207 Best Restaurants in Switzerland

Tucked into the Confédération Centre shopping mall is an eclectic collection of locally developed restaurants with choices that range from ramen to rotisserie chicken to Greek fare. Sando, a Japanese-inspired burger joint serving smashed burgers marinated in teriyaki and topped with daikon and miso bacon, is a standout. Restaurants surround a central bar pouring wine, beer, and cocktails.

At this carved-wood chalet dating from 1787, you can sit out on the flower-lined terrace and choose from many interpretations of Lake Brienz whitefish and perch. The menu also has a range of veal classics. If you want to linger, there are nine modern guest rooms, all with a bright and cheery feel.

At lunchtime the line for its legendary takeout bratwurst sausages snakes out along a neighboring street, but it moves quickly because the choices are relatively limited and most choose the freshly grilled veal sausage (bratwurst) or pork-based Cervelat. Once handed your order, grab a traditional large Bürli bread roll and some in-house spicy mustard from the front counter, then sit at the Sternen Grill’s tables or wander across to the Sechseläutenplatz, with its wide-open space in front of the Opernhaus, before strolling to the lakefront. Upstairs the Sternen Grill offers sit-down service and a wider menu. A long table winding around the outside balcony provides the perfect chance for people-watching as you gaze down onto a bustling tram hub.

The moment you step across the threshold into this low-slung, two-story restaurant decked with mountaineering memorabilia, the tantalizing aroma of melting cheese should sharpen your appetite. Downstairs, watch meat roasting on the wood-fired grill while enjoying the chalet-style decor; upstairs, a mélange of Mediterranean tiles and traditional Valaisan exposed dark-wood beams creates a romantic atmosphere. This is a great place for regional dishes and meat specialties like juicy Chateaubriand grilled to perfection and dripping with a creamy béarnaise sauce, served by lively staff.

Chef Tanja Grandits gives her guests a delightful culinary experience in a refined—but not uptight—setting, using a cuisine style that the German-born chef calls "aroma kitchen." Contrasting flavors, colors, and textures shine through in fanciful creations of fish, seafood, and Swiss meats combined with unusual touches such as wasabi mousse or green tea guacamole, which can be sampled in the nine-course "Aroma Menu" (also available in a vegetarian version), or in the more affordable three- to five-course lunchtime menus. The restaurant is in the residential neighborhood of Bruderholz; take tram No. 15 or 16 from Marktplatz, get off at Jakobsberg, and walk about 15 minutes.

Right on the Niederdorf's main square, Hirschenplatz, this squeaky-clean Swiss-kitsch restaurant has an airy, modern decor, with Alpine-rustic chairs. It serves good home-cooked national specialties: Zürcher Geschnetzeltes, Rösti, Leberli, bratwurst, schnitzel, and battered fish with French fries and tartar sauce—the gang's all here. An added attraction if you're visiting in summer: fondue and raclette (melted cheese served with small potatoes in their skins, pickled pearl onions, and gherkins), usually winter dishes, are served year-round, and are available to eat indoors too. Excellent lunch menus are rock-bottom cheap and served double quick. There's outdoor seating on the cobblestone pedestrian square in warm weather.

With a focus on the highest-quality ingredients and a simplistic, Mediterranean cooking style that allows each individual taste to shine, dining here is a true culinary experience; be prepared to spend almost as much on a meal as on a hotel room, though the seven-course tasting menu is an excellent value when compared with the à la carte dining. The menu changes seasonally, but it always includes a tempting mix of fish, game, meat, and poultry dishes, with a blend of local and international ingredients. To finish off, try the chocolate mousse made with olive oil; the result is a deeply rich, unctuous dessert, which miraculously remains as light in your stomach as it was in your mouth. 

You’ll feel transported far away from the mountains when you step inside this former nightclub-turned-eatery, in a welcoming room lined with exotic wallpaper and tropical greenery. The international menu aims to please all crowds, with tempting small plates of veggies, meats, and seafood to start, followed by larger-size portions of tasty grilled meats such as beef, duck, and lamb to share.

