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Zurich Restaurants

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Zürich Restaurant Reviews

Some of the newer, trendier Zürich restaurants are leaning toward lighter, leaner meals, but it's still easy to find traditional cuisine, known as nach Zürcher Art, meaning "cooked in the style of Zürich." Think meat, mushrooms, potatoes, butter, cream.

Zürich-style cuisine is extremely rich, perfectly suited to the leaded-glass and burnished-oak guildhalls. The signature dish is geschnetzeltes Kalbfleisch, or in French émincé de veau: bite-size slices of milky veal sautéed in butter and swimming in a creamy, rich sauce. The inevitable accompaniment is Rösti (hash brown potatoes); you may also find Spätzli, or "little sparrows": flour-egg dough fingers, either pressed through a sieve or snipped, gnocchi style, and served in butter. Another culinary must is Zürich's favorite portable food, sausage and Bürli (a roll).

Zürichers also have a definite sweet tooth: Refined cafés draw crowds for afternoon pastries, and chocolate shops vie for the unofficial honor of making the best chocolate truffles in town.

The city's inflated cost of living is reflected in its restaurants. There is a shortage of truly budget options, but daily prix-fixe menus are considerably cheaper, and even the glossiest places have business-lunch menus at noon—your best bet for sampling Zürich's highest cuisine at cut rates. For tight-budget travel, watch for posted Tagesteller listings: Cheap menus of the day, with meat, potatoes, and possibly a hot vegetable, can still be found in the Niederdorf for under 20 SF.

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