Coucou, Craig Road: Rare Swiss Restaurant in Singapore Serving More Than Just Rosti

By Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow on November 25, 2019 • ( 1 Comment )

Assiette valaisanne ($30 half platter, $55 full): cold cuts and cheese

When the 18 year-old Italian restaurant Senso closed permanently, a part of the team, including the Swiss chefs Yves Schmid and Sebastien Donati, decided to open a Swiss restaurant named Coucou along Craig Road. Coucou means “hello” in French (one of the four national languages of Switzerland) or cuckoo bird, a reminder of cuckoo clocks for which Switzerland is famous.

Many of the ingredients are imported from Switzerland and all their selections of wines (except for champagne) are from the country. They start from an affordable $12/glass.

Cosmorand ($18) and Williamine mojito ($18)

If you don’t want wine, recommended are their own concoctions of cocktails. Cosmorand ($18) is a play on Cosmopolitan except that vodka is replaced by abricotine, a Swiss apricot brandy. They substitute rum for Williamine, a Swiss pear brandy, in Williamine mojito ($18), making the mojito less sour and sweeter, although I miss the refreshing sourness of the original cocktail.

Malakoff ($14 first piece, $10 for subsequent pieces), served with Curly Salad

For starters, instead of Assiette Valaisanne ($30 half platter, $55 full), go for the malakoff, a ball of fried cheese found in Western Switzerland. If you think it sounds Russian, you’re right. In the 19th century, a group of Swiss mercenaries helped Russia to fight in the Siege of Sevastopol and the Swiss brought the food back to Switzerland.

Coucou uses gruyere, slightly pungent, and when you bite it, the molten cheese oozes while the crispy surface provides a counterpoint. SO GOOD.

It comes with curly salad and a homemade “grand pére” (grandfather) dressing, so called because the recipe–we tasted garlic, onion, something spicy (chilli?), and vinegar–comes from Chef Schmid’s grandfather who had a restaurant. The creamy dressing is really something: it made us finish the salad.

Trout Tartare ($30)

Coucou uses a species of trout native to Switzerland for the trout tartare ($30), mixed with dill, sour cream, and green chillis. The tangy, creamy flavours remind me of Mexican food.

Rosti Zermatt ($28)

The rosti Zermatt ($28) is very crispy shredded potatoes topped with Swiss raclette cheese and ham. Nothing very special although no complaints eithers.

Spätzli ($8) as a side dish: poached wriggly “pasta,” in the shape of “worms,” is pan-seared in butter. Carbs and butter–what could go wrong?

Ovomaltine mousse and lakerli ($14)

Between the ovomaltine mousse (we know it as ovaltine) served with a Swiss airy ginger bread, and the meringue ($14, pictured below), the latter is superior by a mile.

The meringue is topped with Gruyere double cream which contains about 48% fat–so so fat, so so divine. The raspberry compote, sour, and the tart antioxidants deliver a refreshing end to the meal, and also undercut the sweetness of the meringue and density of the cream.