On a quiet street a few minutes outside of Zurich’s busy center, Sarajevska Ćevabdžinica serves up fresh Bosnian food, covering both homey classics and street food. While there is a chalk menu above the cashier, along with a beer menu, take a look at the glass cabinets below, where there are platters of borek and clay tureens of beans and kebap in red sauces. Take your pick and the staff will put your selection into the oven. The borek is flaky on the outside, but soft and pillowy on the inside; it comes most often filled with cheese, but the restaurant has potato and sometimes spinach varieties, too. If you order one of the clay tureens, ask for a roll of bread, which is ideal for scooping up velvety beans; the dough rests behind the counter just waiting for the staff to slide it into the oven.

At its best, a gastropub maintains the comfort of a traditional pub while delivering inventive food. Falken has an advantage on the cozy vibes, having been an inn for over 400 years prior to being opened as a restaurant in 2020 by Céline Tschanz and Florian Bobst. Despite opening early in the pandemic, the restaurant has managed to become a commercial and critical success. The dinner and lunch menus are loaded with Swiss classics like cordon bleu. The brunch menu is short but mighty, including options for different dietary restrictions, like a dish of eggs served “your way” with sourdough toast, roasted fennel, pears, and chanterelles. Given the extensive indoor and outdoor seating, you can probably get away without a reservation.

A large Turkish community calls Zurich home, and over time its food has begun to meld with local delicacies. Bebek’s full breakfast is a perfect example: Alongside Turkish white cheeses and jam, the meal — which is big enough for up to four people — includes Swiss smoked trout, a robust white fish. The accompanying bread basket also features gipfeli in addition to the more standard breads in a Turkish breakfast. Bebek is super busy on the weekends, so stop by on a weekday.

Zurich has a large Lebanese diaspora community and many lovely Lebanese restaurants. Schmiede’s owners left Lebanon 30 years ago to come to Switzerland, and their restaurant has a particularly comforting vibe that’s lacking in some of the other places closer to the center of town. In order to try a bit of everything, go for the mezzeteller, literally “plate of meze.” While the menu lists a set selection of meze on the platter, the staff will let you swap items out for your own favorites. The lubia bil-zeit is particularly rich, with sliced long beans in a tomato-olive oil sauce. Make sure you have a bit of labneh in your selection, which you can scoop up with some bread together with the lubia.

Habesha serves Ethiopian and Eritrean specialties, including a great lunch special and reliable vegetarian options. Most meals are served over injera, presented in colorful baskets, along with a few other dishes. There are ways to customize servings for one or more diners, and you can ask for the ayib (fresh cheese) to be omitted from vegetarian selections to make them vegan. For the more meat-inclined, there’s kitfo (minced beef) and tsebhi dorho (spicy chicken).

Even though Welschland is a tiny storefront tucked behind a busy street, you could easily spend hours chatting with the staff and drawing on their expertise about cheeses and meats. The shop specializes in Gruyere and vacherin sourced from Swiss dairies, and the store offers everything you need to make a meal, including bread and a wonderful selection of local pickles and mustards. If you’re planning something a little bit more elaborate, the staff also makes fondue mixes upon request.

Miró is a cafe with a postindustrial decor theme, including exposed ventilation along the walls and a bright marble counter. With brunch on the weekends and coffee beans roasted in-house, it’s an equally good option to grab something on the go or sit for a bit. Check the pastry case for laugengipfel, croissants with a dark crust browned by alkali; they’re flaky on the outside while chewy and moist on the inside, the perfect accompaniment to a well-brewed cup of coffee.

Coffee is another star in Zurich’s roastery scene that offers brunch on Saturdays and a good selection of pastries on weekdays. Use a visit as an opportunity to try a seed-studded gipfeli, a Swiss-style croissant which is flaky on the outside and a bit more chewy on the inside than the French variation; while they’re pretty much ubiquitous on the Zurich coffee shop scene, Coffee’s version of gipfeli manages to maintain crunch while also offering a soft, bready center. The cafe is a bit on the smaller side, though there is outdoor seating, so come here if you’re ready to grab your drinks to go or if the weather is playing along.

Zurich has experienced the third wave in coffee like much of the globe and it boasts a good density of coffee roasteries, including Mame, founded by award-winning baristas Emi Fukahori and Mathieu Theis. Order any of the coffee drinks — all made with care — and treat yourself to a pain au chocolat made with milk chocolate (or chocolate-hazelnut spread), or anything else from the pastry case bursting at the seams. Both of Mame’s locations are busy on weekend mornings, with friends meeting for coffee and families dropping by on the way to the park for a few soft chocolate chip cookies.

Bring a group of friends to enjoy Dar’s extensive wine list, which dips into orange wine, cider, and rosé, alongside North African-inspired dishes. The restaurant is the second project from Zizi Hattab after Kle, which centers plant-based cooking. Food items at Dar are meant to be shared, bulked up with couscous or bread. The dessert menu alone is worth a visit, with highlights such as a sundae made with rosewater ice cream and a white chocolate flan made with candied plums.

To go along with Zurich’s multitude of excellent Italian dining options, there are many great gelaterias. Rosso Arancio’s gelato is light and airy, with a wide range of classic flavors, including lemon, pistachio, vanilla, and strawberry. The shop’s coffee is quite good, especially if you get the espresso in an affogato.

