Berner Oberland Restaurants

Eating in the Berner Oberland can be a tasty lesson in the local dialect. Take Gstampfti Chrugli, Suure Mocke, and Chalbsläberli u e Anke Röschti. Fortunately, these traditional meals—that's mashed potatoes, braised beef, and sliced calf liver with butter hash browns to us—taste much better than they sound. Although no Swiss would ever eat fondue in summer, the region teems with restaurants full of wood-and-cowbell decorations that serve exactly what tourists want, which includes melted cheese in its many forms. Other restaurants go sleek, with 20 SF cocktails, dim track lighting, and duck à la European fusion. There's no shortage of pizza and pasta joints either, though the better ones will have wood-fired ovens and homemade dough. Like the rest of Switzerland, eating out is slow time—there's no rushing in for a quick bite before your train. Your check won't come until you ask for it, and it's polite to tack on a few francs—just round the bill up a bit—if the service was good.