hi there
I've been watching the various "what's the best restaurant in Zurich" conversations. They all appear to cover pretty much the same places. I've chosen to do this from a different angle. I've lived in Kreis 2 for a few years. I will attempt, with your help, to give a review of *every* bar and restaurant in that gemeinde.

I realise that this is very localised and that this thread could probably be merged into other Zurich restaurant threads. I created a separate thread because:
- Zurich is the largest Swiss Kanton, population-wise, and we could easily divide it into smaller chunks. Here I'm sort-of covering Kreis 2, eg Enge and Wollishofen, but the edges are deliberately a little blurry.
- I aim to eventually describe all bars and restaurants in that area, rather than just what's "best".
- I'm interested in what other people have discovered in that area.
- Similarly, it's also for practical reasons so that we can find out the good places and patronise them, and drive the bad ones out of business. It's an effort to support local good business.
- I want to see this baby grow :-)

Apologies if most reviews are based around Wollishofen - that's where I live! Feel free to contribute opinions of these or other places, or to make other threads for different Zurich gemeinde. For example, Bederstrasse coverage below is a little thin and can be improved on. Also, apologies for the spelling of any of these names, or any that I can't remember the name of. I'll fix that as I find them out.


Good
Suan Long at Enge station - they do Peking Duck, complete with pancakes and plum sauce. The service is very hovering - you may need to fight them off from topping up your glass every 25 seconds. The other Suan Long at Morgental (Post Wollishofen) is an unknown.
MediterRana (Wollishofen, beside the big Coop) - excellent food and service. Has an outside area. Good for a romantic meal.
Moroccan cafe at General Wille Strasse, Enge - also excellent food, and very cheap. The staff appear to be authentic too. French spoken.
El Patio - (Wollishofen) superb tapas and paella. Spanish staff. Is expensive, but the food is top notch.
Rot Beuch (Wollishofen) - a small family-run bar for locals, and a stammtisch inside, but they take pride in the beer they sell - it's always fresh.
Mellow Bar (Wollishofen). Quite laid-back inside. The front part looks almost like a museum but the seats are very comfy. Can be quite smoky at times. Has lots of regulars.
Spice Gourmet by Museum Rietberg. This has been reviewed in other threads. It sounds like it is a good place, but the portions are rather small.


Ok
Rote Fabrik - Good band venue. Great views of the lake and mountains, but decidedly mixed service. There's no table service outside, and inside they may refuse to understand Hoch Deutsch, just on whim. (It's happened to me...)
Restaurant Bahnhof Wollishofen - big menu selection and good size portions. Has an outside area. Are obsessed with spargel just like every other place this time of year. Watch the adding up.
Almodo (Enge) - Pretty and popular bar. Never seems to close. Always busy and it can be hard to find a seat. Tapas are ok if your idea of tapas is bread olives and salami. Tables always seem to be reserved. Can be very short-staffed.
Acqua Bar and restaurant - Upstairs bar is great and looks out over the Zurisee. We went to the restaurant there for a company dinner in 2005 - it was ok but nothing to write home about. There is a small nightclub too.


Bad
Restaurant Blu - there's an email circulating Zurich at the moment, about a bad meal experience for some local IBMers there last week. They reckoned Restaurant Blu was the worst restaurant that any of them had ever been to, anywhere. The service was slow and hostile, and they were blatantly overcharged for things that weren't ordered. Somehow the most expensive bottle of wine on the menu appeared on their bill.
Restaurant Albisgarten (Morgental) - this is a combined pizza place and Indian restaurant. We saw a rat in the garden, and I got amazing food poisoning. Restaurant Piccolo next door is an unknown.
Pizza Wollyhood (Post Wollishofen) - this is a combined pizza place and kebab shop. It only seems to do lunch trade, and closes very early (eg 6pm) in the evenings. Don't bother going there after 7pm even if it looks open - there's no cook. Godot will arrive before your meal...
Pizza Allegrotto (Bederstrasse) - They lose and confuse orders. Useless for delivery.
Petit Prince (Enge) - The bargirl in our local used to work behind the bar there. During the day it's a normal bar. After 10pm the beers suddenly cost CHF 50 each, and the place fills up with pay-per-view ladies. They have a DJ sometimes, and a bouncer with a velvet rope outside. You have been warned.


