These restaurants are listed alphabetically within five categories: Gourmet, Business, Trendy, Budget and Personal Recommendations. The categories serve as guidelines rather than absolute definitions of the establishments.
The restaurants have been grouped into four different price categories:
$$$$ (over SFr120)
$$$ (SFr80 to SFr120)
$$ (SFr50 to SFr80)
$ (up to SFr50)
These prices are for a three-course meal for one with half a bottle of wine or equivalent, including VAT and service charge. Besides VAT, a compulsory 15% service charge is included in the cost of all restaurant
bills. Diners also tend to round the bill up to the nearest SFr10.
GourmetBlaue Ente
One of Zurich’s best restaurants, the Blaue Ente (Blue Goose) is located in a converted mill on the east shore of Lake Zurich, about 1km (0.6 miles) south of the city center. With its whitewashed bricks, glass and bits of machinery from the original mill, the Blaue Ente draws a cosmopolitan crowd to its regularly-changing seasonal menus and duck specialties. Reservations recommended.
Seefeldstrasse 223
Tel: (01) 388 6840.
Website:
www.blaue-ente.chPrice: $$$
Kronenhalle
Some of the 20th century’s greatest artists (including Stravinsky, Brecht and Joyce) have frequented the Kronenhalle. Its fin de siècle décor is perfect for displaying the wonderful collection of 20th-century art, which includes works by Giacometti, Picasso, Miro, Chagall and Matisse. The menu attracts many regular diners, who enjoy the excellently prepared local and international dishes on the menu. Service is first rate and the ambience more laid-back than formal, despite the price.
Rämistrasse 4
Tel: (044) 262 9900.
Website:
www.kronenhalle.com Price: $$$$
Petermann’s Kunststuben
The Kunststuben, 6km (4 miles) south of the city center on Lake Zurich’s eastern shore (the ‘Gold Coast’), counts among the nation’s finest restaurants, thanks to Hamburg-born Michelin-starred Horst Petermann, one of Switzerland’s greatest chefs. The intimate restaurant (a former art gallery) boasts an exceptional wine cellar a daily changing menu which leans heavily on French cuisine. It has entertained many heads of state, major artists and businesspeople. During the summer, guests can dine outside in the intimate garden. Reservations essential.
Seestrasse 160, Küsnacht
Tel: (044) 910 0715.
Website:
www.kunststuben.comPrice: $$$$
BusinessHaus zum Rüden
Located in an impressive 13th-century building, the Haus zum Rüden (House of the Hounds) once belonged to the Constaffel Society, the noblemen and knights who elected the mayor in the Middle Ages. Of the three dining rooms, the Constaffelsaal
has early baroque stucco decorations; the Rüdenstübli
contains a rococo frieze dating from 1773; while the Gothic Room boasts impressive 11m- (36ft-) long beams. Dishes are hearty and traditional. Reservations are required.
Limmatquai 42
Tel: (044) 261 9566.
Website:
www.hauszumrueden.chPrice: $$$$
Hummerbar
The St Gotthard Hotel
has been in the Manz family since 1899 and its Hummerbar (Lobster Bar) has long been one of the city’s top dining places. The setting, like the hotel, is fin de siècle with rich scarlet décor, candles and polished wood. Iranian caviar, oysters and other shellfish is flown in fresh every day. Champagne is the drink of choice.
Hotel St Gotthard, Bahnhofstrasse 87
Tel: (01) 227 7700.
Website:
www.hotelstgotthard.ch Price: $$$$
Veltliner Keller
The Veltliner
Keller
has been a restaurant since 1551, and a wine cellar since 1325, used to store the Italian-Swiss Valtellina wines that were carried over the Alps to Zurich. The ancient carved wood interior is typical of the Graubünden region, with wooden panelling made from
arve, a mountain pine unique to Switzerland. The seasonal menu includes both Swiss and Italian classic dishes, including the celebrated Zurich-style
kalbsgeschnetzeltes (sliced veal and mushrooms in a white wine sauce).
Schlüsselgasse 8
Tel: (01) 225 4040.
Website:
www.veltlinerkeller.chPrice: $$$
TrendyBlindekuh
An interesting concept in novelty dining, Blindekuh is run by blind and visually impaired staff. Diners eat in pitch-blackness to simulate the experience of being blind. The blind waiters and waitresses guide customers to their seats and no one ever sees the interior of the restaurant or even their own food. The menu is high-quality and the waiting lists several months long.