Respect for the entire product—from nose to tail—is the philosophy behind Taverne Johann, where appreciation starts with the farmer, hunter, and gatherer. Sausages, dried meats, pâté, ragouts, and potpies are made in-house and pridefully prepared with time under the Slow Food Cooks’ Alliance, and the stews, casseroles, herb-crusted bone marrow, coq au vin, and for the vegetarian, Spätzle with foraged mushrooms is simple but sophisticated. If you’re not sure what to order, go with the chalkboard special or the tasting menu paired with wines. Be sure to make a reservation at this upscale eatery where hunter-meets-hipster in both decor and service.

Following the success of its train station branch, tibits opened this larger and more glamorous version nearby. The food is 100% vegetarian and sold by weight from a buffet of hot, cold, and sweet selections with an international flair. Sandwiches and soups such as pumpkin, lentil, or pea fill in the gaps. To drink: fresh fruit and vegetable juices, organic wine, flavored coffee, herbal tea, and cocktails such as rooibos-tea-infused vodka. Everything on the menu can be ordered to go, making the train station tibits an especially practical option for travelers. Both branches offer outdoor seating in warm weather. When loading your plate, keep in mind that those samosas are heavy!

Not far from the Middle Bridge and right next to the Rhine, this self-proclaimed “urban Swiss” restaurant has a rustic-chic look inside and a wonderful terrace overlooking the river outside. The short but satisfying menu includes an interesting selection of meat and veggie tapas, creative versions of fish-and-chips, and a regularly changing choice of shareable dishes using seasonal, local ingredients. For something fresh and local, try the Swiss beef tartare with bread chips. 

In idyllic mountaintop environs, guests refuel after a morning skiing or hiking with roasted winter vegetables and polenta, homemade pasta, or a filet of Angus beef hot off the open-fire grill; go on a Sunday for the Wiener schnitzel special. Ustria Startgels is located adjacent to the Startgels cable car station, and in summer, you can hike up from Flims.

Though its rich, carved-wood decor borrows from Graubündner Alpine culture, this dining spot is no tourist trap. There is a definite emphasis on the heavy and the meaty, but the kitchen is flexible and reasonably deft with more modern favorites as well: fillet of sole in lemon butter, chopped veal with mixed mushrooms, and delicious fruit sorbets. The house, built in 1325 and functioning as a restaurant since 1551, has always stored Italian-Swiss Valtellina wines, which were carried over the Alps to Zürich.

Well priced for the area, this bright, genial restaurant has nothing swanky about it—lots of wood, ancient moldings in the form of grapes, and a welcoming wood fire where meat is roasted while you watch. In addition to grilled meats and whole trout, there are delicious and varied homemade pastas served family-style from crockery bowls. The owners look after the grill, and their touch with Italian-Romansh cooking is light and straightforward.

This homey wine bar offers both simple and more elaborate gourmet meals, depending on your interest. Inside, the massive wooden winepress is the star; outside, it's the beautiful garden terrace with views of the surrounding vineyards. Snack on a Bündnerfleisch Teller (meat plate) or Alpkäse (cheese plate), try some local pastas or meats, or soothe your sweet tooth with homemade goodies. Don't miss the selection of local wines for sale.

Yet another local establishment with a beautiful frescoed facade, this one glows with a deep-red wood-hued interior that invites passersby into the warm little Weinstube. Inside, dark antiques surround a Kachelofen (tile stove), and candles glow on the tables. The menu mixes Swiss staples with Italian flavors—you'll find spaghetti arrabbiata alongside the traditional Wurst-Käse-Salat (sliced cervelat sausages and cheese cubes with onions drizzled with oil and vinegar dressing—it's tastier than it sounds). If you're tired of meat, there's a good selection of crisp salads as well.

