Chalet Suisse (Mendrisio, Switzerland)

Want to try all sorts of roesti and other popular Swiss dishes then have it at Chalet Suisse they have everything you might be looking for,

Visiting Switzerland and not eating Rosti is like visiting Italy and not eating pizza, this is their most famous dish after chocolates. While it’s not as crave worthy like pizza, pasta or other dishes it is a nice dish especially if it’s done the right way. I remember I tried oily richly flavoured version of this when I was in Malaysia and that is a shocker and does not give justice to this humble Swiss potato dish, that is why when we were planning this Switzerland trip I told my wife we should try the authentic rosti in Switzerland because I believe it would be different.

After our visit to our Italy driving from Milan we stopped by this place in South of Switzerland called Fox Town in Mendrisio, it is an outlet mega mall for high end designer clothes, shoes, bag and everything a woman would love. From Armani, Burberry, Gucci and Prada you will find deals that will make your eyes drop while we are interested on doing some shopping for ourselves our main point why we dropped by this place is to dine in at Chalet Suisse and try out their Rosti and Raclette.

The restaurant is located at the back of the shopping centre at Via Angelo Maspoli Street, they have their own parking lot which is handy as the mall parking lot can be full at some times, the parking looks like for delivery vehicles only so it’s private and very few people park there. We also ask if we can park there after we finished our lunch and they said it was fine to do that.

On entry it was like we were warped on a different dimension as the theme of the restaurant was a Swiss chalet and everything inside was like a log cabin with log style furnishings, it was cool and depicted a stereotype Swiss house. So what did we ordered? Well it’s all rosti and a raclette.

First was rosti with cheese and two eggs for my daughter which costs CHF 22.00.

My wife got the Fried St. Gallen Sausage with onion gravy and rosti and that was CHF 21.00.

Then I got the Diced veal Zurich Style with Rosti for a whopping CHF 33.00.

We also ordered some Raclette Valais style served with gherkins, picked onions and potatoes and that was CHF 8.00.

Overall it was cheesy and not really that oily and heavy compared to the ones I tried in Malaysia, it was tasty specially the ones my daughter ordered. The veal was creamy but in my opinion the Fried St. Gallen Sausage was the best option due to the sweet and sour onion gravy that cuts the richness of cheese, a perfect match. The raclette was also nice, imagine eating a melted mozzarella but cheesier in flavour, this goes well with bread. One serving is more than enough for one person especially when you are not a usual potato eater, 2 Rosti are good for 3 people to share, it’s a bit pricey which anyways is true to any restaurants in Switzerland but it’s worth the experience, after all you can save a lot when you shop at FoxTown so make the most of it and reserve a whole day.

Chalet Suisse
Via Angelo Maspoli 18, Mendrisio CH-6850, Switzerland

I guess by know you know what had happened to the Philippines last weekend so for those who wants to donate money to the victims of Typhoon Haiyan here are some organizations that are currently deploying urgent relief efforts. Note each of the links will point you to their donation forms, any amount would be a great help for my fellow countrymen.

• The American Red Cross
• The Philippine Red Cross
• UNICEF 
• World Food Programme (WFP)
• World Vision
• Habitat for Humanity 
• Catholic Relief Services