What I ate vegan in Zurich, Switzerland

I spent this weekend in Zurich and wanted to share with you the delicious vegan food I ate whilst I was there.

Elle 'n' Belle

When we first arrived at Elle'n'Belle I was struck by the amazing decor, the place has a really quirky and stylish feel. The bar area was modern and inviting then around the corner there is lots of tables, the place was hiving and had a great atmosphere. We hadn't booked and were initially worried that we wouldn't get a table but we were told we could sit in the bar area and still order food, we quickly sat down with our menus, which were available in English.

We ordered some cocktails to start which were delicious.

Elle'n'Belle is all vegan so I was spoilt for choice. The first page of the menu is desserts with the quote 'Life is short... eat dessert first', I knew from that moment that I was in love with the place! There was then a page of 'Heroes' which included curries, vegan cheese dishes, wraps and pies. The next page of the menu was the burgers which had my attention right away.

I decided on the 'Hey Joe' burger which was a bagel bun with a wheat protein patty, fries, corn-coleslaw, wasabi mayo and BBQ ketchup. My friend ordered 'The Godfather' which is a red burger bun with wheat protein patty, basil mayo, sun dried tomatoes and rocket, she also swapped regular fries for sweet potato fries.

We didn't have to wait long for the food at all which was impressive to say how busy it was.

From the first bite of my food to the last I was in heaven. The chips were amazing, I asked for some extra basil mayo to dip them in and it was so delicious. My bagel bun and burger were lovely and even the coleslaw was great, something I normally leave on my plate.

But I wasn't the only one who was impressed, my meat eating friend said her burger was better than most of the beef burgers she'd eaten, high praise indeed!

So, of course I had to try hers too. She was right, it was just as delicious as mine. We ended up halving each of the burgers and sharing them along with the fries and sweet potato fries, it was a feast!
'The Godfather' burger had more of a 'beef' like texture, more like a soya burger. Whereas, although it was listed as the same on the menu, 'Hey Joe' had more of a seitan like texture. I really liked both and the bagel bun was yummy too.

Unfortunately, we were both too full for desert but we both left feeling very satisfied, with happy tummies! If you haven't guessed already, I would recommend Elle'n'Belle as the food was so incredible and the whole dining experience was faultless. I was disappointed we weren't staying for longer as I would have been back again and again.

The Sacred Vegelateria

We headed to The Sacred for the lunch buffet. When we walked in we were greeted by a huge selection of vegan gelato (sadly it was too cold to sample any!).

We sat down and were told everything on the buffet was vegan and organic which was great news as it looked yummy and there was lots of choice. The food was priced by weight so once we had got what we wanted we went up to the counter to get our plates weighed.

Here is just some of the hot and cold food on offer-

Myself and my friend picked little bits of what we fancied which turned out to be a pretty random selection! I tried some of the tofu curry, lentil and cauliflower curry, vegetable rice and a bit of the 'cheesy' casserole. I also sampled some vegan sausage, the houmous (which was really nice), avocado and the roast potatoes which were soft and perfectly seasoned.

All the food was really nice and it was so nice to have lots of choice (even though we weren't that hungry after a big breakfast). I didn't have any dessert but the fresh fruit selection was impressive and they had lots of cake options.

Kino Stussihof

This cafe is located in a cinema which we stumbled across on the streets of Zurich, I noticed the sign outside advertising vegan hotdogs so we went in for lunch. There was order forms to choose your selections which was clearly labelled where options were vegetarian or vegan.

I went for vegan pulled pork which was tasty. On reflection, I probably would have gone for a vegan sausage as that would have gone better with the sauces but I was impressed by the options available.

Hotel Hirschen

Finally, it wouldn't be right to not given my hotel breakfast a special mention. I added a note to our booking on hotels.com to say that I was vegan and I was so impressed by the service I received. The usual breakfast offerings included cheese, eggs, meat, cereals, croissants and from what I could see I would probably have ended up with some bread and jam and some fruit. 

However, when we gave our room number I was told they had everything ready for me. I was then brought soya milk and given a choice of soya yoghurt flavours. They had even gone to the trouble of buying in some vegan labelled bread and Bircher muesli. 

I tried a bit of everything as they had made such an effort for me, they also had chia seeds and linseeds available along with a range of jams. I left feeling full and well fuelled for the day ahead. Their attention to detail and efforts were much appreciated.

As you can see, Zurich is a city with lots of vegan options, I spent less than 48 hours there so this was all I got to sample. I would love to return, Elle'n'Belle is already calling me!