or something. Oh no. At Spices, it is a privilege to be served, not to...

Today we were invited for lunch in Spice restaurant at Bürgenstock resort. We arrived too early, we tried to have some drinks at the bar with view, which was almost empty. Some one took our order, however, the drinks never arrived after 20 minutes. We saw the bar man never did any drinks. So we cancelled it and we to lunch.

Our lunch was very good. Service "for once" was excellent!!! We were really very impressed by Ms. Evangelia Stratouri. She's the most professional, competent, attentive and very helpful... I'm lost for words, so unusual to encounter someone with such quality in Bürgenstock resort. We left the restaurant, happy with lots of satisfaction! At last the 5 stars is working well.

Our mistake, we moved to the terrace to have more drinks after lunch. Unfortunately, there the service stay in their old bad habits, just like at the bar with view. Ignorance, untrained people are working there. There are too many people working with no supervisor, they chat, or kind of discusing who does what or....?

We've been having lunchs / dinners many times since the opening of the resorts. Which then, everything were "on trial" , chaotic, unfriendly, incompetence & ignorance people. But we always believe we need to give them a chance to grow and make corrections. We have the impression nobody really care how the business goes. Well today, at last we met Evangelia Stratouri who really care, very polite to other guests too, even to those she had to refuse as the venue was fully booked, asked them to come back again. Hopefully Bürgenstock Resort will get more people like her working there.

Thank you to...

The hotel itself is particularly excellent, and the service across other branches of the establishment is hard to beat. However, we as a family believe that the experience we had at Spices was below average. First, we we arrived at the table on the terrace to a wonderful view. Everything seemed to be going fine until the order taking. We had not been asked if we wanted drinks, and the kids felt somewhat neglected, but that’s beside the point. I had not decided on wine yet when the waiter finally showed up, so I requested he come back 5 minutes later. However, he came back halfway through our starter(20 minutes later)! We had ordered the 135CHF version of the Chef’s Menu, which was very decent. However, for the price of 135CHF per person, I expect at least to be poured wine or asked whether we needed anything else. There was zero communication between us and the staff and we didn’t feel at home. The whole process took us from 7:30 to 11:30 pm because of how slow the food was taking to serve. The only excellent aspect of the evening was the sommelier and his expertise when he actually showed up. Overall, an amazing visual experience but a huge, huge money grab for poor service. I understand that this hotel is expensive and ‘luxury’, but for a restaurant that charges 12CHF for a 220ml can of Red...