Primarily a cheese shop, Chäs+Brot focuses on Switzerland’s specialties like fresh bread, cured meats, and pickles to help customers gather all the necessary ingredients to assemble dishes like raclette at home. The store also offers different hot meals each day, as well as salads in a deli case, including a crisp red cabbage salad and a carrot slaw, ideal for punching up a sandwich or serving alongside charcuterie.

Tucked away a few minutes from the central train station, Meze is a great place to visit on your way in or out of Zurich. The menu is long and full of Turkish classics. Look out for the mantı, which are soft but chewy, giving way to a meaty center; they’re topped with Aleppo pepper oil and generous spoonfuls of garlicky yogurt. Supplement an order with a meze or a cup of tea.

If you’re lucky enough to snag a seat for breakfast or lunch at this buzzy Altstadt spot, try the rösti, which you can get plain or with an egg. If you’re in a rush, grab a few small loaves of butterzopf (brioche-like bread), which are flaky yet substantial, and excellent with butter and jam. The rest of the baked offerings do not disappoint, including the puckeringly sour lemon cake.

Opened in 1898, Hiltl is part of a historic culture of spas and sanatoriums in Europe that pioneered vegetarianism as a treatment for various ailments. At multiple locations throughout Switzerland, the chain employs a pay-by-weight system. Help yourself to any of the dishes in the dining room (which run the gamut of global vegetarian cuisine, from samosas to salads) then take it over to be weighed before digging in. The Zurich location is in the historical Altstadt district, so you can easily walk over after some morning or afternoon sightseeing.

While chocolate shops and gelaterias abound in Zurich, few boast the wide range of Swiss nuts like Vanini. Scoops are stacked high in cones covered in chocolate and crushed nuts, before being topped with a stroopwafel, cookie, or mini cone upturned like a party hat. Try a combination of milk chocolate, strawberry, and yogurt.

While the menu at Zunfthaus zur Waag is influenced by cuisines around the world, the highlights are the local dishes. Under the leadership of chef Erik Schröter, Zunfthaus zur Waag has become a venue for showcasing Swiss cuisine, especially the Zurich version of kalbsgeschnetzeltes (Zürcher geschnetzeltes), thinly sliced veal in a creamy sauce with tender mushrooms, here served with rösti and optionally calf’s kidneys. The creativity extends to the dessert menu, where you’ll find plum tart with cinnamon ice cream or dumplings with apricots and vanilla sauce.

Zurich’s colorful chocolate bonbon trend is center stage at Dieter Meier Oro de Cacao, where inventive flavors draw inspiration from classic combinations, like a white chocolate bonobon with cream cheese and oats, or a milk chocolate version with sage and brown butter. The store has chocolate bars and hot chocolate, as well as ice cream during the warmer months.

With its long history as a guest lodge, Kindli is a good poster child for the Swiss hotelier tradition beyond the mega-brands. Located near Lindenhof, the hotel restaurant engages in global trends in fine dining, although you can also find local flavors like Zürcher geschnetzeltes, thinly sliced veal and mushrooms in cream sauce, in addition to a beloved truffle risotto.

Tucked in the middle of the old town, Max is a tiny, very neat chocolatier, with everything very clearly labeled. It’s a family affair, founded by Patrik König in honor of his son, the titular Max, and designed by König’s sister. Much of the chocolate selection rotates in and out, although there are some staples always in stock, like the raspberry branchliss, a fruity elongated truffle and a particular favorite of Max. The unbeatable hot chocolate bears a warm reddish tinge and luscious oil droplets floating on the surface, and it’s wonderfully bitter and fatty. Come early in the day because the store tends to run out by the early afternoon.

The Swiss have more than a few ways of eating melted cheese, several of which are on display at Swiss Chuchi Restaurant. While the place serves a variety of fondues at different price points, the traditional Vaudois fondue is an excellent selection, as well as the moitié-moitié, which is half Gruyere and half vacherin. You can order any of the fondues without alcohol, as well. Another must-have cheese-centric dish is the capun, a type of dumpling from Grisons, which is wrapped in chard and served in a creamy sauce.

The Schwarzenbach storefront is split into three parts, with each section focusing on different types of dry goods, chocolate, and coffee, which staff roast in a window open to the street. One of the storefronts, with two small benches affixed to the window, sells hot chocolate; Schwarzenbach’s offering is a bit milkier than some competitors, with a solid layer of froth on top, and the outdoor seating makes a great spot for people-watching before popping back into the store to pick up a chocolate bar or some tea.

There are some places you go for ambiance and some places you go for food — and then there are places that nail it on both counts, like Café & Conditorei 1842. The restaurant has a 19th-century European drawing room feel, with ornate plastering on the walls painted in pastels. The pastry case matches the ambiance, with decorative selections like vermicelles: velvety chestnut puree pushed through a press to form long, vermicelli-like strands, layered atop meringue.

Whether you’re in the mood for a snack or a good loaf of bread to take home, John Baker has you covered with a good rotation of items baked throughout the day. There are smaller, roll-sized versions of larger loaves, like olivenbrötli stuffed full of oversized olives, and wheaty ruchbrötli that are ideal for pairing with a chunk of cheese or some mustard. Be sure to grab one of the pretzels with butter or the ubiquitous gipfeli, the Swiss version of the croissant, which is chewier than the French variety.

Gandria is a hip spot for a more gastronomically adventurous Italian meal. For dinner, you can either select the five-course tasting menu or pick from the extensive, carefully crafted a la carte options. Items riff off of Italian classics with twists, like a starter of Parmigiano-Reggiano-flavored ice cream.