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.