REVIEW: SWISS Senator Lounge, ZRH – E Gates

I arrived at the Welcome Desk on the right hand side and was warmly welcomed to the senator lounge on the right.

I resisited the temptation to head straight to the whiskey bar by the entrance and instead made my way down the Boulevard and into the main area of the lounge. The design here is very sleek: glass, metal, a ton of wood, lots of natural light and some wonderful views of the planes!

The wall is divided up into sections, each of which contains information on a different Canton of Switzerland, depicting each region’s mountains and lakes above its official crest. A selection of tourist literature is also available to take away.

A number of semi-private phone booths are located at the far end of the Boulevard, these have no seats but do offer a variety of charging sockets as well as a small desk area on which to write notes or type on a tablet or laptop. There were no seats here though, for work not involving a phone call it would be better to head to the dedicated Work Area instead.

The work area’s located just past the main dining hall.

My first port of call was the Coffee Station, where a huge variety of teas was available in addition to freshly made bean to cup espressos. There was also a mini buffet of cold food items contained in the cabinets on the left.

A selection of bottom shelf wines and spirits was available just beyond the Coffee station, on the way to the live cooking station (aka Front Cooking on the lounge map)

I arrived just between the breakfast and lunch services. The self-service containers were all empty as was the live cooking station.

The buffet sections were full of stuff like this, i.e. carbs in various shapes and sizes. Great if you want gummy bears, cake and chocolate pretzels for breakfast. Not so good if you want anything hot or substantial… so just like the service on board my SWISS flight basically.

The rest of the lounge is filled with seating areas of varying shapes and sizes. All tastefully decorated and with the majority of seats having access to power and tabletops. The door on the left was one of three access points to the outdoor terrace…

…although given the weather, I wasn’t able to go out and enjoy some summer plane spotting against a delightful mountain background, as I had envisaged.

I continued my walk along the inside of the lounge and came to the relax area, right at the end. The reclining chairs here are comfortable and the pods offer a decent amount of privacy, storage and have power sockets too.

The majority of the relaxation pods face the terrace, wih these two being the exception. I don’t know why anybody would want to sit in the first of these. It offers no privacy and gets loads of light despite facing away from the terrace views.

With almost the entire lounge explored and photographed I quickly headed to the bathroom. The decor there was incredibly elegant and modern. BA would do well to take note. This is a lounge specifically built for Frequent flyers; there is natural stone, recessed lighting and freshly cut roses – everything is also kept spotlessly clean.

After my quick investigation of the regular parts of the lounge, it was time to check out the Whisky Club 28/10 – an unbelievably cool concept and something above and beyond what is offered at most of the world’s First Class lounges, let alone frequent flyer facilities.

I pulled up a seat at the bar and was quickly poured a glass of water and handed a weighty tome containing a mesmerising level of detail on the whiskies of the world. The menu was beautifully constructed and better designed than comparable examples at top bars in the cultural capitals of the world.

Unfortunately my first choice, A Yamazaki 12, was unavailable. However I still had a dizzying array of bottles to choose from and was offered a dram of The Nikka 12 whilst I deliberated further

Being a fan of the peaty power of an Islay malt, I was particularly pleased when I spotted the section at the far end of the bar. 3 different Ardbegs? 3 Laphroaigs? Unbelievable!