TBC
I don't know much about these next places. Please feel free to contribute reviews/opinions, and names and opinions of any place that I've missed out.
Fujiya at Bhf Enge, below the Ascot Hotel
Turf restaurant at Ascot hotel. CHF 50 steaks. I haven't been there, apart from glancing at the menu while walking past.
Restaurant Sternen by Museum Rietberg tram stop. It always seems to be being renovated.
Restaurant Bellaria (Fachschule) by Museum Rietberg
Old Inn (tapas place)
Restaurants and bars at Sihl City, such as Imagine, Platin
Nelly bar at Enge
Cafe Mandarin at Morgental
Almost everywhere on Bederstrasse


Just my $0.02. Hope you find this useful. I'll add to it as my research continues :-)


cheers
Sam

The Almodo bar does a 35chf all inclusive buffet style breakfast. Salmon, eggs, bacon, juice, salami, prosciutto fruit coffee etc. I'm not a big eater, but.... you could really get your monies worth doing this (whatever that means in Zurich )


Nic

Ok

Almodo (Enge) - Pretty and popular bar. Never seems to close. Always busy and it can be hard to find a seat. Tapas are ok if your idea of tapas is bread olives and salami. Tables always seem to be reserved. Can be very short-staffed.

Oh yes, the service is below-average! I've been a guest for years and not once has anybody made the impression to recognise me... In the evening hours, there are strange guests sometimes. It's also the only restaurant I know in Zürich that tolerates weed smokers inside.

The sight and location is nice, though. And the meals okay, but 80% of their offers are spaghetti. But when you drink an Amboss beer or a Turbine Goldsprint, looking at the lake, an OK rating is deserved.


I have positive experiences here but I only go there in the evening. The Wolihood is open until about 10 p.m. Other than in the Rote Fabrik, the two Turkish guys here recognise me and often offer me a coffee or plum brandy I think the food is okay and I haven't had to wait for my food.

HAHA! Thanks!

Nice interieur and friendly staff. Too bad it closes so early in the evening. It's a real café, not much else than breakfast and snacks here...

Pizzeria Bardolino near Bahnhof Leimbach (S4) - good pizza and friendly staff. They didn't boot us out even though we stayed one and a half hours longer than closing time (auxiliary fire brigade...) Rated good in my book... The restaurant will be shut down during this year because the landowners have other plans for the area, so try it as long as you can.

Restaurant Bürgli near the Morgental - nothing special and you'll have to pay through the nose for some beverages (Schoggi Mélange 8 Fr.). Avoid, bad.

Re Wollyhood (Wolihood?)

We went there for pizza one night. We got there about 7pm, and they sat us down and gave us the pizza menu and said that the cook will be arriving in about 5 minutes. So we waited... and waited... and waited... and left after 30 mins. They kept assuring us that the cook was arriving any second, but no...
They run out of kebabs fairly early in the evenings too, which is a real pity, because it's the closest kebab joint to my place.

I've never been to Suan Long (Enge) for peking duck - is it better than:Entehuus, Alfred Escher-Str. 11 8002 Zürich, T 01/2014490?

You have to order the size of the duck at least a few days in advance.

The dimsums at Suan Long are pretty much the only dim sums I know in Zurich.


~Nanda

Fujiya at Bhf Enge, below the Ascot Hotel is one of my favourite restaurants. It is always busy so best to book a table. The restaurant is quite small, staff are friendly & the food excellent.

Suan Long at Morgental (Post Wollishofen) is or was really good, it has been a while since I ate there. They used to have a really weird (but in a nice way) waiter who would explain all the dishes the way a wine expert would describe wine. Never had bad food in there.

We used to also eat regularly at Hua Hin which is opposite the big Coop on Kalchbülstrasse. Really good food there too. One word of warning though when they say a dish is spicy they don't mean spicy to typical Swiss standard.

Oops - I forgot about Entehuus. Thanks for that. Their duck is better than Suan Long. It arrives in several courses - ie the crispy skin with pancakes, then the flesh, then the icecream, ...

I think Chopsticks on Niederdorf does dim sums. I haven't found a place that does Yum Char yet though.

What style is Hua Hin? It sounds Vietnamese.

It is a Thai restaurant.

Has anyone been to the hotel Fachschool restaurant near Museum Rietberg? It think it's called Restaurant Bellevoirpark (???). Apparently there's a chef training school there, and the students get to work in the restaurant and learn to deal with the general public.

A couple of other places at Enge:
Pizzaria Escala
Restaurant/bar Gotthard. Looks very Swiss...

I think I've almost achieved a 100% error rate with the spelling of the places

Spectaturs, near to Stockerstrasse tramstop (www.spectaturs.com) does great lunchtime soups and salads. Also catering service. Affordable, yummy food.

Seems the Röte Fabrik doesn't rate highly here, which I think is a shame. It's not a tablecloths and crystal type of place, Hamdulillah. Although it does get smoky, I've taken me dear old Mum there several times and she loves the er, quirkyness. It takes all sorts. I find the food rather good value and quality. The view and importantly the atmosphere is great in Summer or before a concert. One of the few places where you can play chess, tablefootball or cards while enjoying a bottle of Mendoza's finest, eat a good meal and pass the time chatting to the honies

We went there two weeks ago. I ordered two Naturaperl beers at the bar, and the woman serving returned with two slices of carrot cake...

