Um, wow.
Normally, before I travel, I do plentiful research. I know what every lounge will have to offer, I have my lounge hoping plans all laid out. But for this trip, I thought I was flying business class, which gave me access to only one lounge. But then I flew First Class instead, which gave me access to a large variety of lounges.
But let's back up. We landed in Zurich, in Terminal E where international flights are, and First Class passengers were met by staff at the door of the aircraft, who led us down a staircase to a waiting escort car. They zipped us right over to Terminal A, where I'd be departing next. We did quick passport check in our own dedicated counter, and ... that was that. I could proceed to the adjacent First Class lounge.
The gate-to-lounge experience was unlike anything I've ever done before, and set the stage for what a unique experience this would be.
The lounge is not huge, but, given that I was the only guest a majority of my stay, was plenty big enough. There are decent shower suites available, all kinds of seating, individual work areas, conference rooms, a bar, and a formal dining restaurant.
The lounge offers several styles of seating. In my excitement, I forgot to take a photo of the other seats, but I camped out in a corner with plush couches.
There were also individual cubbies for isolated work and privacy, with their own little doors.
In the center of the space is a bar with a feature of special brandy. There is bar seating along several sides of this area.
I sampled everything here, and honestly wished I'd taken more. I wish I knew what brand some of it was. I loved it all.
- Pink marshmallows with white centers: Fairly standard sweet fluffy marshmallows, and, uh, I loved them with a glass of red wine. ***+.
- Gummy peach rings: I adored these. I've had many peach gummy rings before, but these were the best I've had. Great chew, very intense peach flavor, sweet and sour. Loved these. ****+.
- Gummy snakes? Not really sure what to call this shape, but, wide snakes is the best I can coem up with. Each one was two colors/flavors, and they came in a variety of flavors. Again, great chew, great sweet/sour ratio due to the sugary sour coating. I liked slightly less than peaches, but still fabulous. ****+
- Candied walnuts: These were good! Nice for a little protein, something to munch, and bit of sweetness. I bet would go great with a cheese platter. ****+.
- Seasoned cashews: Also good. Savory seasoning. Good for something not sweet, but interesting. ***+.
- Lindt truffles: Just classic Lindor milk chocolate truffles.
- Swiss Airlines mini chocolate bars: Same as you get on board. Decent creamy milk chocolate.
- White, Dark, and Milk chocolate thin chunks - Probably the least good thing on the table. These were all wafer thin. The dark chocolate was still quite sweet, the milk not particularly creamy. *** for those. I did really like the white chocolate though, particularly when combined with gummy candy and red wine. ****. Just trust me. It worked great!
Food & Drink
Now for the good stuff, the actual food & drink (candy doesn't count, right?)
Casual
There is no buffet in the First Class lounge, but soft drinks, juices, smoothies, and a few appetizers are available for you to grab on your own. The main attraction is the fine dining experience.
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| Drinks. |
Bottled drinks were available to grab right as you walked in, basic juices, soft drinks, beer, and both still and sparkling water.
The bar up ahead had a large selection of additional drinks you could order, I think this was really just for those who wanted to grab right as they came in (which, I did, a cold sparkling water was exactly what I wanted!).
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| Juice, Smoothies, Muesli, Cheese, Appetizers. |
For those who just wanted to easily grab a little something, and were likely feeling as time zone confused as me, the lounge had a tiny little station to help yourself to juices and smoothies, two kinds of muesli, fruit salad, two types of cheese, and little appetizer nibbles (cream cheese stuffed smoked ham or peppers).
This was as close to a "buffet" as you got in the First Class lounge.
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| Cheeses. |
I did try the Tête de Moine cheese which was really unique, kinda ruffled, strong uh, Swiss-like flavor.
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| Fruity Bircher Muesli. |
When I first arrived, I wasn't hungry (very late big dinner on the flight, and very early decent breakfast on the flight) and it was still pre-breakfast time for me, but I wanted to try ... something. So I grabbed a fruity bircher muesli, even though I had literally just had bircher muesli for breakfast on the flight.
It wasn't actually very good. Mushy, sweet. I liked the version on the flight more, and my hotel had a much better version every morning in Munich.
**+.
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| Plum cake, chocolate cake, apple pie. |
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Behind the counter were also 3 different cakes, that I didn't discover until nearly the end of my stay. They weren't with the self-serve items, and weren't on the dining menu, but, if you came around one side of the bar, they were visible. Staff served these to you if you knew to ask for them.
The chocolate cake looked a bit dry (but I think they added the berry sauce on top?), the plum cake looked kinda interesting (or maybe the sauce was for that?) but not likely my style, and the apple pie wasn't quite exciting because I knew I'd have lots of apple desserts in Munich and it looked more like an apple tart than American style apple pie. So I ignored them ... at first.
After a glorious, glorious dessert from the fine dining section (keep reading!), I went to go check out the other nearby lounges (the Alpine lounge, Senator, and Business lounges, all right next door), and came back to finish my last 20 minutes or so in the First Class lounge. I was so pleased with my meal in the dining room, not hungry (it was about 9am in my head at that point), but ... I couldn't resist at least trying one of the other desserts.
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| Apple Pie. |
The apple pie was served just as a massive slice. I'm all for "Parent family slices" and usually scoff at the tiny slivers people consider slices, but this really was a big one, particularly given how dense it was, and, well, the fact that I just had a cheesecake and meal right before. Heh.
I think it was supposed to be served with an additional apple sauce, as it was in the bowl beside it, but mine came ungarnished.
