wanderlust125

we are done with booking hotels in ITALy and PARIS and we are on to SWISS hotel booking ( BO area) now.Before doing that we need your help again!! well not exactly about hotel but about dinning/restaurants/self catering apts and homes.

I have read many posts/threads about favorite restaurants but most of them doesnt talk about what I am looking for. So thought of starting a new thread...

I and my husband both do not eat meat. we are LACTO VEGETARIAN and we eat diary and milk products and no meat of any kind ( this includes egg, fish , seafood, poultry , lard etc).

This is our first trip to Europe as most of you might already know from my previous posting. we will be staying in Berner Oberland area and after suggestions from fodorites to our swiss hotel post, we would want to stay in the mountains ( wengen, lauterbrunnen area) and want to know if there are a any vegetarian friendly restaurants or dinning places in this region. Based on you input we would like to choose our HOMEBASE for 4 days in the BO area mountains. we will be staying in Luzerne for a night before travelling to Paris for a 5 night stay.

Any commments on veggie options or vegetarian friendly restaurants in the mountains ( wengen, lauterbrunne, Murren,luzerne) will be of great help.



Is it better to rent a self catering apt and cook our food as its hard to look for veggie friendly restaurants/deli's?? we are prefectly ok with renting a self catering apartment or home for 4 days in the mountain and cook. With this in mind, any suggestions/recs ??

If it helps to know, we are not renting car and will be using train all the time.

Thanks!!

swandav2000

Hi wanderlust125,

As long as you eat cheese, vegetables, and pasta you should be fine!

You can make a meal out of a gemischte salad (mixed salad, usually with vegetables) with bread, and you can also find pizza easily, and lots of pasta dishes. I don't often eat meat myself, and I eat well in Suisse.

s

wanderlust125

swandav, Yes I do eat everything you mentioned above so I am glad I dont have to worry too much now.

Btw Wengen seems to be really small place ( 1050 people may be, correct me if I am wrong), so do you think we can find veggie pizza, pasta and salads here? any recs for such places in wengen? lauterbrunnen, murren and other towns?

As you mentioned you often dont eat meet while in swiss, can you suggestion some places you have eaten and names of the deli's pizzarias?

Btw is it cheaper to rent Self catering apartments for 4 days during May 26 - 30 ( off season) rather than booking hotels, so we can cook when we want?

another question: I have heard that in europe ( france may be) they use Lard in making bread which we cannot eat?? any idea??

LLindaC

In Wengen, there is an Italian restaurant named Da Sina's which is very good and reasonable (rare). The best fondue, especially with atmosphere, was in Gimmelwald at the restaurant next to the hostel. BIG salad, steaming fondue, absolutely quiet and breathtakingly beautiful scenery. We made it a huge late lunch and skipped dinner. I'm also a veggie, but I eat fish on occasion. I had no trouble at all in Switzerland. Between the fondues, raclette, salads and pizza/pasta I was VERY happy. Better than trying to find a meal in Southern USA, LOLOL!

enzian

Hi Wanderlust---every Swiss restaurant will have vegetarian options. Because cheese is so ubiquitous, it doesn't work well for vegans, but for you there will be many great choices. The salads are very fresh and well prepared, and together with the Swiss dishes already mentioned will make a nice meal. We saw insalata caprese, the tomato, basil and mozzarella salad, everywhere we went in Switzerland last summer. If you have any questions about a dish, just explain that you are "vegetarisch".

I don't know of any restaurants in Wengen, because we generally stay in Mürren. But up at Kleine Scheidegg you will find an Indian restaurant, "Bollywood", which I bet will have pretty good vegetarian fare.

