Fork & Bottle — Restaurant in Zurich

One of the things that drew us here in the first place was the American style food, and secondly was the kid friendly environment. It's a fine place to go with kids, as they have a play area upstairs and an outdoor play ground. The staff speaks English well.

This was my second trip here. The first was disappointing, but I wanted to give it a second try, as my wife and I were looking forward to an American style brunch after a long hiatus. This second trip was worse, and each plate was worse than the last. The food is not worth 85 CHF.

The honey bacon on the eggs Benedict tasted more like a sweet teriyaki beef jerky than bacon, and the bun was hard and difficult to cut. Forget the fact that my plate came to me 10 minutes after my wife's and I had to get up and ask what happened to it; turns out my plate had to be remade because they took it to a different table and didn't bother to tell me. The chorizo burrito was a total mess. The tortilla tasted stale, or like it had been under a heat lamp all day and was really difficult to cut with the weak knives provided, and it was totally covered with toppings so picking it up to eat it was not possible. The pancakes were the second best part of the meal. They tasted good, and the imported maple syrup is a major plus, but pancake taste aside, it was somehow not cooked all the way through. It was still edible, but this was at 1:30pm, and they had closed the kitchens down to swap from the brunch menu to the normal menu. The best part of the whole meal was the Chai latte. Perhaps a bit sweeter than most chais I've had, but I actually enjoyed it. No complaints as far as I could tell on the scrambled eggs. My daughter asked for more.

I'm sorry to say this is the last time...

Unfortunately I made two very different experiences. The first time we came, the service was super friendly (that's the only reason for giving two stars). Today saying that it was awful would be still too much.

I went for a run and asked in advance if I could come over for dinner 1h15 before the restaurant closes. The manager of the place told me it would be good. You could have easily told me no, and I would have gone somewhere else.

I enter, two waiters where not paying attention to me even though the restaurant was empty. The waitress asked her coworker if he would like to have water, normally you would ask a guest first, but so far so good. Then she nicely told her coworker loud enough in front of me "she is the last one, than we close". And again I'd like to mention that I asked in advance, you could have easily told me that it would not have been possible to have dinner.

I was eating while the team was screaming around and vacuuming the restaurant, I have to say that it was very, very loud and quite uncomfortable. I was eating so fast in order to leave as fast as possible. I find it quite ridiculous and unprofessional to work like that, considering that the restaurant was supposed to close just one hour later.

I would have liked to discuss it in person with the manager, but unfortunately he was not there anymore. And discussing it with the waitress seemed quite pointless to me, considering the behavior. I'm looking forward to give you another chance, but I really have to say that I expect more...

I visited this brunch place for the first time beginning of dec and ordered the banana caramel pancake and pulled pork eggs Benedict. I enjoyed it enough to return a second time and took my mother with. She ordered the smoked salmon eggs Benedict, but since she can’t eat half-cooked or runny eggs, I asked if the poached eggs could be cooked longer (about 5 minutes instead of the usual 3 I do at home).

The waiter replied, “We can’t.” I was speechless, and the three of us just stared at him until he finally said, “I’ll try to tell the kitchen.” When the food arrived, the eggs were even less cooked, closer to raw than runny. We looked at the plates in disbelief, and the waiter apologized, saying, “Oh, sorry, let me take it and make a new one.”

After quite a wait, he brought back the same plate. It was obvious they had just put it under a heat lamp or in the oven because the smoked salmon was now cooked, and the egg was still runny and barely cooked.

I felt really disappointed. First, it shouldn’t be difficult to cook the egg a little longer. Second, it’s incredibly rude to just reheat the entire plate without considering the quality of the food. Lastly, the waiter asked us as we were about to leave if the speaker volume was too loud, something that should have been asked earlier, not at the end.

On my first visit, the service was exceptional. The staff was lovely, thoughtful, and attentive. This time, however, the experience fell far short of expectations. For context, it wasn’t even busy when...