Muhlebachstrasse 148
Tel: (044) 421 5050.
Website:
www.blindekuh.ch Price: $$
Restaurant LaSalle
This fashionable restaurant is in a former shipbuilding warehouse in the trendy regenerating Zurich West district. The innovative restaurant is housed within an enormous glass box, suspended inside the external redbrick structure. The menu is predominantly French and Italian, with a seafood focus. Two theaters and a jazz bar are located in the same complex.
Schiffbaustrasse 4
Tel: (044) 258 7071.
Website:
www.lasalle-restaurant.chPrice: $$$
BudgetCafé Bar Odéon
This
ultra-trendy art nouveau cafe and bar was formerly a notorious coffeehouse where the pre-revolutionary Lenin and other intellectuals met when they could not afford to heat their own rooms. Joyce, Einstein, Mata Hari and Mussolini also visited. Now the crowd is counter-culture chic and in the evening, the Odéon
attracts both singles and gays. The menu features fine pasta dishes, a daily lunch menu and desserts, and there is outdoor seating in the summer. It remains open late into the night.
Limmatquai 2
Tel: (044) 251 1650.
Website:
www.odeon.ch Price: $$
Crazy Cow
This friendly and eccentric restaurant adjoining Hotel Leoneck draws a young and lively crowd and is decorated with cows, Heidi, edelweiss, giant Toblerones and a variety of other witty Swiss stereotypes. The food is wholly Swiss too, including various hearty
rösti dishes and the house specialty,
Alpen macaroni. Even the menu is written in Swiss dialect - ask for a translated version.
Leonhardstrasse 1
Tel: (044) 261 4055.
Website:
www.crazycow.chPrice: $
Molino Zurigo
Italian restaurant Molino is ideally located on Limmatquai, offering a relaxed, welcoming atmosphere. And the food is excellent. Some say the pizzas served here are the best in town, but the rest of the dishes on the menu are just as mouth-watering. Authentic Italian cooking at its best and at reasonable prices.
Limmatquai 16
Tel: (044) 261 0117.
Website:
www.molino.ch Price range: $$
Restaurant Hiltl
The Bavarian Ambrosius Hiltl purchased the Vegetarierheim und Abstinez-Café (Vegetarians’ Home and Teetotalers’ Café) in 1907 and turned it into the hugely successful vegetarian Restaurant Hiltl. Now run by his great-grandson, Rolf, it is especially popular for its lunch menu, which always includes 50 salads (to eat in or take away) and its Indian and Thai buffet of around 30 different dishes in the evening, all priced by weight.
Sihlstrasse 28
Tel: (044) 227 7000.
Website:
www.hiltl.ch Price: $
Personal RecommendationsAdler’s Swiss Chuchi
The wooden-panelled dining rooms of the Adler Hotel
are located directly on Hirschenplatz, the Niederdorf’s main square, with al fresco dining in summer. The restaurant offers a varied menu of Swiss specialties, but the real reason for dining here is the many different and, possibly Zurich’s best, versions of
fondue and
raclette (melted cheese usually served with ham and potatoes), with prices varying according to the number of ingredients and alcoholic additions.
Hotel Adler, Hirschenplatz
Tel: (044) 266 9696.
Website:
www.hotel-adler.ch Price: $$
El Parador
Probably the best Spanish restaurant in the city, located just off the Limmatplatz, El Parador is known for its light and cosy atmosphere and attention to detail. First courses can include garlic soup and Spanish salads like salt cod with white beans. The paella and chicken with garlic and onions are wonderful, as is the
parrillada mixed seafood grill. The staff offer a warm Spanish welcome and service to their guests. Closed Saturday lunch and Sunday.
Luisenstrasse 43
Tel: (043) 366 8885.
Website:
www.elparador.chPrice: $$$
Zeughauskeller
Built on the remains of a 15th-century armory (
zeughaus), the Zeughauskeller
opened in 1927, when a new owner converted the building into the city’s top restaurant and beer hall. Large stone pillars hold up the ornamental wooden-beamed ceiling, and portraits of noblemen and weaponery from the Middle Ages to the present day are displayed. As with all beer cellars, lengthy tables are shared, as diners tuck into classic Zurich cuisine, including at least 12 varieties of sausage - the
kanonenputzer (lit.‘canon-cleaner’) is served in half-meter or meter lengths.