If you decide on self-catering, I know of one place in Mürren (where we stay), and I have read of very favorable comments on apartments in Lauterbrunnen and, I believe, Stechelberg. But I don't remember their names. However, all these towns have very good websites with accomodations, including self-catering apartments, listed.

mvor

I have bookmarked these sites for our September trip to Switzerland:

http://happycow.net/europe/switzerland/index.html

www.vegdining.com/GetRestList.cfm?rgk=EU-SWI

We're renting this apartment in Gridelwald:

http://tinyurl.com/pgkx3

Regarding the bread, some bakeries grease their tins with lard so this might be what you're thinking of--if in doubt, ask. Also, if it's a concern, a lot of European cheeses contain rennet.

wanderlust125

Thanks LLindaC: If we are going to get salads, fondae, pizzas then we can make a have meal out of it, so thats good.

we will try out Da Sina's for sure as we will visit wengen!! LLinda do you remember the name of the restaurant in Gimmelwald where you ate Fondue, we would like to go there if we can get Fondue and good veggie salad.

swandav:we will try out gemischte salad Thanks

enzian: we were a bit concerned about veg dinning in mountains, so we were thinking of self catering, now that we know we can not only survive but enjoy swiss fondae for every meal, we might opt out of self catering unless it works out real cheap for us.

Thanks about the bollywood, we will definitely check it out if we are close to Kleine Scheidegg. can we go here on our way back from jungfrau?, not very familiar with this region yet..need to spend some time with map after I am done with lodging.

enzian, is vegetarisch a german word for Vegetarian?? Thanks for letting us know about this.

is slowtravel a good site to look for self catering aparments? do you know any other website??


mvor: thanks for the links.

btw I just found a website while trying to find the meaning of vegetarisch, is'nt that cool...

go here in case you want to know about vegetarian phrases in world languages i.e western europe. linkhttp://www.ivu.org/phrases/westeuro.html

It has questions in ITalian, Frence, German and other european langs ,it helps you asking for vegetarian dishes and communicating with

swandav2000

Hi again,

Wow, what a great lot of great information here!

Sorry, I can't remember the names of the restaurants I've eaten at because I usually just stroll in. Though Wengen is small, of course it's used to a lot of travelers going through, so plenty of restaurants. I'm usually skiing when I'm there, so usually I take half-pension and then eat lunch with the group at the top of whatever mountain we're at. But as you can see, you won't have any problem finding enough to get fat on!

Usually self-catering has a one-week minimum, but you can ask. Just go to the town's website (www.wengen.ch) and search around accommodation until you find something like "apartments" or "holiday home."

Have fun!

s

enzian

Kleine Scheidegg is just above Wengen; a nice walk if you're up for that, but it is also on your way to the Jungfrau. I believe you have to change trains there, in fact. So you could get off one train, have lunch, and catch the next one up.

maitaitom

We visited Grindelwald in 2003 and stayed at Chalet Hotel Gletschergarten. It was a great base for seeing the area.

For a good cheese fondue (or raclette), I would recommend the restaurant at The Hotel Eiger.

mvor

wanderlust125, thanks, I use the IVU's site often. It's great to see other veggies on the board!

enzian, thanks for the Bollywood rec. We love Indian food and usually seek it out on trips~

LLindaC and swandav, thanks for all of the terrific info here and elsewhere on the board that you've posted about Switzerland; it's been invaluable in my trip preparation.

enzian

mvor---you should be able to find Indian food all over Switzerland now, at least in the Berner Oberland region. Many Bollywood movies include mountain scenes shot in Switzerland, and the Swiss tourist industry welcomes the Indian film crews and tourists.

wanderlust125

mvor: I am glad too that there are other vegetarians on the board and you seem to know a lot about where to find veggie food and what kind of food to avoid.

Thanks for letting me know about rennet, I didnt know that european cheese makers use animal(calf)extract for renin,to coagulate milk. Anything else that I should avoid or know of ??


enzian: I love indian food and you seem to know a lot about it

Btw has any one of your been to Maharajah , an indian restaurant on 72, Boulevard St-Germain in PARIS??

Was looking for indian food and found his. any idea?

enzian

Now there's an interesting subject. There are different types of rennet--animal-derived, vegetable, and microbial (bacterial). Panir (Indian cheese) doesn't use rennet. As mvor stated, most European cheeses use animal rennet. I found a list of types on the Trader Joe's website. Swiss cheeses such as Emmentaler, Gruyere, Raclette, and Italians such as provolone and parmesan all use animal rennet. None of the mozzarella or feta cheeses they carry use animal rennet, but they don't say if these are European cheeses.

