Matterhorn Swiss Restaurant
The Matterhorn Swiss Restaurant is a delightful little place filled with pictures of the Matterhorn, waitresses with accents, and the décor and music you could expect to see in Switzerland. With the wood paneling on the walls, the soft yellow, but bright lighting, and the gentle hum of polka music, the mood was set quite well
The waitress was extremely helpful, in both helping our group select a wine and giving us recommendations for which fondues to choose and for how much. Her suggestion was to have two cheese fondues, one that is more pungent and one that is milder, and a meat one. Additionally, when she informed us that we got a salad, she also asked if it was ok to have hard boiled eggs on it. One person in our party preferred not to, so it was quite fitting of her to ask. It’s the little touches like that which make a place special.
The salad came quite quickly - a pile of greens on a bed of tomatoes laid out quite nicely, with very finely crumbled hard boiled eggs on top. The dressing was quite lovely, and as is unusual for me, they didn’t put too much on. The eggs added a nice touch, but the real star of the salad were the tomatoes. One look at these tomatoes, and you could tell that they weren’t your normal supermarket aisle tomatoes. The coloring in these was a very deep red - deeper than anything you can find in a store. And the taste… heavenly! It was the flavor that you can only get when you grow tomatoes yourself. Garden fresh, I believe is the term. I’ve never been a huge fan of raw tomatoes, but these were superb. It had that slightly earthy aroma that comes with food left to ripen on the vine. Too often now we are presented with food that is mature, but not ripened, and we never get to taste how they really should be. The tomatoes alone are worth returning to this restaurant.
Along with our dinner we had a Pinot Noir that the waitress had recommended. By itself, the Pinot was quite fruity, with something like a buttery aftertaste. I’m no wine connoisseur, so I just use my own adjectives to describe. When the fondues came, the acidity and pungency of the cheese mellowed out the Pinot more. It was quite interesting to see how the wine adapted to the meal.
We ordered three fondues - the Fondue Bacchus, the “Oh La La” Fondue, and the Allemagne Fondue known as “The Smokey One”. The Fondue Bacchus was the meat fondue, which was flavored with red wine. You take the thin slices of meat and spear them on the meat fork, which was distinguished by having two tines instead of three, and then leave it in the fondue to cook. Growing up having Shabu Shabu (or Hot Pot), this was all too familiar a practice for me. What was interesting was that the meat was well flavored on its own, just by cooking in the red wine mixture. There was an assortment of sauces to go with the meat, such as curry, mango chutney, tartare, etc. However, I opted to just try the meat by itself, and it was already quite good. The added sauces gave different flavors, so you could customize to your own desires.
The Oh La La Fondue was a tangy, strong flavored fondue, comprised of Raclette and Camembert. After some researching on my own I discovered that Raclette not only a cheese, but a form of eating it, much like Fondue. However, I believe in Raclette you need to use Raclette cheese, where Fondue can use different kinds. Raclette is also served over potatoes, instead of dipping bread cubes into the melted cheese. But I digress. Knowing what Camembert tastes like (it’s akin to Brie), I had assumed the Raclette was the one giving the tangy taste. Overall a good combination, though I suspect they may have used a bit too much alcohol.
The Smokey One, however, was superb. Definitely my favorite of the ones we tried. If there was too much alcohol in this one, then it was masked by the smokiness of the cheeses. The texture was great - not too stringy. It was milder than the Oh La La, but still had a good flavor to it. I’m not sure of the cheese that went into it, as the restaurant menu does not specify. I was lucky enough to discover the clove of garlic hidden at the bottom of this particular Fondue - it had the wonderful sweetness that comes when garlic is roasted.
For dessert, what else but chocolate fondue? It didn’t have any particular flavorings, just pure melted chocolate. The presentation was done well, with a platter of beautiful looking fruit dusted with some powdered sugar, and pineapple cut up, but sitting in its rind. The fruit was mostly ripe, except the strawberries, which lacked the earthy aroma of being freshly picked. I suppose since their tomatoes had it, I can’t complain too much, though it would have been even nicer if the strawberries did too. It was nothing special, but chocolate fondue on its own is of course, quite decadent.
Overall I was completely satisfied with my experience at the Matterhorn. It was great for a group, the service was admirable, though I imagine since we were one of two groups there, that’s to be expected. The food itself was great, and we all ate until we were stuffed. I can’t wait to go again!
Atmosphere: 9/10
Service: 8/10
Taste of Food: 9/10 (Those tomatoes were to die for)
Overall: 9/10
After dinner, we headed to a bar called “The Buccaneer”, where I enjoyed a draft Franziskaner. It’s a wheat beer, with a light coloring and crisp flavoring. Not quite my style of brew, but pretty good, nonetheless. Definitely worth a try!
