Never Too Sweet

I like to think of myself as a forgiving person and I usually give people and restaurant second chances Because sometimes restaurants are actually good, just it was bad luck that one time I went ~ That’s why when Win Win suggested that we go to The Swiss Chalet again, I immediately agreed. But I remember our last visit wasn’t great and we weren’t that happy with the food, but it was such a long time ago, that neither of us remember when we visited.

The Swiss Chalet in TST

Win Win and I met up during her lunch break one day ~ I think they had just opened, because we got there at around 12:15pm and it was empty.

Decorated nicely with ornaments ~

We were immediately led to our table in the back of the restaurant, and looking around, for a few moments, I thought I was transported to a restaurant in Switzerland, because of all the authentic ornaments I miss Geneva been a long time since I’ve visited ~

I liked the paintings ~

I liked all the ornaments hanging on the wall, but I particularly liked the paintings they had around Win Win only has an hour and half, and had to rush back to Central, so we immediately studied the menu and quickly decided we’ll get a 3 course set lunch for $170HKD ($20.50AUD) plus 10% service charge and also a traditional fondue set for one.

Once we placed our orders, another waitress rushed up to our table, with a bread basket in her hand and offered us a piece of bread.

Soggy microwaved bread!

I don’t usually take pictures of the bread, but this one was horrific! It was limpy and soggy and judging from the warmth of the bread, I’m pretty sure they had just put it in the microwave. This really is unacceptable to me! Neither of us even touched the bread.

For the appetizer, we were allowed to change it to a small portion of the Raclette cheese ~ instead of deed fried mozzarella or potato gratin with chicken leg mushroom.

Hot Melted Raclette Cheese a la carte $60HKD($7.2AUD) for a taster portion

Win Win doesn’t really like raclette cheese and thinks this dish is always too ‘salty’ ~ but I really liked it, I haven’t had this dish for a long time and missed the rich and savoury taste of it I didn’t really like the pickle though…I think that’s more of a personal preference ~

Pan-friend Pork medallions with escargot and herb butter

Because it came with the lunch menu, I don’t have the price of this main sorry! The pan-fried pork medallions was cooked reasonably well, as personally I think it’s quite hard to pan fry pork chops, it’s so easy to overcook or undercook them. However, the medallions were SO salty! Win Win and I shared the two pieces, but neither of us could finish it. The escargots on top were flavoured with a herb butter, not bad, yet nothing too exciting. The pasta on the left was undercooked and then placed into the oven, so they weren’t really cooked properly

Traditional Cheese Fondue $198HKD ($24AUD) per person

At The Swiss Chalet, they had a wide range of cheese fondues like cheese with fresh mixed mushrooms and herbs or Vacherin Fribougeois with sliced garlic accompanied by sautéed beef tenderloin cubes. We were getting so confused with the different types of fondue’s, because we’re use to having the cheese fondue at Chesa and they only had the one type. So we stuck with the traditional fondue which was a mixture of cheese with dry white wine and served with bread.

The cheese fondue itself wasn’t too bad, but we couldn’t taste any white wine or kirsch. We’re not sure if they’ve put less in to accommodate HK people’s tastes, who may not like the taste of wine in their fondues. Win Win and I are used to having traditional cheese fondues with a decent amount of white wine. This was a major let down, because we really came back just to try the cheese fondue

Stale bread

To make things worse, the bread cubes used to dip into the cheese fondue was SO stale! I say it’s probably 2 to 3 days old…it was so tough and hard to chew. I really can’t accept the quality of bread here…I can understand if they don’t make their own bread…but they should at least put the effort into sourcing better quality bread and should never serve stale bread to customers!

Wild Berries baked with Vanilla Custard

The lunch menu also came with a dessert which was a wild berries baked with vanilla custard and vanilla ice-cream. It was obvious that the vanilla custard came out of a package and frozen berries were tossed in without any sugar. It was exceptionally sour. The vanilla ice-cream was nice though, and thankfully we could see the ‘little black dots’, which I assume are seeds from a vanilla pod, meaning that it was a high quality store-bought vanilla ice-cream and not ones made from vanilla essence.

Once we had finished with our meals, we were surprisingly given a little tray of petit fours.

Complimentary petit fours

But honestly, Win Win and I would’ve preferred if they didn’t give it to us, because it was basically store-bought goodies cut into miniature pieces and placed on a sliver plate. We’re pretty sure these have been lying out in the open for a while, as the pastry was getting so hard and tough. Sighhh major disappointment again

So even though we’re both forgiving and willing to give second chances, The Swiss Chalet was definitely not worth it. We’re definitely going back to Chesa when we need our cheese fondue fix ~

If I’m slow at responding I’m sorry, I’m still away but will be back tomorrow

The Swiss Chalet
 12-14 Hart Avenue,, Tsim Sha Tsui
尖沙咀赫德道12-14號地下
PH:2191 9197