Back when I lived in Servette (and Charmilles / Lignon before that) a few years back, I had walked and cycled past this strange-looking restaurant numerous times, intrigued by it. This was largely because it looked pretty tacky to be perfectly honest, and confused me to no end because it said it did both pizza and Eritrean food. My cultural ignorance meant I wasn't aware until afterwards that the Italian occupation of Eritrea obviously influenced its cuisine. Only a few days ago, good friends who still live in the Servette area (literally 5 minutes around the corner) and I were trying to figure out what to eat for dinner on a Saturday night. I decided to be a bit difficult and enforce the rule that none of the three of us were allowed to choose a restaurant that any of us had been to before, which meant La Gazelle d'Or became quite a frontrunner (especially the 5 minute walk!)

We booked for the same evening and walked over. When you walk in, you find quite a number of people sitting in the front section (separate to the rest of the restaurant) eating very tasty and sizable-looking pizzas. Impressively (especially for those who detest paying extra to sit in and eat), La Gazelle d'Or has a pretty wide-ranging pizza menu and charges CHF 10 per pizza whether you decide to take away or sit in. We went further in and were seated at the very 'typical' Ethiopian / Eritrean-type table/drum thing and greeted by a friendly, family-run atmosphere. Surprisingly, the restaurant was much bigger than it looks outside, resembles a sort of tacky African village (imagine every type of African ornament you could find in a tourist tat shop but housed in curious glass cabinets) but was packed full of satisfied-looking customers!

The menu - solely Eritrean in this African village-part of the restaurant - was varied and reasonably-priced. We picked La Gazelle Royale - Zegni (morsels of beef), Doro (chicken thighs in a lovely spicy sauce) and Tibs d'Agneau (what turned out to lamb pieces sauteed with peppers, green beans, carrots and onions). The menu came with plentiful injera (the bread) and cost CHF 89 for three people. It was delicious. Although a little oily, the beef was the highlight - really cooked down to a tender stew-like consistency packed with flavour and the portions were simply massive. Despite my best efforts (and I can seriously eat), we did end up leaving a tiny bit but were incredibly stuffed. I have to admit I was overwhelmed that we had found tasty, generous Eritrean food in a fun atmosphere that didn't break the bank! And in central Geneva. I will never judge a restaurant by its cheesy cover again.... strongly recommended, although not for the faint-hearted - the spice does play with your stomach, as we all found out!

My husband booked us a table for two here on a Groupon - starter, main and dessert. I have to admit I was very excited at the prospect of going to a Nepalese restaurant - hard to find, let alone in Geneva! When we arrived on a Monday night, we were a little surprised at how tucked away this place is a quiet residential street in the Servette area. We were even more surprised to find a tiny restaurant with a door that looked like it had been put in to replace a door that might have been broken into and a decor which resembled more of a 'cafe / fast food' joint. I was wondering whether the food would be a bit odd given the surroundings. However, we were pleasantly surprised to find an attentive English-speaking waiter who was happy to make suggestions about dishes. We chose the beef momo as starters (plump steamed dumplings) and chicken nepali and lamb dal as mains. Rice and naan had to be ordered on the side. The momo was tasty and with a juicy filling - served strangely with two sauces that didn't quite go in my opinion (think thousand island almost) but still inoffensive. The chicken nepali was really packed full of flavour, as was the lamb dal (granted we had asked for spicy versions) and really moreish. And not like the kind of Bengali cuisine one gets used to in London - the dishes did have a different Nepali edge to them and were genuinely very good. The saffron rice was generous, piping hot and interestingly came with cashew nuts, raisins and fried banana mixed in. The garlic naan was crispy, thin and well covered in garlic - again, different to the thick naan we are accustomed to -but better and lighter in comparison. The desserts were strange - some kind of milk ball floating in a rose water that was sweeter than anything I've tasted in a long time. My husband - despite being a sugar fiend- steered clear of finishing this, suggesting it was too sweet even for him! The mango cream- basically a souped-up lassi - was nicer but probably not worth the CHF 8 it was going for. All in all, a seriously tasty meal and a place I'd highly recommend for a fun and tasty dinner in an informal place, or as take away - just don't bother with dessert!