The waitress was extremely helpful, in both helping our group select a wine and giving us recommendations for which fondues to choose and for how much. Her suggestion was to have two cheese fondues, one that is more pungent and one that is milder, and a meat one. Additionally, when she informed us that we got a salad, she also asked if it was ok to have hard boiled eggs on it. One person in our party preferred not to, so it was quite fitting of her to ask. It’s the little touches like that which make a place special.
The salad came quite quickly - a pile of greens on a bed of tomatoes laid out quite nicely, with very finely crumbled hard boiled eggs on top. The dressing was quite lovely, and as is unusual for me, they didn’t put too much on. The eggs added a nice touch, but the real star of the salad were the tomatoes. One look at these tomatoes, and you could tell that they weren’t your normal supermarket aisle tomatoes. The coloring in these was a very deep red - deeper than anything you can find in a store. And the taste… heavenly! It was the flavor that you can only get when you grow tomatoes yourself. Garden fresh, I believe is the term. I’ve never been a huge fan of raw tomatoes, but these were superb. It had that slightly earthy aroma that comes with food left to ripen on the vine. Too often now we are presented with food that is mature, but not ripened, and we never get to taste how they really should be. The tomatoes alone are worth returning to this restaurant.
Along with our dinner we had a Pinot Noir that the waitress had recommended. By itself, the Pinot was quite fruity, with something like a buttery aftertaste. I’m no wine connoisseur, so I just use my own adjectives to describe. When the fondues came, the acidity and pungency of the cheese mellowed out the Pinot more. It was quite interesting to see how the wine adapted to the meal.
We ordered three fondues - the Fondue Bacchus, the “Oh La La” Fondue, and the Allemagne Fondue known as “The Smokey One”. The Fondue Bacchus was the meat fondue, which was flavored with red wine. You take the thin slices of meat and spear them on the meat fork, which was distinguished by having two tines instead of three, and then leave it in the fondue to cook. Growing up having Shabu Shabu (or Hot Pot), this was all too familiar a practice for me. What was interesting was that the meat was well flavored on its own, just by cooking in the red wine mixture. There was an assortment of sauces to go with the meat, such as curry, mango chutney, tartare, etc. However, I opted to just try the meat by itself, and it was already quite good. The added sauces gave different flavors, so you could customize to your own desires.
The Oh La La Fondue was a tangy, strong flavored fondue, comprised of Raclette and Camembert. After some researching on my own I discovered that Raclette not only a cheese, but a form of eating it, much like Fondue. However, I believe in Raclette you need to use Raclette cheese, where Fondue can use different kinds. Raclette is also served over potatoes, instead of dipping bread cubes into the melted cheese. But I digress. Knowing what Camembert tastes like (it’s akin to Brie), I had assumed the Raclette was the one giving the tangy taste. Overall a good combination, though I suspect they may have used a bit too much alcohol.
The Smokey One, however, was superb. Definitely my favorite of the ones we tried. If there was too much alcohol in this one, then it was masked by the smokiness of the cheeses. The texture was great - not too stringy. It was milder than the Oh La La, but still had a good flavor to it. I’m not sure of the cheese that went into it, as the restaurant menu does not specify. I was lucky enough to discover the clove of garlic hidden at the bottom of this particular Fondue - it had the wonderful sweetness that comes when garlic is roasted.
For dessert, what else but chocolate fondue? It didn’t have any particular flavorings, just pure melted chocolate. The presentation was done well, with a platter of beautiful looking fruit dusted with some powdered sugar, and pineapple cut up, but sitting in its rind. The fruit was mostly ripe, except the strawberries, which lacked the earthy aroma of being freshly picked. I suppose since their tomatoes had it, I can’t complain too much, though it would have been even nicer if the strawberries did too. It was nothing special, but chocolate fondue on its own is of course, quite decadent.
Overall I was completely satisfied with my experience at the Matterhorn. It was great for a group, the service was admirable, though I imagine since we were one of two groups there, that’s to be expected. The food itself was great, and we all ate until we were stuffed. I can’t wait to go again!
Atmosphere: 9/10
Service: 8/10
Taste of Food: 9/10 (Those tomatoes were to die for)
Overall: 9/10
After dinner, we headed to a bar called “The Buccaneer”, where I enjoyed a draft Franziskaner. It’s a wheat beer, with a light coloring and crisp flavoring. Not quite my style of brew, but pretty good, nonetheless. Definitely worth a try!