You are not visiting Switzerland to go on a diet. But you’ve undoubtedly come for the restaurant’s well-known substantial cuisine, particularly fondue and raclette. While those two dishes are among Switzerland’s best, there’s a lot more to eating in Switzerland than delving into melting cheese. The greatest restaurants in Switzerland provide a diverse range of delectable options, including vegetarian, cosmopolitan, French, and German-inspired cuisine. Because this is Switzerland, the best restaurants also have unrivaled views from atop the highest Alps peaks, on beautiful lakes, and panoramic views.
1. Best for Raclette: Vieux Chalet
Saas-Fee, a charming Alpine community, heaps on the charm, and Vieux Chalet, in the town’s historic center, piles on the cheese. The melted cheese is presented on a platter with bread, potatoes, gherkins, and pearl onions, but the star of the show is raclette, which is served with bread, potatoes, gherkins, and pearl onions. It’s quite an experience to watch your raclette being sliced from a massive wheel of melting cheese. If they have an all-you-can-eat menu, take advantage of it—you’ll be shocked how many plates of raclette you can consume!
2. Best for Fondue: Le Chalet de Gruyères
You should go to the source if you want the best fondue in Switzerland. The Chalet de Gruyères in Gruyères’ eponymous cheese-making town has all the authenticity and cheesiness one may expect. Fondue, raclette, and dried meats from the region pair well with local wine or beer. Double Gruyères cream is used in desserts, which is even richer than it sounds.
3. Best for Hearty Swiss Fare: Zeughauskeller
Zeughauskeller, one of the favorite Zurich restaurants, mixes history, atmosphere, and delectable meat-centric dishes from German-speaking Switzerland. rösti potatoes, potato salad, or French fries are served with Wienerschnitzel, steaks, swine shanks, and meter-long sausages. You can have a side salad, but we recommend enjoying the heavy meal while taking in the atmosphere of this massive, cacophonous dining hall, which was previously a 15th-century armaments armory. Plan to arrive a little earlier or later for lunch or dinner, or expect to queue with a large number of other hungry diners.
4. Best for Desserts: Frutal
Meringues, a sweet egg white treat, are said to have originated in Meiringen, Switzerland. As a result, the country’s most famous meringue confectioner is headquartered here. When you see a huge meringue out front, you’ve arrived at the perfect place. Other delights available at the bakery, dessert house, and tea room include chocolate confections, apple strudels, and creamy pastries. The various holiday-themed delicacies on offer will appeal to children.
5. Best for Classic French Cuisine: Brasserie Lipp
Because French is spoken by about a quarter of the Swiss population and is the first language in Geneva, the city has no shortage of excellent French restaurants. Few, though, can match Brasserie Lipp’s vintage authenticity, which seems like it has been transferred from Paris’s Left Bank. At this lively, multi-room institution, oysters, escargot, moules frites, and beef tartare are all on the menu. The cuisine is heavy on seafood, but there are plenty of land-based options as well.
6. Best Dining with a View: Findlerhof
Rustic Restaurant Findlerhof is located above Zermatt in the tiny, automobile-free gastronomic town of Findeln and may be reached by cable car, funicular, or a very hard uphill trek. The majority of visitors come here on their way down the mountain rather than up. Traditional rösti, kinds of pasta, risottos, and meat meals are served in its woodsy interior and sunny patios. Stay for the view; come for the meal. The majestic Matterhorn looms big across the valley when the clouds part. It doesn’t get much more quintessentially Swiss than this in terms of vistas.
7. Best Fine Dining: Focus Atelier
You get one of Switzerland’s most exceptional high-end dining experiences when you combine a gorgeous setting on Lake Lucerne, a trendy spa hotel, and two Michelin stars. Set-tasting meals with unusual flavor combinations are available at Focus Atelier at the five-star Park Hotel Vitznau in the tranquil lakeside village of Vitznau, taking guests on a true gastronomic experience. The artistically created platings, each more imaginative and strange than the last, almost overshadow the lake.
8. Best Dining with a Hike: Berggasthaus Aescher, Weissbad
Many places in Switzerland are described as spectacular, but few are more so than Berggasthaus Aescher, a rustic hotel, and restaurant constructed into the solid rock face of the Ebenalp. Lunch or an overnight stay at the Aescher is a well-deserved reward for many hikers after a strenuous day of difficult hiking. Others use the Ebenalp cable car, which involves a 10-minute downhill stroll to the restaurant – albeit the journey back is uphill. The comfort menu, which includes warming soups, rösti, strudel, and coffee drinks, will wow you if the vistas aren’t enough. The indoor dining area is lovely, but the outdoor patio is where you want to be.
9. Best Vegetarian Dining: Haus Hiltl, Zurich
It’s correct to conclude that Haus Hiltl was a vegetarian long before it was fashionable. The Zurich landmark, which dates back to 1898, claims to be the world’s first vegetarian restaurant—and certainly the longest-running. The menu caters to vegetarians and vegans, although the potato truffle soup and the Hiltl Wellington, made with smoked tofu and red wine sauce, may seduce even the most ardent carnivores. The main restaurant, Sihlstrasse 28, is a few streets from Zurich HB train station. There are sites all across Zurich.
10. Best International Dining: The Restaurant at the Chedi
In the center of a Swiss ski resort, you may not anticipate refined Asian cooking, yet the Restaurant at the Chedi Andermatt masterfully blends Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, and European cuisines for a creative, surprise fusion menu. The Chedi’s subdued atmosphere is ideal for dishes like murgh makhani or Thai beef salad. The restaurant’s centerpiece is a 16-foot-tall wine and cheese tower, just to remind you that you’re still in Switzerland.