So a friend who loves his food and was a resident New Yorker for years and I were walking around at lunch past the Hospital Universitaire de Geneve (HUG) in Champel a few weeks back and were shocked beyond belief to see a funky-looking chrome food truck in the middle of the park area near the hospital. Excited but stuffed from already having had lunch, we vowed to go back and check it out. On Tuesdays, they are stationed in Place des Chaumettes, but conveniently, they rotate every day to another destination, ranging from Place Bel-Air on Fridays to Place Hollande on Thursdays. 

We rocked up to find they had changed from serving tacos to burritos on account of the cold winter season, which sounded good to us. I took the 'Downtown Brooklyn' burrito and my friend had the veggie 'Green Point' one. CHF 16 and CHF 14.50 respectively. We were pretty excited, as the branding, marketing and sheer existence of a 'taco truck' in Geneva was enough to get our hearts racing. After a short wait, we unwrapped our burritos and tucked in with separate extra 'tres piquant' sauce on the side. 

Unfortunately, the experience was a bit of an anti-climax for the New Yorker and me, a Londoner who likes some serious punch in her food. Despite some very cool and promising branding and a really great-looking chrome truck, the burritos just didn't pack any punch. Compared to even the 'baseline' chains of Chipotle and Tortilla (in NY and London respectively), these burritos were a disappointment. Firstly - they were quite slim and weren't really packed to the brim and puffing out with filling the way they do in Tortilla for example. Secondly, the food was relatively lukewarm; not great. Most disappointingly though, the fillings they advertised: rice, guacamole, black bean - were not what we found in the burritos. There was NO trace of guacamole (very saddening for an avocado fan). The rice resembled basmati rice that had not been flavoured with coriander or onion - just plain and the wrong grain seemingly too. The 'black bean' was simply kidney bean and pretty uninspiring. And the 'beef mix' was barely visible. In fact, I saw more sweet corn in there than anything else. I honestly could have done a better job myself and am not a Tex-Mex expert at all. 

In the end, because it's Geneva we thought it was probably a 7/10 if that (with 2 extra marks for simply being innovative in a good food desert like Geneva). Brownie points should go to the truck guys for introducing a long-overdue cool concept to Geneva. However, the food just doesn't live up to the hype and the expectation and so they probably need to go back to the drawing board for that. 

I came here for lunch with a friend and was quite excited, as this row of Rue de Carouge has a few ethnic restaurants that I've been meaning to try for ages. We skipped the plat du jour options and both went for the Pho - my one being the spicy one, hers the traditional. We also ordered the Goi Cuon (summer rolls), hers with tofu and mine with prawns. The restaurant is very cute - small, informal and packed full of happy-looking customers. The service is fairly prompt and prices are reasonable. We both enjoyed the starters - fresh and with a good side serving of peanut sauce. The Pho was also quite good - I liked the fact that the beef soup seemed as if it had been sat on a stove a little longer than some of the weaker versions I've had in London and Geneva. A fairly generous serving of noodle and the authentic side plate of herbs made it a tasty eat. The Vietnamese coffee I ordered - with condensed milk - was also tasty, although a little sweet and on the small side. All in all, the bill was around CHF 27 each or so and pretty decent for a lunch option. Not a bad Vietnamese at all.

I spotted this restaurant whilst walking back to work from Carouge and was intrigued by the fact that it had an impressive-sounding plat du jour (choice of seafood or meat from what I could make of it) for only CHF 20. I came back with a friend for lunch on a Friday and we had a choice of a pork dish with rice or squid served with some steamed potatoes. We both went for the squid and didn't order drinks but had what my friend thought was tap water. We both received a fresh salad as a starter and then the squid came shortly after. The squid itself was really fresh and well-cooked (i.e. not overdone) and came with a little mixed vegetable salsa (aubergine and tomato and courgette). The problem was that it also came with two rather measly new potatoes that looked quite lonely on the plate and didn't make for a particularly generous dish. We then got the bill and were charged CHF 4.50 for a bottle of water that my friend wasn't told was supposedly mineral. I think the restaurant could be pretty good on a la carte but had the feeling they are a little light on the plat du jour servings. Service was very friendly however, and they also take Ticket Restaurant vouchers (which is refreshing), but I'll have to come back and give it another shot as I wasn't massively convinced the first time round.