Swiss Club

Swiss Club
89 Flinders Lane
Melbourne VIC 3000
Ph: (03) 9650 1196
Website

It's no secret that I love the food of Central Europe, so I'm not quite sure why it took me so long to visit Swiss Club. The Swiss Club has been around since 1899, as a social and cultural club for Swiss migrants and their families. To this day, the Club still runs cultural events - visit their website for more information.

A group of 4 of us visited a few weeks ago for a Friday-night dinner, partly to throw off the shackles of the working week, and also to welcome back our good friend Timmy K who is back from London! Wa-hoo!

Swiss Club is located on Flinders Lane, (look for the big Swiss flag out the front), next to Chop House, and you have to climb a couple of flights of stairs to get to the dining room proper. It's all clean and quite old-fashioned. As you enter, the bar is to the right, and booth-seats are to the left. The back half of the space holds the ordinary tables (where we sat). I wasn't quite sure why there was a split between booths and normal tables. Sandra suggested that the booths might be for members or frequent visitors, as this is how clubs operate back in Germany.

Beer! I ordered a Weissbier, but my favourite of the night was the super-malty Pilsner that Sandra ordered.

Bread - good taste, but cold and not crusty.

Reading the menu, I wanted to order everything! Cheese fondue, Rösti, Wurstsalat... but we were expecting a hearty meal ahead, so just stuck to main meals. It turned out to be a good plan.

Geschnetzeltes – Pieces of tender veal in a creamy mushroom sauce - $22.90

Pork Schnitzel Emmenthal – Crumbed pork schnitzel over baked with cheese - $20.90


Beef goulash with spätzli - $20.90 (Pretty good, but the goulash and Spätzle at Muttis was much, much better).

I chose something similar to my beloved choucroute, the Berner Teller...
Berner Teller – Smoked pork loin, sausage & bacon with sauerkraut & potatoes - $20.90

I quite liked this dish, although I thought it could have been presented a little more neatly. The smoked pork (which I think is the same thing as Kassler?) was delicious, but I wasn't too big a fan of the sausage, and I ended up leaving most of it on the plate.


As you can imagine, we were totally stuffed. But somehow found room for dessert...

The chocolate fondue, I have to admit, looked pretty average when it came out, but actually tasted wonderful.

Apple strudel was average, not spectacular, but nice enough to end the meal.
Overall we had a fun time at Swiss Club, but the atmosphere was rather quiet, and the food wasn't as good as we hoped it would be. Perhaps it would have been a different story if we'd ordered the house speciality, the cheese fondue. I got the feeling that the menu was a bit tired. If in the mood for this type of food, there are a few other restaurants around town that I'd choose first.

Swiss Club
89 Flinders Lane
Melbourne VIC 3000
Ph: (03) 9650 1196
Website

It's no secret that I love the food of Central Europe, so I'm not quite sure why it took me so long to visit Swiss Club. The Swiss Club has been around since 1899, as a social and cultural club for Swiss migrants and their families. To this day, the Club still runs cultural events - visit their website for more information.

A group of 4 of us visited a few weeks ago for a Friday-night dinner, partly to throw off the shackles of the working week, and also to welcome back our good friend Timmy K who is back from London! Wa-hoo!

Swiss Club is located on Flinders Lane, (look for the big Swiss flag out the front), next to Chop House, and you have to climb a couple of flights of stairs to get to the dining room proper. It's all clean and quite old-fashioned. As you enter, the bar is to the right, and booth-seats are to the left. The back half of the space holds the ordinary tables (where we sat). I wasn't quite sure why there was a split between booths and normal tables. Sandra suggested that the booths might be for members or frequent visitors, as this is how clubs operate back in Germany.

Beer! I ordered a Weissbier, but my favourite of the night was the super-malty Pilsner that Sandra ordered.

Bread - good taste, but cold and not crusty.

Reading the menu, I wanted to order everything! Cheese fondue, Rösti, Wurstsalat... but we were expecting a hearty meal ahead, so just stuck to main meals. It turned out to be a good plan.

Geschnetzeltes – Pieces of tender veal in a creamy mushroom sauce - $22.90

Pork Schnitzel Emmenthal – Crumbed pork schnitzel over baked with cheese - $20.90


Beef goulash with spätzli - $20.90 (Pretty good, but the goulash and Spätzle at Muttis was much, much better).

I chose something similar to my beloved choucroute, the Berner Teller...
Berner Teller – Smoked pork loin, sausage & bacon with sauerkraut & potatoes - $20.90

I quite liked this dish, although I thought it could have been presented a little more neatly. The smoked pork (which I think is the same thing as Kassler?) was delicious, but I wasn't too big a fan of the sausage, and I ended up leaving most of it on the plate.


As you can imagine, we were totally stuffed. But somehow found room for dessert...

The chocolate fondue, I have to admit, looked pretty average when it came out, but actually tasted wonderful.

Apple strudel was average, not spectacular, but nice enough to end the meal.
Overall we had a fun time at Swiss Club, but the atmosphere was rather quiet, and the food wasn't as good as we hoped it would be. Perhaps it would have been a different story if we'd ordered the house speciality, the cheese fondue. I got the feeling that the menu was a bit tired. If in the mood for this type of food, there are a few other restaurants around town that I'd choose first.