Why not?

Hi scrb, If you want an interesting and very good meal while in Zermatt, get the name of a little place one block from the underground museum.. It is a former gathrering spot for the mountain climbers, and mainly a log structure, small. You would need reseervations, but sort of midpriced. If you face the front door of the little museum, it is one block to the left on a corner, and opposite side of street. Your hotel could tell you the name of it. Not a long drawn out fancy meal.

Thanks I’ll try to find out.

Sorry I don't keep track of restaurant names.
Last summer in Zermatt, we looked at the menu of the day on chalkboards outside of restaurants to find a full dinner plate of meat or fish plus vegetables or a pizza in the CHF 20-30 range. We were warned that we would need reservations, but we walked into restaurants up to 7:00pm and were shown directly to a table.
We especially liked one place down by the river that had a terrace from which you could slightly see the mountains. Maybe Chez Max Julen.
I think we shared a meal at Walliserkanne.
There are a couple of grocery stores in town as well.

The Engadine Card from the St. Moritz hotel is suppose to cover all cable cars and mountain railways and the Bernina Express as far south as Alp Grum?

At that is a great point to get off and clamber to the glacier looming at end of Alpine lake - few mile walk from station and you can walk to next station to reboard trains -I would not say section Alp Grum to Tirano is nearly as scenic as first part but certainly very scenic. I rode the open air cars on that segment and was fun - like a flat bed railcar with sidings - ultimate observation car but even on a warm day was chilly as elevation increased so bundle up.

Does Engadine CArd cover Bernina Express - quickly scanned above but did not see - probably missed it but does it. Official train same scenery but commentary and plusher seats.

It depends on the hotel.

Most of the ones listed on engadin.stmoritz.ch seem to cover mountain railways and local buses.

Booked my hotel there just in case but the rates were the same as booking.com..

i didnt get confirmation from my hotel about Bernina Express until after I made book8ng.

But based on advice from TA, I reserved seat on BEX for specific seats for 14CHF each way.

Ok they or some do - thanks. In suggest taking regular trains one way and BEX the other. Observation cars are neat and commentary but just about every BEX I've seen - many thru the years- have been chock full with tour groups mainly and you are stuck in your seat -whilst on regular trains that have no reserved seats and are likely not to be full you can hop back and forth as scenery dictates (though most of best scenes are IME on west side) - and those open-air flat bed cars are the ultimate observation cars. But I think BEX is neat too if only going one way.

Regular trains also let you get on and off at will to walk or sit at ubiquitous station hotel 'sun terrace - observation decks' and walk between stations and hop back on any regular train.

<<It better taste a lot better than beef jerky. >>

Don't worry, it does. Drastically better. And that's from someone who doesn't eat much meat.

The Walliserkane is our favorite restaurant in Zermatt. Something for everyone.

Well I probably wouldn't know to take the train down that stretch unless the BEX was included in the Engadine Card. Initially I was going to rent a car but was convinced the train is better for that stretch and otherwise wouldn't need a car in Switzerland. Probably true, though IIRC, car rental rates weren't too bad, considering how much train travel I will be doing. It's just the parking that's the problem.

As for the air-dried beef, I've heard it compared to the Italian bresaola. Certainly from pictures it looks like a kind of charcuterie.

I'll check out Walliserkane.

And I'm really surprised to hear of 20-30 CHF dinners in Zermatt. Seems like regular sandwiches would go for about 20 CHF by itself, burgers more like 25-30 CHF, etc.

Our meals out are easily in the 50-70 CHF range (two people, with a glass of wine each and I often just have soup).

Tagesteller (daily dish menu) is offered many places at lunch and a good deal by Swiss standards.

Thank you! I will follow your advice. It sounds great.