I spent the whole day out in Zurich and in the evening my friend and I went to a spa for a small treat. After wallowing in the warm water and basking in the steam room for several hours I was famished, however it was getting late and most places had shut for the night. I didn’t want a full sit down fancy meal, but something quick and light to fill me up before we went home. As we walked towards where we had left the car, we passed a small restaurant with bright lights in the windows. My friend said that the place was very popular at lunch time, with queues of people right out the door, she had also never been and wanted to try it. I eagerly stepped inside.
Inside was a long white counter with various indentations containing rice, raw fish, vegetables, fruits and sauces. The man behind the counter explained that we could have two options. Build your own bowl or chose from the menu options. I opted for the “build your bowl” as it sounded more fun. I chose black rice and raw tuna which were coated in a sesame and yuzu sauce. Yuzu is a type of Japanese orange. For the toppings I chose fish roe, wakame (a type of seaweed) and sliced cumquats. We settled down at a table with our bowls and was startled when we looked down into our own faces. The table was a mirror, which look very trendy and modern.
I dug into my bowl. It was delicious. The black rice was firmer in texture than normal rice and gave the overall dish a nutty taste. The roe didn’t really have much flavour apart from a slight fishy and salty taste but it provided a wonderful texture to the whole of the dish and the sensation of the roe bursting in my mouth was delightful. The wakame was slightly sweet which was offset by the acidity of the cumquats. The raw tuna was very meaty and was complimented well by the sesame and yuzu sauce it had been coated in. Alas it was too good to be true and soon I had finished the whole thing.
I glanced through the different options for dishes and saw that there where endless possibilities of combination that could be made and suit everyone’s palate. It could even be made to match vegan or vegetarian or gluten free diets. I do have one small regret and that was I could not try a dessert which looked very interesting. As we left, there was still more people coming into the little restaurant and placing their orders, even this late at night.
Bleicherweg 19, 8002 Zürich
Rassasy 