Eating in Luzern and Basel

[Marneuse]

We will be spending a few days in Luzern and Basel in early October. I've attempted to search this forum and don't see any recent information on either of these cities. I aplogize if I've overlooked threads--please point me there if you can.

Does anyone have current recommendations?

We will have some lunches and dinners--would prefer a mix of nice but wholesome food and wine--not too stuffy. We enjoy most cuisine types so any ideas for sustenance will be appreciated.

Thanks.

Marsha

[SWISS_CHEF]

We will be spending a few days in Luzern and Basel in early October. I've attempted to search this forum and don't see any recent information on either of these cities. I aplogize if I've overlooked threads--please point me there if you can.

Does anyone have current recommendations?

We will have some lunches and dinners--would prefer a mix of nice but wholesome food and wine--not too stuffy. We enjoy most cuisine types so any ideas for sustenance will be appreciated.

Thanks.

Marsha

←

Good question... two of my favorite haunts are gone; Peck (from Milan) and the Wiener Café in the Hotel National. I like the Old Swiss House but it's pretty traditional.

In the old town watch out for the ones (and there are a lot) that cater for the "here today, gone tomorrow" tourists.

If you don't mind getting a little out of town (7 Km), we have had outstanding meals at the Rossli in Aligenswil

and Restaurant La Pistache in the Hotel Balm and prices are much better than in the heart of town.

[lucas thomas]

It so happens that I was in Luzern yesterday on a very quick day trip with my parents. Because my son was in a near crisis of hunger, we stopped at a place on the Rathausquai that I had assumed to be a tourist clipjoint but turned out to be good, honest italian food and friendly and efficient service. It is located on the Old City side of the wooden bridge and has riverside seating and it was warm enough in the sunshine to sit outdoors. So, I can recommend to you the Restaurant Montrose/Da Ernesto as having food with some integrity in a terrific spot, which you might not expect to find in that part of the city. Enjoy your trip.

[Marneuse]

Thank you so much Lucas but as a matter of fact, our trip was early in October. I am sorry I have not reported back yet but needed to collect names of the places we ate. I dug as much as I could to find a couple of names of places before we left but didn't have a lot of luck.

While in Luzern, we stayed at the Hotel Kastainenbaum and had a couple of lovely dinners there. This beautiful little village is about 7 km from the Luzern city center and easily accessible by bus. My husband had a meeting and spent the week there and I caught up to him late in the week through the weekend. There are 2 restaurants in the hotel, one classicly French (we did not eat there) and the other pretty darn French (well Swiss-French!) but not so "chi chi" as the other. Game was a popular menu option at that time and I had venison stew served with typical autumnal sides--spatzle, Brussels sprouts, red cabbage, chestnuts. Hubby had the beef. Both were delicious and the service there was outstanding. Kastainenbaum houses the IMI Hotel Management School and there were several interns from the school working there. There were probably a few in the kitchens as well.

We ventured into Luzern for a couple of lunches and a dinner. Most were not spectacular but I would like to mention a couple of places. We split a salad and an order of the gnocchi marinara at the Einhorn--big unicorn in the courtyard, can't miss it! It was good and the gnocchi "felt" homemade as the menu stated.

The other place of note in Luzern was at the Hotel Zum Weissen Kreuz. They have pizzeria Chruzli with a wood burning oven which is why we sought them out. (We just built one so we are going everywhere there is one to try foods from them!) We shared a crispy pizza with oregano, garlic and veal. It was very good--crisp and delicious. I'll most likely never put veal on a pizza we make but wanted to see how they did it! I also got a menu from them for future ideas!

We didn't eat along the river there but we sure had a beer or two. It's such a great place to people watch.

We headed to Basel for only a couple of days. We had the requisite Rosti at a place in the Markplatz to start our trip there. We ate at Bajazzo, the restaurant in the hotel where we were staying. It was not bad. I had a vegetable gratin which was very good and hubby had a fish dish that was not bad but he wouldn't order again. This was a casual place with a large bar and I'd eat there again--they had several menu choices that sounded fine.

The dinner that was most memorable in Basel was at the tapas place Restaurant Spalenburg. We chose 4 very typical tapas--Rollitos berenjena (eggplant rolls with feta and basil), Gambas ajillo, Datteri (dates wrapped in bacon--that sweet salty thing gets me every time) and Pinchito cordero (sweet/sharp lamb skewers with rosmary). We had beer instead of sherry or wine but enjoyed ourselves very much there.

As a follow up, I should say that we don't generally search out the finest cuisine (i.e. 2-3 stars) places since we prefer bistro-type atomospheres. We steered ourselves away from typical Swiss food since it tends toward the heavy side and we've done the raclette/fondue, and schnitzel things before.

I'd like to hear any opinions of these or other places (especially in Basel) as my husband does business in Basel a time or two per year. This just happened to be my first trip to Basel--he doesn't worry about where he eats like I do!

[Marneuse]

Good question... two of my favorite haunts are gone; Peck (from Milan) and the Wiener Café in the Hotel National. I like the Old Swiss House but it's pretty traditional.

In the old town watch out for the ones (and there are a lot) that cater for the "here today, gone tomorrow" tourists.

If you don't mind getting a little out of town (7 Km), we have had outstanding meals at the Rossli in Aligenswil

and Restaurant La Pistache in the Hotel Balm and prices are much better than in the heart of town.

Sorry, Swiss Chef! I didn't see your reply when I logged on!

Thanks for the ideas--clearly, we were "out of town." We did see the Old Swiss House while walking around--it was recommended to us by the hotel for "traditional fare."

Are you familiar with the restaurants at the Hotel Kastainenbaum? I had never heard of the town before but it was a beautiful place right on the lake--away from the tourists! I wouldn't say the menus are bargains (by any stretch) but the food was very good.

We actually took the boat into Luzern one day--a very nice way to travel.

I forgot to mention in my other post that we wandered down to a little winery in Kastainenbaum--Toni Ottiger Weinbau. You might be familiar?? They offer tastings only on Saturdays from 9-12. We met some charming couples there so we had a good time. We really enjoyed the time and even bought a bottle to bring home.