7 Best Restaurants in Zürich, Switzerland

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.