Taverne at Appenzeller Huus, Gonten: A Burger, Twice: How a Great Service Team Saved an Evening the Kitchen Nearly Lost

I have eaten in three-star dining rooms and at motorway service stations, and I can tell you one thing: a burger is the most honest dish on any menu. There is nowhere to hide. Either the meat is cooked right, or it is not. This Taverne Appenzeller Huus Gonten restaurant review is the story of a burger that we were served twice, and of a service team that did everything it could to rescue an evening that the kitchen kept trying to ruin. If you follow our restaurant reviews, you know I do not do hatchet jobs. This is not one either. But it is not a love letter.

A Historic Inn With a Wall Full of Awards

The Appenzeller Huus in Gonten is one of the most talked-about hotel projects in eastern Switzerland. Its heart is the Huus Bären 1602, a historic inn whose old house and modern extension hold twelve rooms and a gourmet restaurant. The Taverne is the most down-to-earth of the resort’s restaurants: the meeting point for hotel guests and visitors, for coffee in the afternoon, a snack or an apéro by the fire. Hot food is served every day from 11 am to 10.30 pm, and you cannot book a table. You simply come.

Straight-line distances. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

And what a room it is. Rough stone walls, old timber ceilings, chandeliers, a fireplace that crackles as promised on the menu, and a vaulted wine cellar behind glass. Next to it, a lounge with leather wing chairs and fur throws invites you to stay much longer than you planned. Four point eight points for the ambiance, and not a tenth less. Getting here is easy, too: the Gonten stop of the Appenzeller Bahnen is just a minute’s walk from the door.

At the entrance, a whole wall of framed awards greets you. Gault&Millau has named the Appenzeller Huus its Hotel of the Year 2027. Falstaff lists the Bärenstobe in its restaurant guide and gives the Huus Quell 94 out of 100 points in its hotel guide, and Andrin Willi’s hotel rating calls owner and host Jan Schoch its newcomer of the year. Keep that wall in mind. We will come back to it.

Twenty Minutes Alone in a Beautiful Room

We were three. At the reception, a friendly lady welcomed us, led us into the Taverne, seated us at a table, and told us the service would be with us shortly. We were the only guests in the room. Then nothing happened. For twenty minutes.

At some point, I went looking for someone. I walked through the whole building. Nobody. The reception was empty, and the only sign of life was a telephone on the desk. So I did what any guest in a luxury hotel would naturally do: I picked it up and called the hotel from inside the hotel. The lady from the reception appeared from a side room, apologised kindly, and promised that someone would come right away. This time, someone did.

An Alcohol-Free Spritz and a Drinks List With Care

From that moment on, the evening was in excellent hands, at least in the dining room. Our server was friendly, charismatic and quick, and I ordered the Huus Spritz: Manzoni, Swiss Mountain Tonic and elderflower, a deep red and entirely alcohol-free aperitif for 15 francs (around 16 euros). With it came a bowl of crackers and one of almonds, and later bread with butter and chives.

The drinks list deserves praise. It has a real alcohol-free section instead of the usual three soft drinks: the Huus Spritz, a homemade water kefir lemonade, a No-Jito with alcohol-free rum, quince and mint, and an alcohol-free Quöllfrisch from the local Appenzeller brewery. Add Appenzell mineral water, coffee from the Rast roastery in Lucerne, teas from Avantcha, signature cocktails with the house gin from Gonten and an impressive list of whiskies, gins and rums for those who drink. Four point seven points.

Starter: Swiss Burrata on Tomato Tartare

The starter was not on the printed menu: a Swiss burrata on a tartare of tomatoes, with herbs and nuts, served on a beautiful patterned plate. It looked like it had wandered down from the gourmet restaurant.

Main Course: The Burger, Part One

For the main course, all three of us ordered the beef burger «Dry Aged» at 39 francs (around 42 euros). According to the menu: Appenzell cheese, BBQ sauce, mustard mayo, onion, pickle, lettuce, tomato, bacon, and French fries. It looked exactly as you would hope.

Then we bit into it. Inside, the meat was raw, like a tartare, and cold. Not medium rare, not pink, but raw. I like a beef tartare very much, but I like to order it as one. We sent all three burgers back at once. Out of decency, we spare you a photo of the inside.

Our server could not have handled it better. She took the plates back without a word of discussion and told us the kitchen would make three new burgers right away. It would take about twenty minutes. Fair enough.

Main Course: The Burger, Part Two

Twenty minutes later, she came back with three plates in her hands and asked, in all seriousness: “Who had which burger?”

We laughed. We thought it was a joke. It was not. The kitchen had not made three new burgers. It had put the three bitten, raw burgers back on the grill and sent them out again. The fries had been reheated as well, until they were hard as stone. And which bitten burger belonged to whom was, frankly, impossible to say.

To be fair: this time the burger was good. Very good, in fact, with the Appenzell cheese doing exactly what it should. That is precisely what makes it so frustrating. The kitchen can make an excellent burger. On our evening, it just did not want to make a second one.

And when the plates were cleared, nobody asked how it had tasted. Perhaps it was better not to.

Any burger stand at a motorway service station would have put three fresh patties on the grill. In a house with that many awards at the entrance, serving the same bitten burger a second time is simply not done. Four point eight for the room, two point five for the food. That is the gap the kitchen has to close.

Dessert: Cheesecake in a Jar, on the House

The evening ended on a conciliatory note. We had the cheesecake in a jar, with berries, shiso and butter crumble, and coffee. Both were good, and both were on the house, a gesture we appreciated and that I want to mention here in fairness.

Service: The Heroes of the Evening

I want to be very clear about one thing. The service team cannot be blamed for this evening, neither for an empty reception nor for a kitchen that recycles burgers. Our server was competent, charming and quick-witted, she took the blame where the kitchen should have, and she kept the mood of the evening alive when it could easily have turned. That is why the service gets four point eight points despite the twenty-minute wait at the start. Everything was also spotless: the tables, the glasses, the cutlery and the room. A full five points for cleanliness.

As for value: 39 francs (around 42 euros) for a burger is a fair price for dry-aged Swiss beef in a hotel of this standard, if it arrives cooked the first time. Three points, and that already includes credit for the dessert and coffee that came on the house.

On the way out, we stopped at the wall of awards once more. We briefly considered taking one down, coming back in fourteen days to test the kitchen again and, if all goes well, hanging it back up ourselves. We left it hanging. For now.

Taverne, Huus Bären 1602, Appenzeller Huus, Dorfstrasse 40, 9108 Gonten (Switzerland) · appenzellerhuus.ch

About the author

Roger Hohl

Roger Hohl has been at the helm of Luxvisor since 2006. From his base in Switzerland he travels to test what the luxury travel industry promises, from the seat at 40,000 feet to the last course of a tasting menu, and writes about it with an independent eye.