Zurich for foodies

Best restaurants

Zurich eats better than its reputation suggests. The old cliché — that Switzerland's largest city is all banking, no palate — collapses the moment you walk five minutes off Bahnhofstrasse and start opening doors. What you find is a compact, walkable restaurant map wedged between the Limmat and the lake: sushi counters on Stampfenbachstrasse, a hotpot canteen on Limmatquai, a Valais chalet room hidden a block from the shopping mile, and the small Italian dining rooms that have quietly outlasted every trend cycle. The twelve places below are chosen for one reason: at this address, on this street, something specific happens that a visitor with one dinner in Zurich should know about. They span sushi, hotpot, Italian, Valais, Japanese, international bistro, Neapolitan pizza, pan-Asian bar food, Levantine, and Vietnamese — the working range of a city that quietly feeds a lot of very particular people. Prices in Zurich are what they are; assume Swiss, plan accordingly, and drink the tap water, which is excellent. Hours below are current; addresses are exact.