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Zurich Notes

Zurich Hotel Review

Zurich: Hotel Tiefenau, Steinwiesstrasse 8, 4 stars
www.tiefenau.ch

Recommended. Listed on the Karen Brown site. Formerly a manor, built in 1835, 35 rooms. Located a few blocks from the Art Gallery just past Old Town. You can walk to Bahnhofstrasse in 15 minutes. The restaurants and shops of Old Town and Seefeldstrasse are closer. Hotel is on a quiet side street. Our bed was small - an American double I think. Breakfast not included - 13.80CHF (about $9) each served in the room and including eggs.

This was our first stay at this hotel. We usually stay at the Hotel Glokenhof right downtown but if you don't get a room at the back, you are on a noisy street. Also, you are right in the center of the city. I chose this hotel because it was just outside the downtown area, but still just a 15 minute walk to it all, and it is near to our favorite vegetarian restaurant - the Gleich. And the Gleich, after being around since the 60s or 70s (we first ate there in 1988 and ate there last in October 2000) - was gone. But the other good vegetarian restaurant in town, the Hiltl (downtown, across from the Glockenhof) had opened a new branch nearby - so we were still close to a vegetarian restaurant.

Our room was very pretty with a small sitting area and a wall of windows - just looking to a back lane, but it was a pretty enough view and at night the full moon shone in. The bed was really small - double bed size - and the comforter barely fit the bed. Usually in Switzerland you get two single beds together with a comforter for each bed.

4 stars, expensive, 350 CHF per night ($250).

Zurich Restaurant Reviews

Note: You are not expected to tip in restaurants in Switzerland.

Zurich: Tibits, Seefeldstrasse 2, open all day until late at night
www.tibits.ch
Vegetarian buffet restaurant owned by the downtown Hiltl restaurant. The buffet is labeled for dairy and vegan dishes. Take a plate and choose the dishes you want - salad below, hot dishes above. Take it to the cash register and put it on the scale. You pay by weight. Order drinks at the cashier. Seating at long tables inside or outside. We paid about 12CHF ($8) each for a lunch sized plate of food. The food was not as good as the downtown restaurant - not as much selection of the hot dishes. They were featuring Mexican dishes the day we were there - not what we needed, coming from New Mexico!

Zurich: Hiltl, Sihlstrasse 28, just off Bahnhofstrasse,
www.hiltl.ch
Vegetarian restaurant in the center of town. Inside and outside seating. Extensive menu - great food. Our lunch of two spinach-egg-potato dishes and water came to 42CHF (about $32).

Zurich: Restaurant Hong Kong, Seefeldstrasse 60, open daily
Good Chinese food in Zurich. Our meal of soup, monks vegetables and vegetable noodles cost 75CHF (about $50) - not cheap. Meals are expensive in Switzerland.

Zurich: Ban Song Thai, Kirchgasse 6, on a lane in Old Town just a block up from the river.
Great Thai food. Our dinner for two of spring rolls, Pad Thai noodles and sweet and sour tofu, with beers, was 80CHF ($55).

Zurich: Sprungli, Paradeplatz on Bahnhofstrasse
www.spruengli.ch
Tea Room - since 1836. Seating outside or inside (upstairs). Upstairs, select your pastry from the display counter. The person there puts it on a plate and hands it to you. Sit down and order your coffee from the waitress. Pay when you leave at the cashier. Downstairs there is a good chocolate store.

Zurich Shops List

Bookstore: Orell Fussli, Fusslistrasse 4, just off Bahnhofstrasse
www.books.ch
Small selection of English language books on main level. Good travel section upstairs with drawers of hiking maps.

Department store: Globus, Bahnhofstrasse
Good quality department store with full house wares and kitchen wares sections.