My lovely friend took me to Arakel wine bar in my Eaux Vies neighborhood in Geneva as a welcome dinner to the city she loves so much. Arakel was a new place for her to try, but it ended up being an excellent choice- the food (and wine) were delightful, our waiter was so attentive and even offered to show us his tattoos, and the restaurant was quite chic in its rich velvet tones of hues of blues and deep coral.

The menu is all tapas style which was great as we circled in on some favorites and ordered them twice- one of which was the spicy tuna on this fun, free-shaped rice cracker.

Then we moved to thinly sliced beef which almost had a perfume like quality. Again, quite nice and quite beautiful.

The octopus carpaccio was the one surprize. While the octopus itself was fine, neither of us were into whatever the butter-looking stuff was on top. It was not butter, but neither of us could get past the texture or taste. Usually, this would be my favorite.

Aside from the tuna, the standout for me was this gorgeous, work of art, eggplant. It was decorated with these modern feta blocks that were coated in sesame seeds and artfully drizzled in a balsamic reduction.

By this time, after multiple rounds of tuna and some bread thrown in for good measure, my dessert loving friend insisted we must. There was only one item on the menu, cheesecake, and marked as their specialty as one would hope as the only thing on the menu. I thought we would share, but my friend quickly told the waiter we would each have one because she needed this. I still think one could have done the job as these were quite rich, but they were absolutely incredible. This was not like a US cheesecake, but rather a Speculoos cookie crust, topped with slightly sweetened cream cheese and these gorgeous raspberries.

Our three hour dinner was an absolutely wonderful evening and the perfect welcome to the city for me. I look forward to returning soon for tuna, eggplant, and cheesecake.