hi there

Continuing on from the Kreis 2 reviews, here's an attempt to describe/review *all* the bars/restaurants on the Niederdorf, in direction from Centrale --> Bellevue. The area is very general, and includes a street either side. I won't cover "nightclubs", or kebab stands... and apologies if I get the names or order mixed up.

Opinions and feedback are welcome, especially anywhere I've missed. Please remember that we are trying to find out something about every place, rather than simply which ones are best. For example, we've heard many people say that eg Beyond is a great place... what are other places like?

Here we go:

Centrale - Piano bar - generally has a piano/midi player most nights. The bar tends to be full of bored hotel guests; show them a good time! Specialises in champagne.

King's Cave - the grill restaurant below the Hotel Centrale. Has hotel prices but the standard is pretty good. If someone visiting town wants a good steak then this is a good place to take them. No change from CHF 50-60 for such a main though.

Café Verte(?) - vege. No information, sorry.

Dada bar - unknown

Chopsticks - Malaysian takeaway. Cheap-ish and reliable. A good place for that Nasi Lemak / Rendang / Laksa fix. The cook does go home fairly early on a quiet night though - just like everyone else, really...

Bierhalle Wolf - Surreal. One litre beers, grab a granny, and a cover band with mullets. Also a chance to clap along to mimed family favourites, and perhaps even some yodelling. Comfort bratwursts too.

Forecast - next door to Bierhalle Wolf, and a good place to chill after visiting that rather interesting place. Can be very young downstairs.

Jakobs…(halle? keller? I can't remember the name...) - Good, reliable swiss food. Open all hours.

Graebli - another local place that never seems to be particularly busy. No English spoken. It's an ok place, with little carvings everywhere. Don't alienate the locals.

Bonnie Prince Charlie - horrible décor. Doesn't attract the expat crowd.

Big Ben - a very average English-themed bar, with Murphy's on tap. Nothing positive, to say, really.

Cana - vaguely caribbean bar. The DJ is in a world of his own, or rather, off the planet. When was the last time you heard the birdie dance?

Havanna - this used to be a "nightclub", but it moved upstairs and the bar moved downstairs.

Zuri Bar - fairly downmarket, but even so, they'll always serve you

UU bar - has a large outdoors section, but that's the only redeeming feature and a lot of people have been unimpressed. Never seems to be busy inside. Shabby loos.

Corazon - sister premises to the Andorra, right down to the same propeller in the roof. Seats are a problem, unless you are into beanbags, but they do have good wine.

Cantina - Italian restaurant. Has a huge outdoors section, so you can indulge in people watching. Tina Bar is upstairs.

Rosenhof in general - it's a nice place in Summer. It always seems to be going off, with heaps of people hanging around. On Thursdays and Saturdays is the hippy market, where it's rumoured to be possible to buy that "special" hemp filling for your pillow. In the evenings there are sometimes bands busking. Be aware that it is a residential area, and they stop selling alcohol at midnight.

Blue monkey - expensive, small portions, but very good indeed. The food is cheaper downstairs. Has tables on Rosenhof.

Pigalle - it's hard to figure out what this place is. It's got a Paris red light district name, and the staff are useless at serving drinks, but unlike similar establishments they have tables outside...

Nachtflug - Just an ok bar that is very central. Opens out onto Rosenhof. Also has sort-of tapas.

Barrique - Spanish place. Dunno much apart from that.

Twist - Zurich's Rugby pub. Full of expats, especially when there's a game on. The garden bar is rather cold outside of mid Summer. Food is very average, except for crisps passing as fries/chips on the meals. Always seems to be busy.

Oepfel Chammer - restaurant and wine bar. No beer. The place where people try to climb over the rafter. Has a list of regulations as long as your arm… http://www.oepfelchammer.ch/Dokumente/Oeli_Reglement.pdf

Zic Zac - hard to quantify. It's almost like a local version of Hard Rock Café, but without the merchandise or the music videos. Has a huge bar. Food is an unknown but always seems to be busy. Girl ratio is quite high. Khans is upstairs.

Santa Lucia - pizza restaurant chain. Make very good pizzas.

Khans - "Indian" restaurant. Ok, I guess. Been there a few times. I went there midday once, with an Indian friend. The place seemed closed, but my friend heard some people in the kitchen speaking Hindi, his mother tongue. So he pokes his head through the door to the kitchen, and asks in perfect Hindi if the place opens for lunch. They reply to him in English that it is closed...

Andorra - Nice place. Good beer selection. Staff can be a bit poncy. Not a place to bring someone in a wheelchair, as you'll end up having to carry them down the stairs, as we did.

Splendid bar - another piano bar. Upstairs bar is nice but is closed until fairly late.

Safari - unknown

Velvet - unknown

Wings - A bar seemingly founded by former Swissair staff. There is a token nod to the occasional food trolley in the décor, but apart from that it's actually quite hard to tell. Quite popular with locals.

Le Dezaley - a good Swiss/French restaurant. Good place for fondues. You may need to reserve.

Casa bar - has live jazz, and no cover charge - because it's built into the drink prices. Don't come here for a night on the turps, because the prices will start to bite.

Casa Romero - a nice tapas selection, but everything is pre-prepared - all hot dishes are via the microwave.