Bahnhofstrasse 28A, Paradeplatz
Tel: (044) 211 2690.
Website:
www.zeughauskeller.ch Price: $
Nightlife:The most popular place in Zurich for nightlife is the Old Town, on the left bank of the River Limmat, with many bars and cafes tucked away on the side streets such as Niederdorfstrasse and Oberdorfstrasse. New bars and clubs keep opening up in the city, especially to the west of the Hauptbahnhof in the fourth and fifth districts, around Langstrasse and Escher-Wyss-Platz. The majority of bars and clubs close around 0200 but some stay open until 0300 or 0400. The minimum drinking age is 18 years. Very few clubs have a dress code.
Information on club nights and performances (as well as theaters, concerts and opera) is listed in
Züri Tipp, published in Friday’s
Tages Anzeiger (website:
www.zueritipp.ch).
Bars: Quite a few of the city’s best bars serve food or have a restaurant attached.
Kaufleuten, Pelikanstrasse 18, is a popular bar with a hip restaurant. Upmarket and hyper-trendy
Café Bar Odéon, Limmatquai 2, attracts the beautiful people and those who think they are.
BaBaLu, Schmidgasse 6, is an eclectic place, sometimes hosting interesting live music. The
Jules Verne Panorama Bar, on the 11th floor between the Brasserie Lipp and the Urania Observatory, Uraniastrasse 9, is always crowded but offers wonderful views over the city. The
Ziegel oh Lac bar and restaurant, in the
Rote Fabrik arts center, Seestrasse 407, has waterside seating in summer and reasonably priced food.
Clubs: In Switzerland ’nightclubs’ refer to venues with erotic floorshows and/or lap or table dancing. ’Discos’ or ’dance clubs’ refer to clubs with music for dancing. Many of the new clubs are located in Langstrasse/Zurich West, the former red light and industrial district, and now being redeveloped as the heart of young Zurich. Excellent clubs with bars and restaurants include
Labor, Schiffbaustrasse 3 (website:
www.laborbar.ch), and
Supermarket, Geroldstrasse 17 (tel: (website:
www.supermarket.li). Many of the older established clubs are part of larger arts and entertainment complexes with restaurants or cafes. In
Rote Fabrik, Seestrasse 395 (website:
www.rotefabrik.ch/musikbuero), 5km (3 miles) south of the center, are the
Klubraum and the
Aktionshalle; a wide range of dance music is played, as well as live acts.
X-tra, Limmatstrasse 118 (website:
www.x-tra.ch), features DJs and live bands and attracts a young, trendy crowd.
Kanzlei, Kanzleistrasse 56, near Helvetiaplatz (website:
www.kanzlei.ch), plays house, hip hop and drum’n’bass. For techno and alternative dance music,
Rohstofflager, Duttweilerstrasse, Ecke Pfingsweicerstrasse (website:
www.rohstofflager.ch), is a good bet, as is the newish
Dynamo, part of the Jungendkulturhaus, Wasserwerkstrasse 21 (website:
www.dynamo.ch), which also features live concerts, usually of punk music.
Tonimolkerei, Förrlibuckstrasse 109 (
www.tonimolkerei.com), remains one of the coolest clubs in town, housed in an old, disused dairy, with a massive bar and dance music to suit all tastes.
Live Music: Large rock concerts are usually held in
Hallenstadion, Wallisellenstrasse 45 (website:
www.hallenstadion.ch), in the Oerlikon district. The
Volkshaus, Stauffacherstrasse 60 (website:
www.volkshaus.ch), also houses big music events. For top-flight jazz in a striking setting, there is
Moods Jazz Club, Schiffbaustrasse 6 (website:
www.moods.ch), which is part of the major cultural center in the former Sulzer shipbuilding works. The building also has a restaurant and theater.
JazzBaragge, Waldmannstrasse 12 (website:
www.jazzbaragge.ch), attracts many jazz fans with its Wednesday jam evenings. The
Casa Bar, Münstergasse 30, Zürich’s longest-running jazz venue, offers nightly entertainment. The chic
Hotel Bar Widder, Widdergasse 6 (website:
www.widderhotel.ch), features well-known jazz artists with regular concerts on Tuesdays from March to May and from October to January.
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