hi there, can anyone recommend a family-friendly restaurant in zurich? my sister is visiting with her family which includes a vivacious 2-year-old and we would like to show off some swiss cuisine, of course (fondue being out of the question, I'm afraid).

we had thought of Crazy Cow, but somehow our kids don't want to go again or want to try something new. since by now we seldom eat out as a family in zurich, I have no idea where to start from and have found no help in any of the guides I possess.

any tips? thanks a lot!

Is Nord-See in HB out of the question? Not exactly a restaurant-restaurant, but great if you have kids with you.

I would go to hiltl in zurich its just behind the big coop city on the bahnhofstrasse. Its good for chldren in that they can draw on all the glass windows with special pens etc..but not relly swiss cuisine! Its vegetarian, they hae a huge buffet and a menu. The food is great and children seem to love it as well as all non vegearians!

thanks a lot, this sounds nice and it's supposed to be quite a Zurich institution, right?

besides, my sister and husband are health freaks (although they live Emilia, the region where most yummy italian food comes from ) so it sounds just about right.

Health freaks and swiss cuisine don't go together. Very swiss: Ziegelhütte.

On the other end of the health food side - but another institution in Zurich (and less expensive) is the Zeughauskeller near Paradeplatz. It's always crowded and loud so a screaming child might not cause too much distress Just make sure to make a reservation and to mention that you have children with you. They might be able to allocate a table at the window to you. But you need a reservation. We were a group of 7 and had to wait on Tuesday at 8 pm even though we had made a reservation - the place was so full! More information about the restaurant here http://www.zeughauskeller.ch/

Another option might be the Mövenpick Palavrion between Bahnhof Enge and Paradeplatz. When we were little my parents usually took us to a Mövenpick when we went out to eat. They used to have a special menu card for kids. I am not sure if they still do, you might have to check with them. But I know that they provide pencils etc They also have a Dinner 42 which means that you can eat starters, main and a scoop of icecream (everything chosen freely from the menu) for CHF 42. We always take that as it's a great deal More information about the Mövenpick Palavrion here http://www.moevenpick-restaurants.co.../palavrion.php

I also found another list that you might find useful. http://www.familienleben.ch/karte/#resultsshow

I hope you will find a nice restaurant and have a good time with your family!

thank you so much all and Irish Temptation (charming username, by the way), this is really helpful!!
I will have a look at all suggestions and at the "family life" list.

I had thought the subject "zurich with kids" wouldn't be relevant having older kids ourselves but I am realising that if my little nephew enjoys zurich (which I do not doubt) as a good aunt I will be discovering a new side of city in the years to come

I second Hiltl... very children friendly, high chairs & crayons available, glass painting for kids, great (although not very swiss) healthy food and kids orders arrive first so that they do not have to wait long.

Zeughauskeller is very swiss, but we were told they usually do not allow buggies in the restaurant during rush hour... so unless you are planning to eat outside of the normal eating times or the weather permits using the garden, that is rather risky.

If you wanted to do brunch, I can recommend Rüsterei at Sihlcity on Sundays (http://www.ruesterei.ch/_brunch_.html ). It is not exactly Swiss cousine but high chairs and crayons are to be had and the kids are fascinated by the (closed) fireplace.

Hope this helps :-)

I suggest the Restaurant Ey in Albisrieden. It does have Billiard, Table Soccer, Darts. You can have board games there and there are toys for the little ones. Food is also nice.

They do let you leave the buggy at the door, or if it is a lightweight one that folds down nicely, a lot of the tables have a side bench that they don't seat people at and you can store your stroller on. We have done both - and definitely suggest it as a restaurant where you don't have to worry about people glaring at you about kids talking loudly/screaming as it is loud enough to cover the noise!

I will second this place if it is true swiss cuisine you are after. They have a vast range of sausages, rosti, and snitzel.

The place is pretty cool with various guns, stuffed animals and armour, canons etc around the place, assuming this is the same place, I think it is.

Have only been twice and food was ok on both occassions, but i guess thats what you get with Swiss food, no thrills.

I was bit put off by the dog going into the kitchen whilst I was there once. I am a dog lover, and my dog will sometimes be in my kitchen when I cook but just doesnt seem right for a restaurant.

