Thanks. Just took a quick look at the menu and to @medgirl’s point, eyepopping prices. Not sure I’ve ever seen Lomo Saltado anywhere near $60 USD. Is this considered more on the finer dining side, or more or less what I should be expecting.
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These are prices you can expect across Switzerland and definitely not fine dining but average restaurants. A good pizza for example on Basel will cost you $30-40 (Switzerland wasn’t involved in any war for many centuries and so there is a lot of generational wealth which is reflected in the everyday prices including supermarkets)
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Switzerland is just like that. A small salad, a French onion soup, a small chocolate mousse, and a black currant juice with sparkling water came to around $60 when I visited Geneva in 2015. I’m guessing that same meal would cost $100 now. My cousin who has lived outside Zurich for 30 years almost always vacations with her family outside Switzerland, because Switzerland is so expensive. When they aren’t on vacation, they eat almost all their meals at home.
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I don’t have any recent experiences, but we stayed at the Silberhorn in 2016 in Lauterbrunnen, and we did the half board there, which included breakfast and (4 course!) dinner at the hotel. Since food was not our priority during that leg of our journey, this worked out very well, and honestly, we thought the food was great, especially after long days of hiking.
We also requested picnic lunches most days to bring in our backpacks, and they were simple but delicious. If you’re staying in hotels and they offer that option, I’d consider it.
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I was in Lucerne in 2023. Didn’t eat in any fine dining spots, but pretty much everything I ate was very good. And wines by the glass were shockingly good. At what you might consider an average/mid-range type restaurant, I would say my meals were probably in the $80-$100 range for one. Keep in mind that would include a couple glasses of wine.
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lots of good cheese possible in Switzerland. our hotel in Wengen served a selection - with great breads - every morning, and they were surprisingly varied in flavor and all excellent. Unlabeled.
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I would agree with @LulusMom1 that Swiss wines are very good. They don’t export any (I think) so I’ve only ever sampled Swiss wines when visiting Switzerland. My brother-in-law (who is Swiss) chooses the wine so I’m afraid I don’t have any recommendations.
The main supermarkets in Switzerland are Co-op (a bit upmarket) and Migros (slightly cheaper). The bigger Co-op branches sometimes have an in-house café which is more reasonably priced than restaurants.
The wealth is Switzerland is not always generational - they pay really good salaries so the cost of living is reasonably proportional to Swiss salaries. Most Swiss tend to be economically frugal, sometimes renting their home throughout their lives instead of being able to buy (if they didn’t inherit) and mostly eating at home and using public transport.
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A link to the co-op supermarket chain restaurant menu/prices.
A short light rail ride from Lausanne is the mountain village of Le Diablerets. From there you can hike or take a short bus ride to the gondola at the base of Glacier 3000. In addition to spectacular views from the summit, there are two restaurants, one a sit-down venue where I once had an excellent raclette. In the village of Le Diablerets most places serve the excellent local wines, which some say never leave the valley. Note the train to Le Diablerets departs from a station just outside the main Lausanne train station.
its a stylish restaurant not fine dining like Restaurant Maihofli. I had been in Wengen staying in a very nice quirky swiss hotel for a couple of weeks on a botanical tour with half pension. I highly recommend that locatiion which is in a peaceful carless village with amazing views and access all around the valley via cablecar, lifts and train to all the great trails in the mountain. The breakfast was stellar, the dinner was competent euro food, and we bought our lunches and snacks in the village and at the coffee places up on the mountain. Excellent quiches every day in our packs, delicious coffees (or beers) and freshly made cakes, etc up in the mountains, very good ice cream snacks when we got back to town. A very civilized way to enjoy stunning nature and sleep well at night.
Id definitely prefer good Lomo Saltado to the pedestrian swiss food we ate at on the quai at the Rathaus Brauerei on the the prior day.
here are some pics of the food at Pikante in Lucerne. Three of us shared I paid. You can price it out. It was not a big meal, but it was enjoyable. We had had a fillling, tasty lunch up on the mountain so were not looking for a big dinner.
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Thanks for this. I love a good Lomo Saltado and order it at just about at every Peruvian. But I’d probably have a hard time with the price tag of $60 for what looks like according to your top pic a normal size dish. I wonder if the dish or Peruvian food in general is considered a delicacy in that part of the world
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Meringue and double cream from Gruyères is a well-known treat of the region. You can buy them in Gruyères or probably much cheaper in Migros supermarket. In the summer, we love eating that combination with fresh strawberries (erdbeeren = earth berries).
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I was shocked to find a latin american offering there. Very uncommon in Europe and as I recall there is a story behind it. I could certainly have gotten a bigger lomo saltado at Surfish in Brooklyn but that wasnt my calculation at the time when I wanted a different taste from what I had been having. Note, different chef at the Maihofli now, it still has its Michelin star, but not sure I would recommend spending the bucks there without more consideration other than my enthusiastic review.
I hope you are actually stopping in Bern and not just passing through. Its an extraordinary small city to explore, with remarkable geography, a fine art museum or two, historic architecture, and a fun culture with folks swimming and boating down in the gorge. I liked my eating there too tho as noted above reservations are needed at most places of repute.
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Wengen has amazing views. And I agree on Bern. I wish I had spent more time there.
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Agree on Bern, it’s a very cool city and wish we’d done more than a day trip there.
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We are doing an overnight in Bern, so evening/late afternoon, and next morning. This is the itinerary…
Lucerne 3
Wengen 4
Zermatt 3
Montreax 2
Bern 1
In/out of Zurich but not spending any time there
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Jazz fest??
Neh. Going second week of August. Should be empty around that time, right? 
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lol, good luck 
tots and pears
Apparently. the Alps are even more busy in the summer than they are during ski season. I didn’t realize this until a ski trip to the French Alps in 2014.
If you visit Piz Gloria, I liked the schnitzel in 2004. I’m sure it’s still solid for things like schnitzel and strudel.
I spent a week skiing Grindelwald, Wengen and Mürren in March 2004.
My last visit to Switzerland was in March 2019, when I skied over to Samnaun, Switzerland from Iscghl,.for a few lunches and afternoon desserts.
If you’re interested in regional dishes, Andie covers a lot of them in her blog:
She is really friendly, in case you want to reach out and ask her questions about specific regions.
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