Name: SwissFoodAsia-River View
Address: Siem Reap River Street, Left River Bank | Wat Damnak Village, Krong, Siem Reap 17355, Cambodia
Telephone: 0 888 993 209
Opening hours: 24/7
Cuisine: Swiss, Western
Image:
URL: http://swissfoodasia.com/index.php/en/r ... /siem-reap
Reservation URL: http://swissfoodasia.com/index.php/en/contact
Menu URL: http://swissfoodasia.com/index.php/en/our-menu
Rating: 2



Missing that Swiss Chalet feel.

I'd been running by this restaurant a few times and always did wonder why a) it was always empty and b) it nevertheless stayed open 24/7. I did not care much for the look of it but it is the only Swiss restaurant in Temple Town and a couple of months back, the better half and I went. I felt a little crook and did not eat. The Missus ordered a steak (as you would in a Swiss Restaurant). It did not come cooked the way she wanted it and she told me that both the steak and the mashed potatoes she ordered with it were pretty bland.



Apparently a badly cooked piece of cow with bland mashed potatoes.

As I said, I wasn’t at my best that day but I did notice that the menu was not exactly Swiss, found the concept of all the add-ons rather strange, and thought that some of the staff could do with a good kick up the arse. The owner did introduce himself and seemed a nice enough bloke but overall the evening was just not good enough for a review.

Fast forward to yesterday lunch when we decided to give it another shot. We were the only guests at the time and there was also only one young guy present who turned out to be both waiter and Chef rolled in one. We wanted to eat something Swiss but the choice of actual Swiss dishes is limited to about 4, with the rest of the menu covering everything from burgers to pasta. We ended up ordering Beef Stroganoff for the lady and Roesti with sausages and onion gravy for myself. Obviously, ordering was quick enough, with only two of us and all, but we ended up waiting 40 minutes for our food. We obviously could not order more drinks as the waiter had transformed into Chef and was banging pots in the kitchen. This was another thing I found annoying: no music, just the drone of various fridges and the kitchen exhaust. It did not make us feel very welcome. As we were waiting, another guest walked in but she obviously could not place an order until our food was finished. I find that a strange way of running a restaurant as we were not there at any odd hour but at 13:00.



Prices are reasonable enough.

When the food did arrive, first looks were not so promising. My Roesti was more like a 3-inch thick potato cake, the onion gravy that came with it had the consistency of water, my girlfriends Spaetzle were green and looked overcooked and the two pork sausages I was supposed to get had morphed into 4 Nuernberger-like sausages.



Chef went all out with presentation and decoration.

Starting with the “Australian” Beef Stroganoff: the consistency and taste of the meat were totally off, I almost gagged. I thought that maybe I had caught a bad piece of meat and tried another one but the result was the same. I am hazarding a guess here and am assuming that they use local beef and just totally drown it in meat tenderizer; I cannot think of any other way to so completely destroy meat, This was not helped by the fact that both the sauce and the Spaetzle lacked any taste whatsoever; I think there is neither salt nor pepper in the kitchen. As it was, my girlfriend did not eat any of the meat, just picking out the (canned) mushrooms.



The meat tasted very strange whereas the Spaetzle had no taste at all.

Pretty much the same with my dish: the onion gravy was a liquidly, unappetizing something and the Roesti (meaning roasted) was anything but; it was a starchy mass of potato with no flavor or consistency. I usually find restaurant meals too salty but this was the first time in years that I made liberal use of the saltshaker just so that I could get the food down. The sausages were quite good but I suspect that they were bought from the German butcher that has set up in town.



Once the gravy came, it was no improvement.

Service was non-existent as mentioned but I cannot blame the young waiter for that. He seemed pretty sharp and spoke good English but he can obviously not cut himself in two. As we were leaving, two girls worked in. Looked like shift-change but it also looked as if they were much more interested in their phones. Us asking for the bill was obviously quite an inconvenience and when my girlfriend pointed out that they had given us USD 5.00 to much in change, it was not even worth a “thank you”.



The female staff were on the ball. Not.

Amazingly enough, this restaurant gets nothing but 5-star reviews on TripAdvisor so we must have caught a bad day. Twice.

I also saw today that they have a restaurant at GSM; I don’t know if I would classify that as great pedigree.



Not much in the way of Swiss food.

Positive review or negative review, I think I'd trust your review over anything from tripadvisor.

Thanks.

Username Taken wrote:Positive review or negative review, I think I'd trust your review over anything from tripadvisor.

Thanks.

I try to be objective. I am not grinding any axes and hope that anyone on the receiving end takes it as constructive criticism. Though I see the owner of this particular restaurant never replies to comments...

hanno wrote: and hope that anyone on the receiving end takes it as constructive criticism.

The customer who complains is the best kind of customer. [I'm sure you will understand that].

Hotdigr wrote:If you don't complain about a problem, in person, when you are there, how can it be fixed?
I hope you made a complaint then and there Hanno, to the owner/manager? He may not even be awareof the problem, or of CEO. If that is the case, then this is just a bit of a hatchet job. From what I know of you, I'm sure that's not correct btw.
A good owner/manager will accept constructive criticism and try to do something positive to fix the problem. Providing you present your complaint in a polite and courteous manner.
But he can't do anything if h isn't aware there is a problem.

No manager/owner present the day before yesterday; just the unfortunate lad that had to double as both Chef and waiter and was in way over his head; much as he tried. I have contacted the owner as I have his business card, but no reply yet.

The food st swiss bar gsm was okayish after fifteen beers at 2am.

It would be at the lower end of average sober.

Although they used do decentish filled bageuttes.

I see a lot of the good reviews are by punters who went there after a lengthy session on Pub Street.....