Where to eat AUSTRIA 🇦🇹 Bern: Restaurant Romy
Pascal Ralo’s restaurant, which serves as a tribute to his two grandmothers, one Austrian, the other Portuguese. Restaurant Romy is named for his Austrian Oma, who must have been quite the guiding light, certainly in the kitchen... a bit of an old and forgotten world to your plate.
Restaurant Romy
Rathausgasse 11, Bern
What we ordered: We ordered the four-course prix fixe menu, which in reality was more of a six-course menu when you count the amuse bouche as an opener and the pre-dessert.
The amuse bouche consisted of a pairing of chocolate and watermelon. This was served with a traditional consommé with chives. The next course consisted of roast veal, radishes, complimented by basil and a warm tomato cream sauce.
This was followed by carrots served in two parts. The main part consisted of various kinds of sauteed chopped carrots garnished with parsley and adorned with a drizzled with a tomato peppercorn sauce. This was paired with currants, sour cream and sunflower seeds. The chopped carrots were complimented by a side of glazed shredded carrots.
For the main course, we had two different entrees that are also available a la carte. My partner was served the beef goulash with peppers and classic Austrian bread dumplings garnished with currants, cabbage, mushroom and peppers. I had the bread dumplings served with vegetarian jus, celery, paprika. These were garnished with a bit of remoulade, berries, mushroom, some shredded cabbage and radish.
The pre-dessert was a shaved ice sorbet paired with homemade olive oil. The dessert itself was a plum cassis crumble with yogurt, which can also be ordered a la carte.
To drink, we had 30 centiliters of the Grüner Veltliner am Berg 2021, which we were so impressed with we ordered a bottle. We also ordered a bottle of sparkling water.
Cost: 309 CHF / €326 / $346
Delightful is too modest a word for chef and owner Pascal Ralo’s restaurant, which serves as a tribute to his two grandmothers, one Austrian, the other Portuguese. Restaurant Romy is named for his Austrian Oma, who must have been quite the guiding light, certainly in the kitchen.
The fusion of the two cultures and his personal interpretation of the family recipes comes served with a lot of heart. His presence and efforts in the kitchen, at the table, welcoming guests as they arrive is in contrast to so many concepts and hipster establishments in Bern, with their formulaic and often unfriendly service. Ralo does everything to make you feel like he has brought a bit of an old and forgotten world to your plate.
Restaurant Romy staff was exceptionally gracious about filling the courses with their Austrian offerings and foregoing the Portuguese, which they will no doubt do as well for allergies and dietary restrictions. I left comfortably full, despite perhaps having consumed half the menu, and having done so, I can say I kvelled over the roast veal and found the goulash and bread dumplings to be nothing short of spectacular. The carrots were fabulous too, but as is often the case with root vegetables, they served as a compliment rather than the main attraction.
Most surprising of all though were the desserts. While we may live in the land of endless chocolate, I have never been much one for sweets and have the most limited palette for sugar beyond using a pinch in a grill marinade. But the desserts at Restaurant Romy literally take you to the old world, to centuries past and a Europe that is hard to find beyond the occasional exile communities worldwide where time and taste buds are frozen at the moment of departure from the old country.
As we ate the crumble, it took me deep into my mother’s native state of Wisconsin, with its old Germanic traditions that harken to lands and times that no longer exist as they once did in the mid-19th century. The Austrian Empire, the Prussian world have all vanished. When the check arrived, it came with a morsel of sachertorte, a living touch of Vienna as it is today.
How to get to Austria from Switzerland:
Car or rail is the easiest and greenest way to commute to Switzerland’s eastern neighbor. The border between the two countries extends from Lake Constance in the north to the Schesaplana peak in the south. Road and rail conditions are good, albeit the Swiss rail network is always a cut above its neighbors.
Nonstop flights are available on both Swiss Air and Austrian Airlines from Geneva and Zürich.
How many Austrians are in Switzerland: 46,000 Austrian nationals reside in Switzerland in addition to 1,200 Austrian students, the fifth largest foreign student population in Switzerland.
Distance between Bern and Vienna: 861 kilometers
Distance from Restaurant Romy to Vienna: 861 kilometers
Learn how to make Austria's national dish, Wiener schnitzel, and about its origins.
Follow our social media pages @swissglobaldining on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube