Get FREE email communications from Fodor's Travel, covering must-see travel destinations, expert trip planning advice, and travel inspiration to fuel your passion.
Sorry! We don't have any recommendations for Zürich right now.
Since the mid-1990s, Zürich's restaurant trade has boomed. The new establishments, both Swiss and international, tend to favor lighter, leaner meals served in bright spaces that often open out to the street. The traditional cuisine, no longer ubiquitous but still easily found, is called nach Zürcher Art, meaning "cooked in the Zürich style." Think meat, mushrooms, potatoes, butter, cream—an extremely rich cuisine, perfectly suited to the leaded-glass and burnished-oak guildhalls.
In exploring Zürich's core, you will want to enter at least one of these famous medieval "union clubhouses" scattered along the riverfront neighborhoods; the best way is to dine in one, as all but the Zunfthaus zur Meisen, the Zunfthaus zur Saffran, and the Zunfthaus zur Schmide have restaurants open to the public. On your way to the restroom, sneak a peek into their other dining rooms—they are, for the most part, museum-perfect in their leaded-glass and Gothic-wood detail.
Zürich's signature dish, which you'll encounter throughout both French and German Switzerland, is Geschnetzeltes Kalbfleisch, or in French émincé de veau, bite-size slices of milky veal (and sometimes veal kidneys) sautéed in butter and swimming in a rich brown sauce thick with cream, white wine, shallots, and mushrooms. Its closest cousin is Geschnetzeltes Kalbsleber (calf's liver), served much the same way. You may also find Rösti, a kind of hash-brown potatoes, and Spätzle, egg noodles that are 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 crunchy roll), eaten separately, two-fisted style. The best are to be had at Bellevue at the Sternen Grill; Kalbsbratwurst (veal) is mild, the smaller Cervelat (pork) saltier. Join the locals and munch away while waiting for a tram.
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.
Restaurants in Zürich have been smoke-free by law since 2010. Some offer smokers' lounges; otherwise expect smoking at outdoor tables, where it is still allowed.
This fun, alfresco beiz (canteen) located in an upmarket lakefront campground is a sweet summer alternative to the city’s sunset terraces, which can be crowded and overpriced. Throw a sweater around your shoulders, grab a glass of rosé, and park yourself at a picnic table for vegetable crudité, bowls of truffled pommes frites, and crunchy fried fish like pike, char, perch, and trout, all line-caught in Swiss lakes.
Walking into George feels like stepping into a Don Draper–hosted cocktail party—the swanky penthouse space is decorated in vivid geometric patterns and warm wood, with pops of tangerine and turquoise, and the chic crowd is buzzing. The meat-centric menu is a mix of grilled fare and comfort dishes. Bartenders are shaking up both classic and new, creative cocktails, and there is often live music.
The most ambitious of the city's many Zunfthaus dining places, this fine restaurant is also the most spectacular, with a wooden barrel-vaulted ceiling and 30-foot beams, beneath which you can enjoy such innovative entrées as lobster-coconut bisque with dried prawns and mango, or sautéed goose liver. Slick modern improvements—including a glassed-in elevator—manage to blend intelligently with the ancient decor and old-world chandeliers. The river views are especially impressive at night; ask for a window table. The ground-floor bar also offers light lunch refreshments.
From Stravinsky, Brecht, and Joyce to Nureyev, Deneuve, and Saint Laurent, this beloved landmark has always drawn a stellar crowd. Every panel of gleaming wood wainscoting frames artworks by Picasso, Braque, Miró, Chagall, or Matisse, collected by Gustav Zumsteg, whose mother, Hulda, owned the restaurant from 1921 until her death in 1985. The tradition is carried on by the family trust, and robust old-school cooking is still served in hefty portions: veal steak in morel sauce, duck à l'orange with red cabbage, and Späetzle, all delivered from a silver trolley. Unless you're a recognizable celebrity, make sure to insist on a table in the main dining room; ordinary mortals are otherwise seated in a less exciting room upstairs.
It doesn't get more Swiss than this: the ingredients, the recipes, the wines, and the decor are all Helvetian (and though traditional, there's a youthful vibe). Enjoy seasonal dishes such as Engadiner pizokel (flour dumplings) with ham, or duck breast with dried-plum sauce and mashed potatoes; the owners' devotion to local ingredients means the menu often changes. The interior is elegantly casual, with wainscoting and etched-glass windows, linen tablecloths, a mounted chamois head, and paintings of the Matterhorn and other well-known landmarks.
A bit of Siem Reap in the middle of Zürich West: the lavish interior is full of stone carvings and wood latticework that seem right out of Ta Prohm, minus the jungle. The menu is huge and includes generous amounts of green curry, oyster sauce, and ginger, covering India, Thailand, Vietnam, and Japan. The lunch specials are a good deal for those on a budget, and multicourse meals satisfy bigger appetites. Tables double in number in summer with outside seating on the square.
The coats of arms of old Spanish provinces and garlands of onions and garlic line the dark-paneled interior of this upstairs Niederdorf restaurant, specializing in big steaks, seafood, omelets, and paella. Be sure to sample the excellent house Rioja (a Spanish wine specialty shop adjoins, so the choice is extensive). The lively downstairs bar serves amazing tapas, great for lunch. The waiters all come from the old country, so they know what they're talking about.