Fondue, unfortunately, is made with both Emmentaler and Gruyere. That still leaves Rösti, Indian food, some soups, pasta (ask for it "ohne Käse", without cheese---they should have some nice ones like olive oil, garlic and basil).

There is a creperie on the main street of Lauterbrunnen, and a Chinese restaurant in Mürren which should have vegetarian fare.

Melnq8

Hi wanderlust125 -

I'm not a meat, egg or fish eater either and I've had no problems finding plenty to eat on numerous trips to Switzerland - we usually stay in Wengen or Murren.

As long as you eat dairy, you'll be fine. Lots of pizza and pasta options as well as racelette, rosti and fondue, which you should be sure to try.

Soups and salads are very good too, but be careful when odering soup, as they often contain some meat (for instance barley soup usually contains pork).

To enzian- where is this Bollywood place? I love Indian food and can't believe I missed it on my many trips to Kliene Scheidegg. Details please!

enzian

Ooops---no crepes (eggs). Barley soup (Gerstensuppe) is made with meat, but many soups are not: vegetable soup is Gemüsesuppe, and you will find wonderful soups made with indiviual vegetables (carrots, asparagus, etc.) as well. Most of those will be cream soups.

The Bollywood restaurant at Kleine Scheidegg is new, and we were not in that area last summer, so I haven't seen it (I assume it's in one of the hotel up there). I read about it in a brochure created by the Swiss Tourist Bureau for Indian film crews. It listed many Indian or South Asian restaurants in Switzerland. I'll try t find it online and get back with the website.

calville

Cheese all over the world is usually made with animal rennet. In the US at Whole Foods groceries they have a very small separate section for microbial rennet cheeses. Animal based products are ubiquitous: candies and desserts made with glycerin and gelatin etc etc. Shampoos, soaps, cosmetics, lipsticks are almost all made with animal products. Some "health supplements"- vitamins etc at Whole Foods are in animal based gelatin capsules. You have to read each label carefully to find "vegetarian friendly" products.
At certain times of the year you can find marshmallows at Whole Foods which are made from fish gelatin.
Since I like fish/shellfish I don't consider myself a strict vegetarian.
Wasn't McDonalds recently sued by vegetarian Hindus for not revealing their french fries contain beef tallow?

I share your concerns Wanderlust but plan to indulge in lots of cheese while in Switzerland

LLindaC

wanderlust...that's the Pension Gimmelwald and I think it's the only restaurant in town. ? Anyway, you can't miss it, it's right by the cable station and has a large deck behind it. Truly one of the best lunches I remember in Switzerland. Here's a map of the village to show you where it is. Do NOT miss this beautiful place, it's a gem!
http://homepage.sunrise.ch/homepage/...age_sketch.gif

enzian

OK---here's the brochure: http://www.filmlocation.ch/uploads/indian_films.pdf

And I misspoke---the Bollywood restaurant is at Jungfraujoch, which would make it an expensive meal unless you are going up there anyway. At Kleine Scheidegg, they list two restaurants serving vegetarian food: the Restaurant Bahnhof, with vegetarian and Indian take-away food, and the Bergrestaurant Grindelwaldblick (www.grindelwaldblick.ch) , with vegetarian fare (not particularly Indian). In Grindelwald, at the top of the First gondola (start of a wonderful hike to the Bachalpsee and the Faulhorn), is the Berggasthaus First, which according to the brochure also serves "vegetarian and Indian dishes". I can't vouch for any of these places; I just know they are listed as serving vegetarian and Indian food acceptable to the film crews and Indian tourists (which may mean they offer one vegetable curry dish). But I have seen numerous references to the Bollywood restaurant and the full-on Indian buffet lunch they serve. There is also a "Restaurant Spice Indian" in Interlaken.

Melnq8

Thanks enzian - have copied the info for my next trip to Switzerland.