Absolutely nothing prepared me for how expensive Zürich is. 7.50 CHF for a bratwurst from a street stand. 40 CHF for an average sounding risotto from a nice restaurant. And at a cheap Chinese restaurant (I say cheap because the place certainly looked like a budget eatery), 16 CHF for a one dish meal of sweet and sour chicken and rice. And on our last day of holiday, while waiting at Zürich airport, I saw that a Japanese stand at a food court was selling a small miso soup for 5.50 CHF. Oof.
I cannot deny though that Zürich is a beautiful city with its winding old streets, giant clocks and gorgeous location on Lake Zürich.
Our holiday in the Inn Valley in the Alps started with us flying into Zürich and staying the night before taking a train the next morning to Innsbruck. That meant we had a dinner there and with no real plans, we went to visit what is possibly the most touristy restaurant in Zürich: Zeughauskeller. The Swiss guy who sat next to us told his business colleagues that yes it was touristy but even the Swiss bring their visiting friends here as it had a very good variety of Swiss dishes. Well, that makes it ok then…
Kalbsgeschnetzeltes nach Zürcher Art was panfried sliced veal and mushrooms in a creamy white wine sauce and was served with rösti. It was certainly a generous portion of this delicious stew and we mopped up as much of the sauce as we could. There doesn’t look like much on the plate but the rest of the portion was kept hot in a small chafing dish in the middle of the table.
The Engadiner Hauswurst geräuchert was a beef and pork smoked sausage seasoned with red wine and herbs and spices and served with potato salad. This was a boiled sausage but its flavour didn’t suffer for it.
The Zeughauskeller Wurstspiess was served with more potato salad and also came with an onion gravy. There were at least three different varieties of grilled wurst on that skewer and the variety is great for a single diner.
Three main meals and three soft drinks came to a total of about 100 CHF. It was all delicious but yeah, expensive. If, like us, you don’t visit with a reservation, it’s likely that you might have to share a table with others.
The next day, we had a 3.5 hour train ride to Innsbruck and like any Asian going on a long trip, I stocked up on nice things to eat at the train station. Sprüngli was my bakery of choice that day and all their sandwiches were delicious and made with excellent bread. I’ve only got a photo of the delicious quiche mit speck I bought. That was a gorgeous buttery little quiche.
And a week later, back at Zurich airport on our way back to London, we encountered more Sprünglis than I could shake a stick at – and it was here that I bought a few of their Luxemburgerli to use up some Swiss Francs. Some of the flavours of these bite-sized macarons were a bit better then others and the texture if the biscuit could have been a bit lighter. Still, it was a tasty little treat.
So, Zurich – delicious but hard on the wallet.
Zeughauskeller
Bahnhofstrasse 28a, near Paradeplatz
8001 Zürich
Switzerland
Sprüngli
lots of branches throughout Zürich
Tamarind and Thyme 
Sat, 24 Sep, 2011 at 07:03
I’m horrified by the price of a sweet and sour dish… When I can go to an all you can eat buffet and get a drink for less in London. But I like the Look of the veal and the sausages alot. Thanks for sharing.
Sat, 24 Sep, 2011 at 08:13
Yeah, a can of Coke cost me like S$9… Dinner of Fondue set me back by S$200++ 🙂
Sat, 24 Sep, 2011 at 08:56
Holy snakes that is pricy! But I do love geschnatzlets. I haven’t had them in years! My mum used to do them in a red wine sauce more often than the creamy mushroom version, but they were always a treat!
Sat, 24 Sep, 2011 at 09:48
Zurich is so expensive! I remember ordering a small glass of red wine and they charged us around £10 pounds each! I’ve been to Zeughauskeller, they do a killer drink there come in a massive gobbler, they flambé it and god knows what’s inside! It’s a show stopper.
Sat, 24 Sep, 2011 at 10:50
wow! expensive.
Mon, 26 Sep, 2011 at 15:09
LOL – I remember visiting Zurich years ago with my parents as a teenager and my mother eventually had to ban my brother and I from yelling “RIP-OFF!” at the top of our voices every time we saw a menu or any sort of pricelist. ;o) We were also banned from having more than 1 soft drink with any one meal as it was so freaking expensive! But I also recall seeing an exhibition of Faberge eggs there, and wild swans on the lake, both of which blew my little South African teenage mind 🙂
Tue, 27 Sep, 2011 at 09:37
That bratwurst was absolutely the one dish that I wanted to have over and over again last winter but it didn’t happen!! Now I am absolutely going to cook this no matter what!! For some reason, it looks kinda “clinical” here although I think there should be a lot more of that creamy sauce for the rosti to mop it up with!
Thu, 29 Sep, 2011 at 13:57
For tourists the prices maybe high, just like in London, but if you live and work here its actually cheaper than London, so its relative. People get paid more in Switzerland and the quality of life is better for it……less unemployment etc. You can do it on the cheap in Switzerland, just stay away from places like Zürich! Did you find Austria cheaper?
Fri, 30 Sep, 2011 at 14:27
[…] Zürich, we took a train through the Alps to Innsbruck. It was a most relaxing 3.5 hours of […]
Tue, 18 Oct, 2011 at 14:56
Robert: The quiche too was amazing – so buttery and rich.
Ivan: omg, it must be terrible for people from Asia!
Alicia: Oooh, a red wine sauce, you say? Going to look that one up!
Rosana: We saw that drink at another table – the goblet is massive! And yes, fire!
Kat: Gulp…yes.
Jeanne: 😀 Love it! Yes, I had to hold in gasps of horror!
ChopinandMysaucepan: There was definitely more creamy sauce – this was just how our waitress served it out of the serving dish!
Fergus: Austria was definitely cheaper (€3 for a street sausage as opposed to 7 CHF). Where else in Switzerland would you recommend?
Sun, 27 May, 2012 at 15:56
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