DAR was our top priority restaurant in Zürich, based on its tantalising dessert menu. The all-vegan restaurant leans towards Spanish, Portuguese, and Moroccan cuisine, which is different from anything we get in Prague, so we were keen to give it a try and booked a table for our first night in the city. We actually weren’t that hungry, so we ordered smaller savoury dishes (the waitress suggested we might want more) and left enough room for dessert – after that, we were definitely full and satisfied.

I ordered from the small bites menu, the KFM – Kentucky fried mushrooms. I was not expecting the portion to be anywhere near this size, there were loads of them! The mushrooms themselves were quite thin, with quite a high ratio of batter – this was fine for me, but Dr HH would have preferred a thinner coating to let the mushrooms shine. The sauce was a good combination of sweetness and spiciness, and they were very tasty and juicy without being too greasy.

Mother HH got the tomato salad, which was very fresh and light, and packed with flavour. There were some crisp shards that you had to eat quickly to avoid them getting soggy as they sat in the juices, but she managed it! It was very enjoyable.

Poor Dr HH got slightly hoodwinked into ordering what was billed as the “legendary” charred cabbage. It was fine, but not mind blowing. The flavours were good, with the creamy dressing and spiciness from the harissa. The smokiness and bitterness from the charring was good too. I’m not going to complain about Swiss prices being high in every post, but it felt like we paid a lot of money for a bit of cabbage. This is not listed as a small bite, which seems wild to me.

On to the desserts, which is what we were most excited about. Mother HH tried the Moroccan sundae, and it was really delicious. It was rose water ice cream with lemon cookie dough and a few toppings. The rose water flavour was perfect – it’s easy to make it too strong, but this was perfectly balanced. The ice cream on top was not too sweet and had a good texture. The cherries, nuts, and cookie dough were all good complements and it all worked very well together. What a dream of a dessert!

I got the bazbousa pastry, pistachio cremeux and strawberries, basically because almost every dessert on MasterChef in the last few years includes cremeux and I was delighted to finally have the opportunity to try it. The base was a sponge rather than pastry as expected (possibly a translation issue in the menu), and unfortunately it was a bit too dry. The texture of the cremeux was great, but it could have been sweeter for me (I find pistachio flavoured desserts are generally not quite sweet enough for me). The strawberries and sorbet were really flavoursome and refreshing. My hopes were so high that it would have been very difficult to realise them – it was a good dessert, but not the total hit I was hoping for.

And Dr HH tried the Moroccan mint tea flan, chocolate mousse, ginger syrup and berries.  There was good flavour in the flan, which was like a delicious custard – he was expecting it to be a bit more set though, it was slightly runny (we can admit that we don’t know much about flans though). The chocolate mousse was rich and had a lovely smooth texture. The crunchy bits on top were great for texture too. He didn’t really pick much mint flavour, though there was a bit of warmth from the ginger syrup. Generally, we were all satisfied with our desserts and glad we left room for them – but we all felt that the Moroccan sundae was the real standout.

We were not very impressed to learn that tap water was not available, and a bottle of water cost 5 CHF per person (more than £4.50). This was especially frustrating given that there are many fountains around the city where you’re encouraged to fill your water bottles up – clearly tap water here is drinkable! On the plus side, we had some tasty chai sodas to drink which were very nicely spiced. I’ve never seen those flavours in a fizzy drink before, and I was impressed!

A common issue we had in Switzerland is that we always wanted to sit indoors to avoid smokers in the outdoor seating area, but several places were reluctant to allow that, with DAR simply saying no. Instead, they offered to seat us away from the smoking area (because smoke famously does not travel). Somebody did then start smoking right behind us though, and it took quite a while for them to be told it was forbidden. It’s always deeply frustrating to me to have the stink of smoke wafting in when I’m trying to enjoy a meal. Additionally, service was very slow in general, possibly because most diners were choosing one of the tasting menus (which we would have liked to try too, if only we were hungrier!). We were given a two hour seating and reminded of the time limit on arrival. While we definitely didn’t need that long, the the staff did, with quite lengthy waits between dishes.

Overall, this was a bit of a mixed bag. We had a few small complaints that were typical of our experience in Switzerland. We enjoyed the meal but also weren’t really wowed. We all agreed that we’d be willing to revisit again, particularly when we were hungry enough to try one of the tasting menus – but when we were back in Zürich a few days later, we did not make the effort to revisit. Ultimately I would still recommend it, especially if this is a cuisine that is new to you. It left us with happy, full stomachs that sustained us through a long night of extra time and penalties as England fought back against Sweden at the Euros – and for that, we will always be thankful!