At this little restaurant in the Hotel Monte Rosa, plates of melted raclette and bubbling pots of fondue are delivered to tightly packed tables by an agile waitstaff; be sure to try the unusual variations on cheese dishes like the fresh mushroom or pear-laced fondue. The restaurant is named for Edward Whymper, the first man to reach the Matterhorn summit—imagine the climbers' stories that must have echoed within these walls.

Step past the ancient facade and into a room roaring with local action, where brisk waiters deliver the dishes that Mutti (Mom) used to make: fresh kutteln (tripe) in rich white-wine sauce with cumin seeds; real kalbs-kopf (chopped fresh veal head) served with heaps of green onions and warm vinaigrette; and authentic Luzerner Chügelipastetli (puff-pastry nests filled with finely ground beef, savory herbs, and cream sauce). Occasional experiments in a modern mode—such as steak with wasabi sauce—prove that Peter Galliker's kitchen, now in the hands of new owners but completely unchanged, is no museum. Desserts may include raspberries with peppermint ice cream.

Built as an arsenal in 1487, this enormous stone-and-beam hall offers hearty meat platters and a variety of beers and wines in comfortable Germanic chaos. The waitstaff is harried and brisk, especially at lunchtime, when crowds are thick. Unlike the shabbier beer halls in Niederdorf, this one is clean and bourgeois, reflecting its Paradeplatz location. They're not unaccustomed to tourists—menus are posted in English, Japanese, and at least 10 other languages—but locals consider this their home away from home.

A deceptively simple local favorite and one of the most typically French bistros in Bern, this cultural transplant tucked away on a backstreet near the Rathaus has been serving classics like entrecôte Café de Paris (beef in butter sauce) with French fries, escargots in herb garlic butter, and calf's head since 1848. In a city that celebrates the onion, this is a good place to try onion soup. Lunch specials are good value; wines come from Switzerland, Italy, and France.

In the hamlet (little more than a cluster of mazots) of the same name, this restaurant turns out inventive meals that merit acclaim. A half-hour's walk from Zermatt, it overflows until late afternoon with diners sunning on the terrace or packed into the 400-year-old log house. (The quickest way to get here is to walk or ski down from Furi.) Hosts Max and Greti Mennig masterfully prepare such seasonal specials as venison salad with wild mushrooms and handmade tortelloni with spinach-ricotta filling. The selection of wines and brandies sets skiers aglow.

With its magnificent Renaissance-inspired facade, this airy guildhall, with whitewashed woodwork and leaded-glass windows looking out to the Fraumünster, remains an elegant place to dine on such seasonal dishes as baked pumpkin with Waldorf salad, or refined iterations of meaty Swiss classics, such as sliced veal and Rösti. The Zunft-Saal (guildhall) is a pinewood showpiece, which greatly outshines the main restaurant—a rather dull Biedermeier room. To drink in the impressive architecture, opt for outside tables on the edge of the cobblestone square in warm weather.

Dating from 1708, the buidling contains elements that go back 850 years; after a fire destroyed its top two floors in 2007, the building was painstakingly restored by specialists, who uncovered a rare fresco dating back to the 14th century in one of the small dining halls. Its main restaurant is again drawing locals and tourists alike to its fabulous dark-wood halls, now polished to an amazingly high gloss, where the focus is on traditional dishes prepared for lighter tastes, such as fried calf liver with shallots and sage.

Decked out in chalkboards, pendulum lamps, and toolbox cutlery holders, this workshop-inspired eatery in Luzern’s modish Neustadt quarter serves global cuisine with a creative twist (think: cream cheese–stuffed chicken with fruity couscous or minced meat with harissa). It also offers various cookery and cocktail workshops.

The lunch-and-tearoom set (ladies with poodles, Brits in tweeds, fashionistas in Gucci) regularly descends on Zurcher, the irresistible confiserie on Montreux's main drag. A green salad, the potage du jour (soup of the day), and a chocolate torte make a great quick meal. The café is closed on Monday.