Let's be fair though Sam, I've seen locals and Anglo's struggle with your acc-sint

Has anyone been to that Bulgarian cafe Pousche(sp?) by Post Wollishofen?

And what's the service like at Petite Fleur?

Mmmmmmm.....I've never had duck-flavoured ice cream LOL!

Bederhof on Bederstrasse has a modern twist on Swiss food. I can definitely recommend it. The bar there has comfy leather sofas as well. Very popular with the Credit Suisse crowd, the service is very, very good.

Weisse Rose (near the Bederhof) is a very swanky place. Very Nouvelle Cuisine (I ordered chicken and received the smallest bird I have ever seen. It was the size of a sparrow. And cost CHF 60. But I did get half a dozen strands of noodles as well.), and has fantastic art work from Cote d'Ivoire and other places. It is more a fancy place for a date or for a business guest, but the service is impeccable.

I don't know! I thought this is a thread about restaurants and not about brothels

I've lived in Kreis 2 off-and-on for about 7 years now and for some reason I can't think of a restaurant I wouldn't return to in the area...it's not that I have low standards either. Ok, maybe I wouldn't be in a hurry to go back to the rotating sushi bar restaurant at the Stockerstr. tram stop, but only because there are so many other choices in town.

Gotthard (Enge) is a fantastic local Swiss beerhall. Very good food. Can be quite smoky at times. Friendly service.

Pizzeria da Guido/Restaurant Sternen (Seestrasse/Sternenstr.) is a local gem. Very good pizza, pasta, etc. Friendly service. Can be very warm at times in the restaurant. In summer, they have a few small tables outside.

Entehuus (Enge) - two thumbs up. More expensive than Suan Long, but in a higher class. Will do take-away.

Fujiya (Enge) - excellent, but expensive. For special nights out. Everything Lou said about it is true.

Escale (Enge) - very good Italian. Service is a little nonchalant at times (even by European standards), but not rude.

Old Inn (Enge) - it's been a while since I've been here, but I remember to food being above average. Nice place to meet for a quick drink with friends.

Spuntino (Bhf Enge) - one of the best kebab shops in Zurich. Good quality meat, never greasy.

The Sushi restaurant (don't remember the name) at the corner of Alfred-Escherstr & Gen Williestr. is pretty good, too. Small, but they don't seem to have a big dinner crowd - mainly lunch for the local insurance co's, I guess.

Restaurant Bellevoirpark is indeed a chef/hotel/server school. Very good food. This might be the place where they train your server to look around the whole room without making eye-contact with any customers. A nice place for a special occasion.

Restaurant Buergli (Wollishofen) - excellent food, excellent service. Small, focused wine list.

What do people think of the South End Pub in Wollishofen (beside the 7 tram terminus)? It's an English themed pub, with Guinness, Murphy's, etc. It has a great outdoors section. A pint of Murphy's is chf 8.20.

Food seems extremely cheap compared to the Twist / Paddy's etc, eg pizza for chf 11, but I don't know anything about the quality.

A nice touch - all the ladies got a red rose yesterday, because it was Mother's Day.

We were there last night, and the place was full of Zurich Rugby Club members having a few.

Can definately recommend the Bederhof on Bederstrasse (Tram 13 and new tram 5 go past). I think it's become an "in" place to eat, so make sure you reserve a table in advance. I drive past it on my way home and it's always packed. They do "Markbein" (marrow bone) for starters, and it's enough to make any caveman's (aka hubby's) mouth water just thinking about it.
The Old Inn in Enge has deteriorated over the last years - we live nearby and used to go there a lot. The menu hasn't changed / been updated for ages, and their idea of Spanish food is a joke. Their huge salads are good, although they charge extra (!!!) for the Büürli's (bread rolls).

One of our favourites is the "Veltlinerkeller" (Schlüsselgasse in the old part of Zurich, behind the Paradeplatz, stone's throw away from St. Peter's). The food is excellent, service ditto, prices on the high side but well worth it for special occasions. Fantastic if you want to wine and dine in "olde worlde" Swiss surroundings.

Another good find - Imagine Bar/restaurant at Sihl City. Friendly/useful staff, superb food, outdoors seating. It's got a sister/sibling Imagine bar at the hbf, which also has excellent food.

The only downer we had, was that the "moving suitcase" sculpture hanging under the motorway suddenly blew a bearing, and ended up squeaking up and down until they switched it off...

I haven't checked out the other foodie places at Sihl City. I know there's a pizza place (self service outside, it seems), and a sushi/asian place with zillions of staff, and another cafe on the other side of the main Sihl City doors from Imagine. Apart from that...