To celebrate Alba’s birthday last weekend, we were delighted to accept the invitation to try Sunday brunch at the Hotel Intercontinental in Geneva.
Back in the day when I worked as an Executive Assistant, the company I worked for used to run large events at the Intercontinental, and I can still remember the incredible impression it made when I first walked through the doors.
It's been a while since my last visit and I was excited to show Jean as I knew he would love it too. We got the children scrubbed and tidily dressed and set off with great excitement. When we arrived, we spent a few minutes ogling at the magnificent entrance hall before discovering the Woods restaurant. Now this was really a jaw dropping moment as we were shown into our own enormous private area off the main dining room where we found a large table which would easily accommodate us all for brunch along with a separate seating area thoughtfully equipped with puzzles, games and colouring equipment for the children. We had been so worried about Elio shouting during brunch and bothering other people so honestly, this arrangement was such a thoughtful touch, we were just dumb-struck!
Once we were settled and had ordered drinks we went off to explore the buffets. This was such an exciting experience for foodies like us and we had to keep ourselves under control. We started with the cold buffet table and tried their delicious velouté, salads and cold meats before moving onto the prawns and salmon with lots of wonderful sauces to choose from (this was heaven for my Bourguignon, Jean who is a big fan of any kind of sauce!). The brilliant thing about the extra space was that the children could play happily while we ate in relative peace...it's not often we can say that!!
Jean and I decided to try Eggs Benedict which we always order when we have the chance. Following that we went to another room where we tried some delicious hot dishes including roasted meat, quiches and fish and Jude was delighted to see the mini burgers and took two!! Jude is going through a phase of being rather conservative with his food choices but Alba is a bit more adventurous and loved the buffet layout for discovering new things to try.
Next up was my favorite part - the desserts! It was really hard to choose as they all looked so beautiful and we loved the Halloween touches with little desserts shaped like pumpkins and meringues which looked like ghosts! Of course it was all really delicious but I have a special weakness for lemon tarts and Jean loves anything involving chocolate so we were both happy :-).
We really adored this lavish experience which was the perfect way to mark Alba’s special day. We were a bit nervous about taking the children to such a smart place as they can be a bit unruly, but we need not have felt intimidated as it was a busy space and there were quite a few other little ones there so we felt very comfortable. All of the staff we encountered were friendly, efficient and wonderful with the children.
We’d heartily recommend this to people looking for something a bit special on a Sunday. If you would like to book for next week, you can do so here.
InterContinental Geneva
Chemin du Petit-Saconnex 7-9
1209 Genève
Where: at the Woods restaurant
When: every Sunday
Opening hours: noon to 3pm
Booking: Tel : +41 22 919 33 33
Price
Available at CHF 115 per adult, including a glass of champagne.
Children between 6-12 years old dine at half price, including unlimited soft drinks and juices.
Kids under the age of 5 eat for free.
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