The 17 Best Places to Drink in Switzerland

The fine dining room inside Zurich's Widder hotel holds two Michelin stars, and the kitchen earns them by moving between classical French technique and genuinely global instincts without the whole thing feeling like a mood board. Chef Stefan Heilemann runs a set menu in four to six courses, with a vegetarian path alongside. The staff are unusually relaxed for a room this serious, which helps.

A cocktail bar committed to zero-waste operations in Zürich's red-light district, which is not the combination you see coming. Late Bloomers runs on renewable energy, treats byproducts like raw ingredients, and serves coffee alongside serious cocktails from a compact, comfortable room. Weekends bring local DJs spinning funk and new disco, when the intimacy tips toward something louder. It holds a spot on Europe's 50 Best Bars list, if that helps set expectations.

The walls are hung with original Miró, Chagall, and Bonnard, and nobody here treats that as unusual. This old-school Zurich brasserie has been an institution on Bellevueplatz forever, drawing the kind of regulars who settle into the leather banquettes like they own them. Classic Swiss and European cooking, much of it finished tableside, anchors the menu. The Chagall Room offers a quieter evening; the main brasserie is the livelier bet.

The curved ceiling is the first thing you notice, a sculptural centrepiece in a room that otherwise runs to pale tones and Nordic-lean tables. This modern Italian restaurant and bar sits directly beside an art gallery, and you can carry your aperitivo through the connecting door to browse before dinner. Evenings run to a tasting menu of bold, Italian-inflected cooking from an open kitchen, while cocktails and mocktails are treated as part of the meal, not an afterthought.

The two-storey wall of backlit bottles is the first thing you see, and it sets the tone for this all-day bar on the edge of Lake Zurich. Coffee in the morning, charcuterie and steak tartare whenever, but the draw is the multi-course cocktail menu, which treats a round of drinks the way a kitchen treats a tasting menu. Light, airy, and a little too put-together to feel accidental.