Swiss Ribs

Like 90% of first-time visitors to Lucerne, I spent my first full day here doing the “golden tour” of Mount Pilatus. This involves taking a boat from Lucerne, changing to a cogwheel train that brings one to the summit, doing a short hike while gaping at the vistas, then descending in two cable cars and finally taking a bus back to the city. After the initial annoyances of waiting more than an hour for the train (some kind of technical problems – even the Swiss are not immune to them) and sharing a car with crazy Indian tourists constantly making selfies and blocking the windows, the view from the mountain top was indeed highly impressive. The restaurants, on the other hand, were not: a self-service eatery that brought up painful memories of my office canteen, a grill stand with a poorer choice than at a bad Viennese Wurstelstand, and a tourist restaurant in a hotel with simple, unexciting and very expensive dishes. I had more hopes for the restaurants at the cable cars’ middle station, but they, too, were self-service and very basic.

Back in the city – or one of its suburbs anyway – I made a decision to eat well, even if that would require taking a long walk and paying a small fortune. That is when Google suggested Hotel Waldegg. Its restaurant’s ratings and reviews were extremely good, and besides, I liked the name – there is a village of Waldegg near Vienna where I had had several good hikes in the past. Not wishing to mess around with buses, I had a 40-minute stroll through industrial areas, which were quite a contrast to the lovely medieval Lucerne I had seen so far.

The restaurant itself was, however, in a very green and quiet location, slightly reminiscent of Vienna Woods’ outskirts. Despite my lack of reservation (well, I had tried to reserve online 30 minutes earlier but of course no one had seen my request), I was given a table by a very friendly waitress and glancing at the menu noticed that spare ribs were offered – as a special, and only during the month of August. I can be lucky sometimes.

Only a single rack of ribs was served, but I had not been expecting more, and honestly it was sufficient. Some good marinade was applied to the meat, so the ribs’ taste was not piggy, but spicy. The sauce (only one was provided) made the taste even spicier, and despite having a suspiciously bright orange color, further enhanced the meal. The French fries, being the only side dish, were at least ten times less oily than served in most restaurants in Vienna and therefore much more pleasant.

Of course, the dinner was expensive, but not as expensive as I had anticipated, and totally worth it. I am sure that Lucerne is full of good restaurants that most tourists are unaware of, and I think I found one today. Thanks, Google.