Eating in Zurich

Zurich is expensive to eat in, and the gap between a good meal and an ordinary one is much smaller than the gap between their prices. What follows is the local repertoire and the ways round the bill.

The city’s dish

Zürcher Geschnetzeltes — strips of veal in a cream, white wine and mushroom sauce, with rösti. It is rich, it is heavy, and it is what Zurich cooks. Order it once, ideally at lunch, and plan on walking afterwards.

Traditionally it includes kidney; most places now leave it out and say so.

Rösti on its own is grated potato pressed into a pan and fried into a cake, and it appears beside almost everything.

The institutions

Zeughauskeller — the old arsenal by Paradeplatz, now a beer hall with long shared tables, halberds on the walls and a menu of sausages measured in centimetres. Touristy, genuinely old, and better than it needs to be.

The guild houses — the Zunfthäuser along the Limmat were the halls of the medieval trade guilds and several are now restaurants. Zunfthaus zur Waag, zur Zimmerleuten, zum Rüden. Formal, expensive, and the room is part of what you are paying for.

Kronenhalle — the grand one, unchanged since the 1920s, with Chagall, Miró, Picasso and Bonnard on the walls. Joyce ate here. Book, and dress for it.

Hiltl — the oldest vegetarian restaurant in the world, open since 1898, when it was regarded as an eccentricity and the founder’s doctor prescribed the diet for his arthritis. Now a large buffet where you pay by weight, and one of the best-value proper meals in the city. Its sister Tibits does the same thing faster.

Cheap and good

• Supermarket food halls. Coop and Migros do hot dishes and salad counters, and the branches inside the main station open late and on Sundays when almost everything else is shut. This is not a compromise; it is what locals do.
• Lunch menus. The same kitchens that hurt in the evening serve a fixed lunch at a fraction of the price. Look for Mittagsmenü chalked outside.
• Markets. Bürkliplatz on Tuesday and Friday mornings, Helvetiaplatz on Tuesday and Friday, with stalls cooking as well as selling.
• Sausage stands. A grilled Cervelat or Bratwurst with a piece of bread — no plate, no mustard on request, mustard is on the counter. Sternen Grill at Bellevue is the one people queue at.
• Tap water. Excellent, and free from the 1,200 street fountains — fill a bottle before you sit down. It is not what a restaurant will bring you, though: water on a Swiss table means a bottle of mineral water, still or sparkling, opened in front of you and charged like any other drink.

Where the areas are

Niederdorf, on the east bank, is the concentration of restaurants and bars and where an evening naturally goes.

Zurich West, in the former industrial district around the viaduct arches, is where the newer places are — the Markthalle under the railway arches, Frau Gerolds Garten in summer, and the food hall in the old shipbuilding works.

Kreis 4, around Langstrasse, is the cheap and mixed quarter: Turkish, Balkan, Thai, and open later than anywhere else.

What to drink

Local beers, and the wine from the canton — Zurich makes more than people expect, mostly Pinot Noir and Räuschling, a white grown almost nowhere else. See eat and drink.

Practical

• Prices are final. Service is included, and tipping is rounding up rather than a percentage.
• Book for anything formal, particularly Thursday to Saturday.
• Kitchens close early by southern European standards — often by 21:30 outside the centre.
• Sunday — most restaurants open, most shops shut.