Stripped Pizza - Zurich

Kirchenweg 8
8008 Zürich

Walking around the city center we stumbled upon an open alleyway with several cute restaurants and outdoor seating. One of the eateries was a sleek and modern pizza restaurant that offers a gluten free pizza crust. The pizza menu offers a wide variety of creative toppings that cater to any audience. While they specialize in pizza, the menu also offers salads, sandwiches and smoothies. The menu has a healthy feel and the restaurant is quick and casual so you can order at the counter and eat at a table inside or outside. The GF pizza was really delicious! Very thin crust but much larger than the average GF pizza, which is normally a fraction of the size of a regular pizza and leaves you hungry for more.

Au Gratin - Zurich

Heineken Newsbar
Station Square 2
8001 Zurich

We decided to try this restaurant because the menu is very vegetarian and gluten free friendly. Since Switzerland is known for cheese, we decided to try a lot of different cheese specialties during our trip. This is a restaurant that specializes in gratin. Gratin comes from the word gratinate and means to bake until a crust surface forms.

Everything on the menu is marked as GF or V and they can modify most dishes to be gluten free. The restaurant sits on top of a bar, where most people were drinking beer and watching the world cup.

The portions are very generous considering how expensive most restaurant prices are in Zurich. We shared a few dishes including a spinach, goats cheese and salmon salad, a gratin with pasta and seasonal root vegetables with a tomato base, and a vegetable gratin with quinoa, basil cream sauce and tomato sauce. I forgot to take photos of our dishes here (sorry about that). The service was good and the food came out quickly. I was disappointed that I liked the salad better than the gratin dishes, which is the house specialty. They were good enough, but lacking in something having to do with the flavor.

B. Good Burgers- Zurich

Multiple Locations

This is a fast food eatery that has gluten free buns for burgers. I also asked if their veggie burgers are gluten free because often veggie burgers are made with flour but they answered that they are gluten free made with chickpea, corn and beans- so high in protein too! We didn't eat there so I don't know if the food is good but happy that they cater to the gluten free consumer!

Raclette Factory - Zurich

Rindermarkt 1, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland

If you like cheese and particularly raclette cheese, which is a very stinky cheese that is native to Switzerland, you need to have a bite at the Raclette Factory. It is a casual restaurant with a simple menu of melted Raclette cheese served with boiled potatoes. Raclette offerings the following types: garlic raclette, truffle raclette, port wine raclette and goat’s cheese raclette. We got half truffle and half garlic. The truffle raclette was insane!!! We asked for an extra side of potatoes to soak up the rest of the cheese.

The Mad Cow - Interlaken

Spielmatte 1, 3800 Unterseen bei Interlaken

Walking around the breathtaking city of Interlaken, we passed a cafe with pink and blue seating and a big sign by the doorway that said gluten free available. It looked very inviting and worth checking out. The cafe is owned by a friendly Australian woman who moved to Switzerland 20 years ago after she fell in love with it while backpacking. We ordered the last of the daily baked gluten free brownies. I don't joke when I say these were the best brownies I've ever tasted! They were really rich and chocolatey but also had some body to them - not like a flourless chocolate cake. I would imagine this would be a really nice place to sit at for an hour with my laptop and a cup of coffee. Since she's Australian, you can assume the coffee would have been good!

VICTORIA-JUNGFRAU Grand Hotel & Spa - Interlaken

Höheweg 41, 3800 Interlaken, Switzerland

We stopped for a drink and a bite to eat at the hotel restaurant during our day trip to Interlaken. The restaurant courtyard has breathtaking views of the mountains and an uninhibited view of the tallest mountain range in Switzerland. Sitting at that spot, surrounded by the beautiful landscape, I was filled with complete serenity. While I slowly sipped on my cappuccino and munched my way through 6 shortbread cookies (They were really delicious!!) Josh ordered a bowl of gluten free soup which came with these beautiful crusty gluten free rolls. We had never actually seen such beautiful gluten free rolls (see image to the right) served at a restaurant before! They were delicious too and hard to believe they were actually gluten free!

