Our Favorite Restaurants in Zürich (so far)

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June 20th, 2011

Now that Emily and I have been living in Zürich for 2 and half years (on and off), we have found a lot of great restaurants around the city.  Here is a list of our favorites so far.  Let me know if you know of any other great restaurants in Zurich we should try!

Italian

• Don Leone – Probably my favorite restaurant in Zürich, definitely my favorite pizza (pasta is also very good).  Reservations are required.  The location by Stauffacher is smaller and a more festive.
• Santa Lucia – My second favorite pizza in Zürich.  Multiple locations all over town.
• Bodega Berta – A nice, local place near Idaplatz (Emily’s favorite platz)
• Restaurant Rosso -  Great ambiance and good pizza.  Make reservations early.
• Accademia del Gusto – A more upscale Italian restautant with very nice pastas (but small portions).  Crowd is older and quite dressed up.

Swiss

• Blokhus – A small place with a lot of character and great steak tartar (with truffle oil!)
• Raclette Stube – Best fondue in Zurich
• LaSalle – A slightly fancier place with great food.  A good choice for celebrating special occasions.
• Zeughauskeller – Touristy, but good food
• Restaurant Eisenhof – House specialty is steak on a hot stone with pommes frites.  The beef and horse filets are both nice.  Thanks for the tip Christian & Bertrand!

Asian (Indian/Thai/Japanese)

• Kings Kurry – Best Indian in Zurich.  Good lunch buffet for ~26 CHF
• Ah-Hua – Best Thai in Zurich
• Nooch – A casual Asian place with sushi and great stirfry noodle dishes (Beef & Zen is my favorite)
• Samurai – Very good Japanese restaurant.  Good sushi for Emily, Japanese curry for me.
• Angkor – A great Asian restaurant with a huge menu near Emily’s office
• Bimi Japan-Restaurant – Another good sushi place with stuff that I can eat too (teriyaki, etc)

Middle Eastern

• Le Cedre – Great Lebanese mezze (small plates).  Our standard order is hummus, baked cheese, artichoke, and a lamb kebab.
• Maison Blunt – Another good Lebanese mezze place

Brunch

• Bohemia – Best brunch in town.  Great when you want a big, American-style breakfast/brunch.
• Zum Guten Gluck – This cafe is a hidden gem.  Good dutch pancakes.
• Bubbles – One of the only places in Zurich that sells bagels (that we’ve found).  Pretty solid.

Vegetarian

• Hiltl – Delicious, high-quality vegetarian food.  They have a buffet or you can order from the menu.

Other

• Cafe Conditorei Schober – Best hot chocolate I’ve ever had in my life.  The interior is very cool/interesting also and changes drastically on every floor.
• Les Halles – A funky bar with great moules-frites (that’s mussels with french fries for you non-French speakers)
• Outback Lodge – Australian bar/restaurant.  Mondays are all-you-can-eat wings and wedges for ~30 CHF, aka “Wedge Night”
• Churrascaria Rincao – I’m a sucker for churrascarias and this is the only one in town.  All-you-can-eat meat for 50 CHF.

Ascension Day Hike

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June 2nd, 2011

Thursday was Ascension Day, which is a public holiday here in Switzerland.  We decided to spend the day hiking in the beautiful Swiss countryside.  We decided on this route in Appenzell around the Seealpsee and up the Ebenalp mountain.  Emily and I managed to convince David Jaffe to join us on this “leisurely stroll”. Little did we know what we were getting into…

Instead of starting with the cable car and hiking downhill, we decided to do the reverse route which meant hiking all the way up and then taking the cable car down at the end.  The beginning was mostly flat with a short climb up to the lake.  It was a really beautiful area, an alpine lake in a valley surrounded by meadows full of cows.  Sidenote:  This is the area that is on the label of the Hell Quöllfrisch Appenzeller Bier label (pictured on right).

This was the easy/relaxing part of the hike; then we really started climbing.  From the Seealpsee to Mesmer there is a steep path of switchbacks that crosses a stream twice and climbs over 500 meters in elevation.  There was even still snow at the top.  Once we got to the top, we stopped for lunch at the Berggasthaus Mesmer, where we ate some of the best rösti ever.  It is really amazing to hike to the top of the mountain, in the middle of nowhere, and have a restaurant with delicious, warm, high-quality food waiting for you.  Only in Switzerland!

After lunch, we thought that the hardest part of the hike was over.  The elevation at Mesmer is 1613m and the final elevation at Ebenalp is 1644m so we (falsely) assumed that it was going to be flat the rest of the way.  However, that was not the case.  The trail was never flat as we climbed over and around two more mountain peaks.  We climbed right into a thick layer of fog too, so we couldn’t really enjoy the view.  The second half of the hike was much longer and more difficult than we had anticipated, but we eventually made it to Ebenalp and found the cable car station (which was actually quite challenging with all the fog).  In the end, the hike took a little over 5 hours, and we were all quite ready for an Appenzeller beer on the train home.

Photos:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/tim_church/sets/72157626879602635/