Meat is the name of the game at this deli-inspired restaurant with private booths and terrazzo floors, where grass-fed game is sourced directly from Swiss butchers and farmers. Classics include leberkäese (meat loaf), homemade pâtés, gelatinous terrines, aspics, air-cured mountain meat, and steak pies. Vegans can always expect one or two dishes on the rotating menu to keep the whole table happy.
Zürich's iconic confectionery, this landmark chocolatier and café for wealthy Bahnhofstrasse habitués concocts excellent seasonal truffles and pastries, though it's most famed for its Luxemburgerli, small cream-filled macaroon-style cookies. Good, plain hot lunches, sandwiches, and salads are also served, as are hot chocolates and coffees. There are also branches at the Hauptbahnhof, on Löwenplatz, and at Zürich airport.
Elaborate ice-cream sundaes and cakes, to eat in or take out, are the specialty here.
Inhale tempting smells from around the world at this old-style, open-bin store where oak shelves are lined with coffee, dried fruits, nuts, and grains.
Swiss chef Andreas Caminada has long lured Zurichers to Schloss Schauenstein in Canton Graubünden, and now they need not travel for his food thanks to a new branch of IGNIV (one of three in Switzerland) located in a cobblestoned corner of the Altstadt. A svelte dining room with velvet couches and long silver curtains hint at chef Daniel Zeindlhofer’s theatrical cuisine, which includes such dishes as oeufsà la royale with gold flake, venison with cranberries and prunes in cream, and fluffy duck mousse served with fluffier slabs of homemade brioche.
This is a favorite haunt of theatergoers heading for the Schauspielhaus Schiffbauhalle—it conveniently shares the same building, where a glass, steel, and concrete interior mixes well with brick elements from the original factory building. Beneath an enormous Murano-glass chandelier, elegantly dressed patrons enjoy wines from a hefty list and delicate dishes that might feature black tiger prawns, langoustines, or beef fillet, all with innovative sauces.
An old warehouse space in Zürich West has not so much been renovated as cleaned up and then highlighted with an eclectic mix of antiques and 1950s collectibles, all of which are for sale. Tapas and Mediterranean dishes, including their famous moules frites (mussels and fries) are available to order at the counter. In summer, snag a table on the multitier veranda out front.
This humble izakaya, owned and run by the Japanese-Swiss Oki family, is one of many excellent new Japanese restaurants in town. They serve Japanese soul food like curries, donburi bowls, agedaishi dofu, and crispy kaarage that complement the nice selection of Japanese beer, sake, and cocktails like pink sake spritzes. In 2021, they opened a second location in a modernist glass pavilion in Letzigrund, which also became the location for their Summer Garden Pavilion Party with Japanese knife sharpening and origami courses, and kiosks selling kakigōri (Japanese shaved ice), homemade miso and soy, and other Japanese crafts and goods.
In a downtown theater complex behind Bahnhofstrasse, this old military riding stable now does its duty as a noisy and popular restaurant where its past is plain to see, with candles perched on the mangers and beams. Young locals share long tables to sample international specialties—from curry to ostrich tenderloin—many of them vegetarian, as well as an excellent list of open wines from all over the world listed on the blackboard. In summer the courtyard is lined with communal tables.
Dating from 1801, and once the haunt of Zürich's beloved writer Gottfried Keller, this lively restaurant serves traditional meat dishes—Geschnetzeltes Kalbfleisch—lightened up with fresh seasonal vegetables and a champagne sauce. One section is a dark and heavily graffitied wine bar, with sagging timbers and slanting floors; there are also two welcoming little dining rooms with coffered ceilings and plenty of carved oak and damask—choose the cozy, charming Gaststube (not the more staid Stübli). It's always packed, and service can be slow, so stake out a table and plan to spend the evening. Guests who succeed in swinging around the room's famous wooden rafters three times win free wine for their table. You'd be amazed at the number of diners who make the attempt.
As soon as it even vaguely looks like it'll be warm enough, the hip deck-shoe crowd drives, runs, cycles, or even sails to one of the best places on the lake, which not only has its own dock, but is its own dock, jutting far out and offering fabulous views. The food isn't bad either: seasonal ingredients make the difference in dishes such as beef tournedos with matchstick-thin French fries, or spaghetti with lobster. Sunglasses required.
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. Excellent lunch menus are rock-bottom cheap and served double quick. There's outdoor seating on the cobblestone pedestrian square in warm weather.
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: seafood in saffron sauce, 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.
This French-inclined international restaurant in a quiet corner of the Niederdorf is part of the trend toward lighter food and portions that don't overflow your plate. You might try beef tartare with wasabi and mango chutney, or lamb curry in yogurt-mint sauce, then finish with a creamy slice of napoleon. Wainscoting, parquet floors, and crisp white tablecloths make for a comfortable dining room; an outside courtyard is open in summer.
With its magnificent Renaissance-inspired facade, this airy guildhall, with whitewashed woodwork and leaded-glass windows looking out to the Fraumünster, remains a lovely place to dine on such seasonal dishes as fillet of perch in almond butter with spinach, or 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.
Sign up for Travel Tips & News
Thank you for your interest!
