Restaurant Schöngrün

Schöngrün is a historic villa on the edge of the Zentrum Paul Klee — Renzo Piano's rolling-wave museum on the south-eastern edge of Bern. The restaurant sits fifty metres from the museum's entrance, in a nineteenth-century family house that has been carefully restored and extended with a glass pavilion facing the Klee sculpture garden.

The kitchen cooks a modern Swiss tasting menu with an ingredient focus on the Bernese Seeland and the Jungfrau foothills. Seeland asparagus in May; wild garlic with Alpine butter; Jungfrau lamb with charred leeks; a Belper Knolle ice cream for dessert. The cooking is controlled and confident.

The dining room combines villa-era parquet with modern leather banquettes and Klee-era art reproductions. The pavilion tables face the garden — in spring and summer, this is one of the most architectural restaurant seats in Switzerland.

The wine list is Swiss-focused with serious Vaud and Valais holdings and a well-chosen European backbone. Pairing flights are designed for the tasting menu; the by-the-glass range is broad.

Schöngrün is the Bern first-date restaurant. The Paul Klee frame gives the evening a cultural premise — arrive an hour early for the museum. The villa-plus-pavilion room is dark enough for intimacy and bright enough for conversation. The tasting menu paces the night. And the walk back into town along the Aare is one of the best after-dinner walks in Switzerland.