Seerose is nice if you are into seafood, and great scenery for your meal time, being on the lake n all.

Good idea. Very authentically Swiss and for kids they have crayons and pictures to colour.

thanks guys, these all sounds like very good possibilities, you're making us want to eat out every single meal starting from tonight (so I don't have to cook...)

I'll get back to you with a culinary-family-report!

here's the report about Zeughauskeller as promised!

so we arrived half an hour earlier because it was raining and the shops had already closed (you know the problem in zurich... bad timing on our part, we should have booked at 6 pm instead of 7 pm so as not to have to wait in the rain).

the restaurant was full with people waiting to be seating at both entrances. this was a bit unpleasant, especially with our little boy, who behaved wonderfully though. we queued up and asked nicely if we could be seated a bit earlier - understably, no chance, but they assured us we would have our table as booked at 7pm. we were a bit sceptical seeing how full the place was, but when we went back we indeed were assigned our table more or less on time.
it turned out they have tickets for reservation that they put on the table so you can sit down and eat but knowing already that you will have to leave at a certain time.

we didn't have a buggy but a "child rucksack" (?) for my nephew - quite big so we had to leave it at the door, which we also could understand and were fine with.
once seated, our first encounter with the rather rustic waitress was not very encouraging: she replied very loud "You are not alone here!" just because we had looked and smiled at her trying to catch her attention. hubby was already boiling and ready to leave, but luckily the rest of the italian family didn't understand, so we smiled away and gave the sporty lady a second chance. it proved to be a good strategy because when she came she showed a certain efficiency and even smiled and joked, even offering a few words in italian. so my conclusion is that to be a waiter there in that apparent chaos you to be a real dragon. I can sympathise, after all.

to make our order as efficient as possible we had of course chosen all our plates beforehand. my brother in law who speaks nothing but italian was sitting in front of an enormous poster with their "deer + rösti" speciality and when the waitress took our orders he just pointed to the poster, so nothing could go wrong
the rustic lady appreciated our efforts to make things easy for her and even more the fact that our little 2-year-old had fallen asleep after a loooong day on his little pedalfree bike around zurich... by the way the long seats on the side make a perfect bed for a tired child
so, after having chosen the most adequate place for him, we could actually have gone to any other restaurant, after all

as for general child-friendliness, at the table near us a little girl was crawling around the table and sometimes screaming or being loud but this seemd to cause no trouble to guests and staff.

but we are very happy we went there, especially my brother in law loved it and found it extremely "tipico" and I can really recommend it if you have family visiting. as some of you were saying the military and other swiss paraphernalia (representing the history of the building, where the city arms were kept, if I understand correctly) gives a nice local touch without being too kitsch, quite a full immersion in swissness and a nice change to the mostly "chic" and minimalistic modern restaurants in the city centre.
be prepared to hear a lot of english and other languages being spoken though, it was full of expats and tourists (but certainly not only).

we will definitely avoid going there again on a saturday, it was simply too full - although I must say we were pleasantly surprised at how efficient the service was notwithstanding the crowd.
on the whole a pleasant experience to be repeated, so thanks again for the recommendation!

Zeughauskeller is definitely nice, but maybe not quite as "family friendly" as I would like. Not if you have a small one that loves to run around and be a terror. We've had good luck at:

1. Pot Belly's in Adliswil. They have a small kids corner with lots of toys and other "stuff" to keep them amused -- and the food is good. On weekends, it's not as busy as it is during the week (english food)

2. Hotel Adler's restaurant in the old town was quite accommodating to us when we showed up with the push chair and our little one. Food was good, service was decent and the little one was happy. So were we.

For the alternative to this -- Hooter's in Zurich, as much as I hoped it was "family friendly" -- the children's menu only had a massive hamburger on it, that was arguably one of the worst I've ever had. I do mention it, only because our little one was quite amused watching the wait staff ... which meant he was happy, and we could enjoy a fiesta of chicken wings (Interlaken Hooters is MUCH better)

is Hooter's child-friendly or rather father-friendly??

I agree on the zeughauskeller, there are certainly quieter and less crowded places to go with family.
but I forogt to mention that the food was really OK.