Asuka N.
Yelp
Le Chat-Botté was our first dinner spot during our time here in Geneva. While the restaurant appears to be downstairs when you walk by on street level, given the logos on the windows, at least during the summertime, the restaurant is seated exclusively upstairs on the terrace on the second floor. As such, you get a look at the Old World charm of the Hotel Beau-Rivage before you make your way outdoors. The view over Lac Leman is excellent, and even though you are next to a road with a decent amount of traffic, being a floor above makes you feel like you have been transported away from the city to a more serene setting. The wine list is extensive, with one bottle running as high as 20,000(!) francs. However, the wines by the glass are actually more affordable than one might think given the general perception of Switzerland being overpriced generally; I had 2 glasses of a local white and red that came in around 15-20 francs that were both solid, if not standouts. The service here is very attentive, and although it definitely slowed once the end of the main courses came, the pace felt a bit more in-tune with our speed of eating than some of the other higher-end restaurants we have eaten at in Europe.
The food choices here are pretty straightforward: you can order items a la carte; there is a standard 3- and 4-course tasting menu; or you can get have a 5- or 7-course seasonal tasting menu. We ended up going with the 5-course seasonal to see what the summer specialties would be like, and we are quite pleased to say that all the food here was quite tasty and strayed a bit from what I would typically expect from a French meal (in a good way). We started out with 2 plates of amuse bouches; the first was filled with bites presented in a different manner than usual, particularly from a textural standpoint. The parmesan-based cracker filled with a tomato cream was alright, but not as interesting as the crispy eggplant skin wrapped around basil and sesame seeds or the tomato skin that was filled with frozen tomato juice...both of those were excellently-flavored and very refreshing for a summer day. The next bite before dinner was one of my favorites of the whole meal - a summer truffle dish served with white beans and truffle sauce. The texture of the beans helped to cut through the creaminess of the rest of the dish while being an excellent canvass for the earthiness of the truffles. We were also served a brioche/croissant hybrid bread, which was very good in its own right (if not quite right for using to mop up the remains of the sauce).
The 5-course meal 'officially' kicked off with 3 different seafood dishes to begin with. The first was very summery and unique - a green tomato gazpacho served with Italian shrimp, seared tuna and chunks of different melons alongside basil. The flavors worked really well together, even the melons (which I was more skeptical about). The 'side' dish that came with it was a bit more tenuous, though...it was a watermelon gelatin served with chunks of raw tuna. It looked nice, but the melon completely overpowered any flavor of the tuna...so it went a bit to waste. Next up was char served lightly seared in a carrot-based broth. The fish was cooked very lightly and delicately, which allowed the carrot to really stand out. The last seafood dish was my favorite by far, though - a sunfish that was cooked with a lot of mushrooms (chanterelle and morel) and pistachios and served in a light cream sauce that had both infused into it. While the fish was cooked well, the sturdy, earthy flavors of the nuts and the mushrooms really made each bite fulsome and delicious. We then moved onto the meat dish, which was (unsurprisingly, perhaps) a deliciously-cooked piece of duck breast served alongside whipped potatoes and shredded duck leg meat. The duck itself was a bit on the larger side, but it was cooked really well, and I enjoyed the jus it was served with - it had hints of vinegar and sugar that made it a bit more interesting than the regular au jus preparation. The whipped potatoes were very airy, but the duck leg meat was objectively more savory and better than the breast meat. We had a quick pre-dessert - rum-infused ice cream with vanilla panna cotta that was refreshing (and not your typical palate cleanser either) before finishing with a plate covered in raspberry 'dust' and layered 'cake' of sorts, with a couple of pastry-like crackers containing marshmallow-shaped cream puffs, raspberry jelly, and raspberries and raspberry sorbet on the side. I love tart fruit-based desserts, and this really delivered on all fronts.
Along with having a great ambiance, the food at Le Chat-Botté was very good as well. Some things didn't quite hit the mark, but on balance, the food was very good and a bit lighter than I would usually expect for French cuisine. If you're in town, it would be worth paying a visit to have a meal here, and its location makes it very accessible to central Geneva.