Boulangerie Bidlingmyer - Chexbres

Grand'Rue 1, 1071 Chexbres,

We visited the small town of Chexbres which is known for its wineries. Many of the shops and wineries are closed on Sunday and Monday so be sure to check their schedules before you visit. The city overlooks some of the most breathtaking look outs you have ever seen. Lush vinyards are set under the mountain ranges and adjacent to the sea. At 3pm we were really hungry and couldn't find anywhere to eat lunch since all the restaurants close at that time between when they finish serving lunch and when they open for dinner. There was a small bakery that we popped into near where we parked. They just so happened to have gluten free muffins and an assortment of gluten free cookies. It was really cool that a small town like Chexbres caters to gluten free customers! The muffin definitely tasted better than it looked. We didn't get any cookies because they were all nut based and Josh can't eat nuts.

Restaurant Les Armures

Rue du Puits-Saint-Pierre 1, 1204 Geneva, Switzerland

You may have heard the term Swiss Cheese. That's right, Switzerland is famous for it's cheese, particularly fondue! Fondue is a really fun food and a great sharable food (I'm giving you ideas for where to take your next date). There are fondue restaurants all over the city but this one had excellent reviews and is gluten free friendly! It is part of the Hotel Les Armures in Geneva but you would never know from looking at it. It is a charming restaurant with an old world vibe. The interior of the restaurant has dark red walls and wooden tables and chairs. The sidewalk outdoor seating area is a charming and romantic setting on a summer evening.

The fondue is available in a variety of flavors. We got the traditional and the herb flavor but there are six flavors to choose from. We ordered a side of boiled potatoes to dip into the fondue, the traditional Swiss way to eat melted cheese! We also ordered a side of gluten free bread. The bread was very dry but it was nice that they offered GF bread! The fondue was so rich and plentiful that we couldn't finish it even though we wanted to! The fish pictured above was truly delicious too and made us feel a bit healthier than had we just had a pot of cheese!

Bor'eal Coffee Shop - Geneva

Two Locations

I was desperate for a non-European style coffee. Contrary to popular opinion, maybe it harkens back to my days living in Paris, but I find that the coffee in many European (with Italy as a major exception) is pretty terrible. I wanted to find a place where I could order a delicious flat white with smooth yet strong espresso and I wanted to drink it in a takeaway cup! Sue me for liking my coffee to stay warmer (it gets cold more quickly in a mug!) I discovered Bor'eal Coffee Shop, which has two locations in the city. The shop has fun and friendly colors and a badass barista! Lots of people sit at the tables outside with their computers. There are also a selection of gluten free packaged cookies and breakfast bars.

Qibi

Rue de la Mairie 2, 1207 Genève, Switzerland

A little lunch spot in the center of Geneva, Qibi is a healthy fast casual cafe that offers salads, wraps and juices. They focus on healthy food and they have many gluten free options. We didn't eat here because we arrived late in the afternoon and they were not serving hot items anymore, but if you go during lunch hours you'll be sure to find plenty of gluten free options!

Nature en Vrac

Place des Grottes 1, 1201 Genève, Switzerland

Nature en Vrac is a really cool Natural Foods shop. They sell what seems to be every species of spices, legumes, nuts, seeds and looseleaf teas. The store has a very potent smell from all of the herbs and spices. There is a whole wall devoted to packaged gluten free items including a line of gluten free cookies that we discovered there called Generous. Josh ate the whole package of Speculous (sort of like gingerbread) cookies in less than 5 minutes. They also had some fresh gluten free crackers and cookies, including an amazing savory cracker made with linseeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and buckwheat. If I lived in Geneva this would be the kind of place I would shop at often!

Pizza Leggera

Rue Adrien-Lachenal 6, 1207 Genève, Switzerland

This restaurant was certainly the gluten free highlight of the trip. Situated on a small side street in Geneva, Pizza Leggera is a small authentic Italian spot. All of the staff including the cooks are friendly and Italian. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that they have gluten free flatbread which looks exactly like the regular flatbread that is served complementary while you wait for your food. We ordered gluten free eggplant parmesan to start. It's always exciting when there is a gluten free option for eggplant parm because it's so often breaded. It was delicious and the cheese on top was slightly burnt and crispy- just the way I love it! We also ordered gluten free pizza and pasta. The pizza was very thin crust- the same crust as they served for the starter bread. They make the pizza crust in house. It was more crackery than bready but had a nice flavor. The pasta was the best! The sauce was amazing and the pasta had a nice chewiness and bite to it- didn't fall apart like so many gluten free pastas do. For dessert we had gluten free strawberry shortcake.