Berner Alpen Restaurants

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We reached this restaurant after a day of hiking in the First/Bachalpsee region. The weather was cloudy, quite cold, and we were very happy to find a warm, cosy place where some food was offered.

It's a traditional mountain restaurant/hut on the Grosse Scheidegg pass between Grindelwald and Meiringen, with huge mountains towering above, glaciers in view (if no clouds!) A bus runs between Grindelwald and Meiringen, but not too frequently, and stops at Grosse Scheidegg, too, definitely check schedules.

Favorite Dish: I had a piece of plum cake and hot chocolate. Very tasty. Don't remember how much the check was, but guess about average.

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To clarify: The restaurant I'm talking about here is the dining room of the Hotel Silberhorn in Wengen, where you have dinner if you booked half-board with your hotel stay there. I did not have a meal in their restaurant Silberhorn-Stube. However, you can choose to have dinner in the latter, too, if you booked half-board (for which they charge 35 CHF), they deduct 25 CHF from the check in this case.

The dining room is quite large, a bit too dark for my taste (long-ish, the windows on the front side, so the back doesn't get much daylight), luckily we had a table right by the windows. Decor is traditional, a bit of wood, but sort of 1970s style, if you know what I mean. Otherwise nice ambience with linen, silverware, crystal glasses, candles etc. Service was very good with one exception (see below).

If you book half-board they serve a gala-dinner once a week and another night it's buffet with a HUGE variety. During our four nights we were lucky enough to have both - yummy and VERY filling!

Favorite Dish: The buffet was on the first night - I had samples of many dishes: Green salad, clear soup with small dumplings, a selection of dried meat (the famous Bündnerfleisch), thin slices of roast beef, champignons stuffed with contadou cheese, I tried ham in bread-dough, deer sausage and braised beef with boletus, fera fillet, had a bit of pasta and French beans. I couldn't miss the dessert, though, could I ... mousse au chocolat in a dough, apricot cake, vermicelles, some fruit, cheese.

Gala dinner was: Salad buffet, clear soup with vegetable stripes and Sherry, mushroom toast, pineapple sorbet with brandy; main course was roast sole with noodles and veggies for me and veal steak with morels sauce, noodles and veggies for my mother, followed by almond pudding, finally cheese for me and fruits for my mother.

The dinner on final night was somewhat disappointing. We had chosen salmon steak for main course. While mine was very good my mother's was badly cooked, still raw inside. She mentioned this to the waiter, he took it away without any comment and brought the same piece back five minutes later - done inside but burnt black on the underside. In the meantime my mother had lost her patience, ate a few bites of the salmon and then mentioned the disaster to the waiter - again no apology. It was a one-time slip but I would have expected a different reaction from the staff.

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Hotel Baeren is one of the most beautiful and romantic restaurants in Unterseen and interlaken. The building dates back to 1674 - see some pics of the great interior on their webpage !
Hotel Baeren in Unterseen (the old part of Interlaken, north of the river Aare) has a great local restaurant with great swiss specialities. You will not meet plenty of tourists there, but plenty of local people who know, where to go !

Favorite Dish: Cheese fondue is mostly served for a minimum of 2 persons. Fondue is a melted mixture of different kinds of cheeses and it is served in a pot.Small cubes of bread are taken by long fondue-forks and dipped into the fondue.Tastes fine - but if you have a nervous stomach - better don't take too much.Also: drink a lot of tea or white wine and brandy with it.
Normally you get fondue only for a minimum of 2 persons, BUT in restaurant Baeren you may get it also for just 1 person - and have to pay just 3 sfr extra ! Preparing the fondue is quite a lot of work and needs a lot of attention by the cook and it is served in a pot that is kept warm by an open flame... all of this done for just 1 single portion certainly deserves such a small extra-amount. At other places single tourists would have to order and pay for 2 full portions !

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A nice restaurant with self service (special of the day is around CHF 17.50) offer great view on the Alps thanks to a sunny terrace. A snow bar (Schirmbar) is also waiting you with good local beverages and armchairs ;-)

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MIGROS is my favorite place to eat in Switzerland, when I am in a hurry or have to care for my budget (and mostly I have to!)
MIGROS with their self-service-restaurants all over Switzerland are always a good choice to eat a good meal for a reasonable price. The MIGROS in Interlaken is directely opposite of the station Interlaken-WEST.
These restaurants are also a good place to read the newspapers that they have on free display or to warm up on a cold or rainy day. Mostly you will not be chased away by the servants, when you just sit at a table without consuming anything and the tables are not urgently needed for ther guests.

Favorite Dish: I had a great lunch there and they have a hot buffet with all sorts of fried fishes, meat, chicken... and a warm buffet of french-fries, rices, vegetables etc. - at the end you have to pay 2,60 sfr for every 100 gramms.
For desert you may try "Rueblitorte" - a cake made of carrots !

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Just opposite of the train-station Interlaken Ost you may see a giant building of the COOP-supermarket and it has its own self-service-restaurant on 1st floor (USA:2nd floor).
While I had parked my motorhome not far from there, I had my breakfast there most of the days.
Something special in COOP and also in MIGROS-restaurants :
You may read the daily newspapers there for free and will not totally loose the contact to the catastrophies all over the world, while hiking and relaxing in Switzerland...

Favorite Dish: Take a look at my pictures - I had a "cafe creme", 2 "Brienzer Mütschli" - my favorite kind of rolls and 2 pieces of cheese and I payed just 7 sfr / 5 Euros.
They have quite a big choice of breads, rolls, croissants, cheeses etc. and of course you may get ham& eggs and similar dishes as well.
In october 2005 they also had a lottery with each bill in the restaurant and I won several "Berliner" , some sort of a small donut, that made a great desert after breakfast.