Wart restaurant awarded 15 Gault-Millau points

Every autumn the Ringier company publishes its latest Gault-Millau Guide for Switzerland. In recent years Zug has not fared so well, not least with Stefan Meier of the Rathauskeller in the city not wishing to take part and with Christine and René Weder of the Sternen in Walchwil moving away.

However, there is some good news to report this year with the announcement that the Wart restaurant in Hünenberg is to be included in the next edition of the guide, and what is more, with no fewer than 15 points, as its landlord, Peter Egli, confirmed.

As the news spread around, the chef de cuisine there, Sebastian Rabe (photograph), said guests had been calling him up to congratulate him. “I was totally surprised by the news and still am,” he said, even after a few days after hearing about it.

It was last September when Rabe began to work at the Wart, that, in an interview with a journalist at the Zuger Zeitung, he said he might aim for one Michelin star in the mid-term, even though the German-born chef had been instrumental the Gourmet Restaurant Pur in Pfäffikon in the canton of Schwyz, where he had previously worked, being awarded 15 Gault-Millau points. Other renowned restaurants where he has worked include the Louis C. Jacob Hotel in Hamburg (18 points one and star), the Castello del Sole in Ascona (also 18 points and one star) and the Wirtschaft zum Wiesengrund in Uetikon am See on Lake Zurich (18 points and two stars).

In having been awarded 15 points, he now feels he has to live up to this and show his guests he is worthy of such an honour.

Since an article about the Wart and its award appeared in the Swiss weekly journal Schweizer Illustrierte, which is also published by Ringier, the restaurant has been full most days. “I still can hardly believe it,” he said modestly. This is in stark contrast to the day when Urs Heller, the chief tester for Gault-Millau Switzerland, came in following a tip from a former colleague, Rabe thinks.

As Egli summed up, the award has brought back prestige to the canton in the area of gourmet food as he went on to congratulate his staff for all their efforts.

Other restaurants with high numbers of Gault-Millau points in the canton are the Falken in Neuheim (16 points), the Hirschen in Oberägeri and the Wildenmann in Buonas (15 points), the Hinterburgmühle in Neuheim, the Blinker in Cham and the Lindenhof in Unterägeri (14 points), the Aklin, the Zum Kaiser Franz im Rössl, both in Zug, and the Waldheim in Risch, all with 13 points.