Zax-Bar - unknown.

Wüste Bar - unknown

Weiss Rose - a nice little local Swiss place, with friendly staff. English not spoken. Tables outside in Summer. It's lovely - don't ruin it.

Odeon - a Zurich stalwart. Has been here for decades.

There's also a few bars that we visited on the Pub Quiz night on 12th January this year, but I can't remember their names...

Feedback and more reviews/comments are welcome.

cheers
Sam

You should stay-in more.

dave

Yeah, it was a long night...

Sandwiched-in after Züri bar is :

Kontiki : heavy metal, budvar and tequila slammers, served by a very pleasant lady who used to have loads of shit in her face, but doesn't anymore.

Safari : Laid-back smoky corner bar with large windows and a big round bar that is too big for the room.

Splendid Bar : Desperados who don't come to their senses.

dave

I like the Safari Bar - they play some very good music, as long as you like your music dark and loud. Laid-back is a good description.

Wüste: Nice during the day in summer when you can sit and watch the world go by outside. Evenings: often overfull and smoky, but still quite entertaining in its own way. I once got talking to two American guys there who claimed to sell private jets for a living - and no, of course they couldn't possibly reveal their customers' identities.

In my experience, start name-dropping heavy metal bands you've seen and the locals love you.

The bar guy in the kilt will apparently show you his tackle upon request, or even onhe request. It just gets worse and worse for this bar...

There is a street-hatch on the front of Zic Zac where you can get a burger. These burgers are in my opinion second only to the Lion burger in Zurich.
A great move is to go to the Twist to watch footy/rugby, and bring along a burger from this place. Much better than the Twist's own food.

Don't forget the flaming sausages!

Hmmm well yes, I've had the unfortunate experience of witnessing this first hand!! Was most definitely not a request on my part!!

Good point re the burgers. I seem to recall that they do wraps etc too, no? Do we need a best burger thread too?

Hi there, just thought i'd add my tuppence worth.

Having only been over for the total of about a week over 3 visits, i spent most afternoons after interviews hitting the Niederdorf.

I found one bar that i quite liked that i don't think you mentioned, it is called something like No.26 or No.28, but it is just opposite the Swiss Army Knife shop (does every tourist buy one when drunk or just me?) and has a nice outside area in the sun throughout the day. The staff were very friendly too and were happy to speak to me in English or German.

Have to say though, I also went into the Bonnie Prince Charlie nearby, and was expecting some cred for being Scottish, unfortunately i just found a group of ignorant late teens/early twenty somethings wolf whistling at anything in a skirt and generally being tosspots. Hopefully Military Service will straighten them out!

The Big Ben does have one redeeming feature though, Darts, hooray!

I would love to know where to find a good burger in this town. Making my own on the grill, so far.

fduvall

That's my girlfriend, man

What? She said we had something special!

Zic Zac! Unless you need a sit down, in which case the Lion!

Didn't we cover this a few posts ago?

... so do y'all reckon this is a useful thing to do? I was just wanting to see if there were more interesting places to visit, rather than the usual suspects of eg Beyond and the Twist.

Other foodie threads on here seemed to be degenerating into:

Quick! I need a good restaurant!
xxx is a good restaurant...
Thanks!
Quick! I need a good restaurant!
xxx is a good restaurant...
Thanks!
Quick! I ...

... ad nauseum. I just wanted to do something different.

Are there any other areas that could be covered? I'm musing about doing one for the Stadelhofen / Seefeld area. Langstrasse or kreis 4 can also be done, but I don't know enough places down there. Baden? Basel? ...

What you did for Niederdorf - even though your geography meanders somewhat - was a very good idea, and ideal material for a website with linked map:

"Sam's hot hostelries and buzzing bars - an intensive crawl around the nightlife of Zürich" (c)

Its doesn't work so well in a forum format, as innevitably other people respond.

How about:

Langstrasse
Hardbrücke area
That area with Kauflauten in it

dave

Hardbruecke is a good place to cover, as is around Bahnhofstrasse. They do need to be team efforts though, as I certainly don't know every bar in town.

You do sort-of raise a good philosophical issue though - how much (free) content should one provide on sites like this, if
a) not many people contribute, and
b) if the pages are being hoovered up by eg google for unknown use by others later on...

Maybe someone can do a review of all Zurich's nightclubs too...

In a kind of Lenin-iand-Joyce-in-the-Odean-bar kind of way ? Thats the limit to my philosophy where pubs are concerned.

dave

It also sounds a simple idea for a pub crawl. Find a few places that nobody knows anything about, and then check them out! Identify a few more, etc etc etc. It probably gets a bit fractal after a while...

Probably in a few cases they are unknown because they are shite and forgettable, and people just walk in and take one look and then walk out. There's only one way to find out though. It's all very subjective as well.

For example: Dada, Safari, Wüste, Velvet, Zax, Barrique - I know nothing about. To the Batmobile!

I would love to hear more about seefeld - just moved into the area.

Have only tried Tiffins thus far, always crowded - though I would recommend it

How are their burgers compared to Papa Joe's (one place where you can get food late in the niederdorf) or Iroqois/Cheyenne's?


~ Nanda.

Hmm. I always considered Cheyenne's to be fairly normal. Good, but just normal. Don't think I've tried the other two places.