It was more of an apple torte than traditional American apple pie, or maybe just a Bavarian style apple pie? I guess it wasn't as cake-like as a torte, but it certainly didn't have the pie-like crust. Anyway. It was more of a soft tarte crust, and the apples were very dense, layered, and had some kind of goo in there and a little mild spicing. The top was also not a pie crust, but more of a almond layer maybe? Very different from things I've had before, but not altogether unfamiliar.
It was served at room temperature, and was ... fine. It didn't taste fresh or homemade, but was perfectly fine. However, I desperately wanted it warm and with some ice cream (or at least whipped cream). I had to go get on my next flight, otherwise I would have asked for ice cream, as they had it on the dessert menu in the restaurant area, so I know they had it on hand.
I saved the rest, and may or may not have had it in my hotel room when jetlag hit and apple pie at 6am seemed like a great idea.
***.
Fine Dining
The real feature of the lounge is the fine dining experience, available in the dining area or bar. Given that I was the only guest, I, uh, had my choice of seats.
"Our SWISS First Lounge is also an à la carte restaurant. Guests in SWISS First can be served from an extensive range of salads, fine sandwiches or a multi-course pre-flight dinner. A team of head chefs is constantly at your disposal."
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| A La Carte Menu. |
The a la carte menu had plenty to pick from, much of it fairly tempting, but a bit all over the place. For starters, a seasonal salad (with asparagus!) or Caesar salad, beef tartar, or smoked salmon, along with a seasonal asparagus cream soup.
Next came main dishes sausages with proper sides, or "veal Zurich style", both of which made sense, but then ... falafel with hummus/eggplant/pita, or how about tiger prawns in a kaffir lime sauce? Or, the real main dish of champions: fondue.
And finally, desserts. A refreshing light lemon elderflower sorbet with Limoncello, cheeses, or a very interesting sounding "variations of milk and honey".
It was however just 8am in my world, and I already had breakfast on my flight, and a very late dinner, so, I wasn't entirely sure what made sense. I was drawn in by the asparagus offerings, but ... there was more to come.
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| Tasting Menu with Wine Pairings. |
The next page was a many course tasting menu, none of which came from the previous menu pages, all of which came with recommended wine pairings. If you wanted to sit down and have a long, leisurely, five course, fine dining experience, this is for you.
I certainly didn't want 5 courses, but the first course of marinated char sounded better than the other starters, and I loved the sound of the sides that came with the steak. So, um, that is what I ordered. The first course from the tasting menu, and the sides from the fourth course. I was curious about the jellied champagne soup dessert as well, but, the previous page cheesecake-ish called out stronger.
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| Wine List. |
And finally, the wine list. Was it 8am for me? Yes! Did I drink plenty on my flight there? Yes! Did I still order a small pour of wine? Yes!
The list was reasonably long, 4 champagnes, 6 whites, 1 rose, 6 reds.
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| Marinated char, blinis, sour cream, dill, sunflower seeds. |
I started with the first course from the tasting menu. I knew the lounge called itself fine dining, but, I wasn't quite expecting this. Plating alone, this was Michelin level cuisine!
The fish was fine, but I am not quite sure what the marinade was, as I didn't detect it. I preferred the baltic salmon on my flight actually. But the accompaniments with this were what really shined. Tiny cubes of well seasoned cucumber, high quality olive oil, delicate baby chives, little dollops of sour cream, and elaborately placed pumpkin seeds. I mean, really.
This was a beautiful dish, and a nice choice for quasi breakfast, quasi lunch, random fine dining.
***+.
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| Asparagus. |
And then, my requested asparagus, normally a component with the steak dish.
I actually loved this. It was freshly cooked, well seasoned, tender, juicy, and just 100% what I wanted at the time. Delicious as it was, given how well seasoned it was, but also fantastic with the bearnaise.
****.
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| Bearnaise. |
My sauce was presented in a little bowl, and it was flawless. I loved how fluffy it was, and, like everything, just well seasoned. Gordon Ramsey would be proud.
****.
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| Variation of milk & honey, cheesecake, glace, dried milk foam, dulce de leche. |
The meal just kept getting better and better.
This was one of the best desserts I've had in years, truly. And yes, I eat a lot of dessert! Like the first course, visually, it was stunning.
Every component of this was interesting. Every component was quite tasty on its own. Together they were glorious.
So what did we have?
The main bar shaped item was the cheesecake, perfectly smooth, sweet but not too sweet, lovely vanilla bean and honey notes. The cream cheese flavor was not strong, I suspect they used something other than American style cream cheese. It sat on a thin base, not mushy nor cardboardlike, just, a compressed cookie bit. This bar alone was a truly great dessert.
But on top of it were so many goodies, each of which accented the cheesecake in a different way. A strawberry or raspberry added a beautiful fruity note. I found the grape to be refreshing, and not something I've ever paired with cheesecake before. The thin wafer disks were sooo sweet, I think perhaps the dulce de leche in thin crispy form? They added a fun crisp texture, and were just crazy delicious.
But wait, what else was on that plate? On the other side was a pile of crumble, that didn't look like it would be good, but, was. It wasn't just graham cracker. On top of that was my favorite part. I think this was the dried milk foam? It was a fluffy and airy and cold milk like substance, that seemed almost like ice cream, but not quite. I suspect it came out of a whipped cream charger. I loved the cold quality, and the texture and flavor of this too. It was great with the base it was sitting on, and of course went well with the cheesecake bar too. And finally, a meringue like disk on top of that. Another fun complimentary texture.
This just delivered on all fronts, and I was blown away by what a well composed, flawlessly executed, gorgeous dish it was. Top 3 desserts I've had in several years, really.
*****.
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