Switzerland is well known for its chocolate and cheese. Of course Swiss cuisine is based a lot on these ingredients and I also need to admit that we eat a lot of cheese since we moved here. However this post is not about Swiss cuisine, it is about my favorite places with food in Zürich. There you will find more international than actually traditional restaurants.
We moved to Zürich around 1.5 year ago and I was quite skeptic about culinary scene of the city… Why? Previously we lived in Basel, Lausanne and Geneva and none of the cities was really interesting in this field and none had a lot of nice places to go to eat… Most of the time we ate then at home as it was not only cheaper but also much better. Zürich totally changed this point of view! Now I have a long list of places „to go” and I have a quite decent list of places which we have already visited, sometimes even few times and we will for sure come back.
Today I would like to share with you this list 🙂
Brisket Southern BBQ & Bar
You might not know it, but I spent a bit of time of my life in United States and despite of a lot of junk food there, there is also part of American cuisine I felt deeply in love with. Now I have my favorite place in Zürich, which reminds me about my US amazing journey. This is american cooking at its very best. BBQ and slow cooked meats it is something definitely heart warming and making the mood better. When going there try of course coffee rubbed brisket, I think it is the best! Pulled pork, ribs or burger are also very good. From the sides point of view, I think they can still improve my favorite mac`n`cheese, but the fires, coleslaw or beans are very good. I like a lot the cocktails there for even better evening experience, but lunch time menu is also interesting.
Brisket Southern BBQ & Bar
Pfingstweidstrasse 6
8005 Zürich
The Bite
Lets stay in the american cuisine for a while. My another favorite place, this time for Burgers, is by the way from the same owner as Brisket. It is also damn good! I tried few other places for burger in Zurich, none of them is as good as this one, trust me! Burgers are juicy and moist, buns are soft and the toppings and sauces good quality. You will not leave this place hungry for sure.
The Bite
Brauerstrasse 15
8004 Zürich
Hiltl
Something vegetarian after so much meat is appreciated. What about then a restaurant with a Guiness record? Hiltl is the oldest vegetarian restaurant in the world which continuously serves guests since 1898. Nowadays Hiltl is present in many locations around Zürich and in general in Switzerland. The most famous one is in Sihlstrasse (Haus Hiltl), but I personally like the most Hiltl Dachterrasse due to its nice interior design. This is not a really fancy place as this is a self service buffet, but food tastes really delicious. The choice is very wide starting from different kinds of salads, through Thai curries, pastas, fried food, Indian food and even desserts like super yummy cheesecake etc. So simply you take a plate and serve yourself what you like, just be careful not too put too much as with so many good things it is easy to fill the plate with a big mountain of delicacies. Of course they serve good drinks too. If all veggie food in the world looks like in Hiltl I definitely could be vegetarian 🙂
Hiltl
many locations in the city, but I like:
Bahnhofstrasse 88
8001 Zürich
Tibits
Tibits is worth to mention here also. This is another veggie buffet also very good and also with few locations in the city.
It is good to say also that in both of these vegetarian restaurants animal products such as eggs or milk are organic and all the excess food is not wasted but it is sold via „Too good to go” app.
Ristorante Più
Who doesn’t like a good pizza? I need to tell you perfectly honest that this part of Zürich culinary scene is still not so much discovered by me… Why? Mostly because I make nice pizza at home and also because when I do crave for a pizza I order it at home in a rainy lazy afternoon. However, all the pizzas which are around my flat are sadly not so good to recommend you here. Therefore only one pizza place on my list for now and it is, by the way, one not far from office as I like to have pizza lunch sometimes 😉 In general in Piu pizza is Neapolitan style, with fluffy dough and simple good quality toppings. I tried there also seasonal lunch menu at it was also nice.
Ristorante Più Schiffbau
Hardstrasse 259
8005 Zürich
Frau Gerolds Garden
Staying in the neighborhood of Zürich West the must visit place is Frau Gerolds Garden. Indeed it is a garden with tables scattered between the plants so the atmosphere here is really great. Touch of industrial design which I personally love, ship containers around, some murals and the vicinity of the big train station also make this place very special. During hot summer evening it is the place to go! They serve of course wide drinks menu, but also food like burgers and bbq style. We tried few things and all was nice.
Frau Gerolds Garten
Geroldstrasse 23/23a
8005 Zürich
Kokoro
After few (or maybe already many…) years of living in Switzerland I learnt that for a good sushi I need to go elsewhere. Again we tried many places with different price levels and we were never really satisfied. Sushi in the boxes or take away sushi is apparently quite popular and each market chain offers you some choice. Also there are some other chains specialized with this, some better, some worse, all in relatively high price for the things you get. My attitude then was simply resignation… For the valentines day my husband asked if we go for sushi as he found a nice place. At the beginning I really didn’t want to agree, but he proved me wrong! Tiny place with dense packed tables, not really stylish and even I would say that it was hard to expect good food just from the outside look… Menu is quite short, very Japanese, with some starters, tempura and sushi of course. This was the best so far sushi in Switzerland and as this is actually not so big compliment I will add that this was also very good sushi by itself. Simple, quite Japanese style but with good quality ingredients and perfectly cooked rice. I definitely recommend and now I am super hungry for sushi writing this and bringing back the memories 🙂
Achi
More Asian food, and guess what? I love Asian food! This time Chinese Restaurant or maybe actually Asian is better description of this place. Menu is very long with I think like hundred positions, what apparently in this case is not a bad thing. You can choose Japanese gyoza, Korean kimchi, Chinese dim sum or Vietnamese spring rolls and that`s just starters. Main courses are segregated with the protein choice (chicken, pork, duck, sea food, fish, beef, tofu, veggies) and there also also soups, Thai style curries, rice and noodles dishes. Sounds a bit overwhelming, no? Do not worry, I think anything you choose will be a good choice. We visited this place few times sometimes alone, sometimes with friends and each time we took something different and all was good. I think so far my favorites are: fried dumplings with kimchi, sweet and spicy duck and Sechuan shrimps, but of course this depends on the taste 🙂
Achi
Brauerstrasse 4
8004 Zürich
Miki Ramen
If you search for a ramen place I think so far this one is my favorite. I have few places still on the list to go and try, but for now we visited Miki few times and we were always happy. Tantanmen – spicy sesame broth is excellent and I think I could eat it all the time.
Miki
Sihlfeldstrasse 63
8003 Zürich
Gelateria di Berna
If you still have a place for dessert do not miss Gelateria di Berna! In my personal opinion the best ice cream in the city. One of the location is next to Miki and the second one in Frau Gerolds Garden. Be sure that in a sunny day there will be quite some queue there, but this is worth waiting. They have wide choice of the flavors, my personal favorite are: pineapple-basil and definitely chocolate, this one is just amazing.
Gelateria di Berna
Weststrasse 196
8003 Zürich
There are several more places in Zürich which I like, they have good food, but not so excellent as the places described above. However they are still nice to go and worth visitng. These places are: Tenz Momos, Lily`s Eatery, Yume Ramen or Yardbird Southern Fried Chicken.
Ok, I think that would be it for now 🙂 Just to be clear I think that this is the part 1 of the list, I am sure in the nearest future new places will appear and I will have to create the new post about it. 🙂
One more tip from my side: If you wish to eat good things in Zürich book the table! I was super surprise that actually good places are fully booked even during the weekdays or lunch time. I would say booking is quite mandatory thing almost in every restaurant here, sometimes even with few days in advance.
In the mean time please share with me your favorite places and recommendations here in comments or on Facebook or Instagram.
