To call them glorified hash browns would be somewhat accurate but wouldn't really do them justice. I'm talking about the rösti at the Swiss Rösti Bar, and if they were hash browns then they were some of the best hash browns I've tried.
The rösti is served under, or along with, a large selection of mains here, and also as a side. Before the mains, however, we had to have some entrées: Dave had the Soup of the Day (Minestrone, $7.50) and I had the Breseloa ($12.50), which is air-dried beef and swiss smoked sausages with olive oil, parmesan and pickled red cabbage on an orange and wild rocket salad. Both entrées were very good. Mine was quite generous and could well have been smaller (for a smaller price).
For his main dish, Dave tried the Pan Fried Bratwürst with Wild Field Mushrooms, Poached Caramelised Pear, Onion Rings and Jus ($18.40, also with Rösti, of course). We briefly discussed how one would described the taste of Bratwürst, but came up with no satisfactory answers. Suffice to say he liked it a lot. I had the fish of the day ($22.50, Chargrilled Salmon Fillet with Bocconcini, Semi-dried Tomato Salad, Rösti, and Lemon & Herb Beurre Blanc). Unfortunately the salmon was overcooked. However, I still found it quite satisfactory - the flavours were all very well chosen and surprisingly forgiving of the slightly dry salmon texture.
We had wine - Dave had the house red, which was good enough, as you'd want a house red to be, and I had the Montana Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, which went okay with my meal but wasn't a knockout.
For dessert we both had the Belgian Chocolate Mousse Cake ($6.00), which was a bit less chocolatey than I expected but rich nonetheless. I couldn't finish mine (Dave helped).
The service was pretty good until they got busy, which seems to happen a lot in restaurants around here. Next to us was a group of about twenty young people who were obviously on a chaperoned meet 'n' greet of some sort (the Young Australians Swiss Society?). They provided us with some amusement.
I had to leave a bit early, however, and when we told the staff I was in a hurry they sped up the service right away.
The decor is clean and classy with lots of wood and simple lines. A large, roughly oval shaped bar stands in the centre of the dining room, with a hardwood floor section towards the front and and cosy, carpeted section at the back. Unfortunately the restrooms were, in a word, unremarkable. Once again the interior decoration budget didn't extend to the facilities. The highlight of the restrooms was the tap which wobbled so much it nearly fell forward into the sink.
We did enjoy the place a lot, though, and when I left early, Dave settled up and they somehow gave him way too much change (he only noticed on his way home). Maybe I'll let Dave pay more often.
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Dave's summary: "I don't need to give you a summary until next week because you'll take that long to write the review anyway."
Probability that we will return: 37.37615 / 42 I wanted to give it less (36) due to my overcooked salmon, and when I said we'd split the difference, Dave just had to come up with 38.7523
Note that the probability rating is affected by the fact that there are hundreds of places to eat around here.