This cozy café bar next to Fritschiwiese is the only place of its kind in this very corner of town and as a result it’s usually crowded with locals. Despite the crowds, the place is bright and airy, and the pretty (1960s?) ceiling lights are a highlight (almost literally).

For me, the main draw is Z am Park’s weekend brunch. There’s three or four dishes to choose from, and as a nice touch, they carry the same female names as some of the nearby streets. Gertrud, with eggs, bacon, bread and salad and washed down with a cup of their excellent coffee, is a personal favorite. As a bonus the brunch options aren’t as pricey as they are elsewhere in Zurich.

The good people at Z am Park also serve lunch during the week, and you can check out the daily specials on the website. In the evening they offer snacks to go with your beer and wine.

As a visitor in Zurich you’re unlikely to spend much time in the area, but if you like a spot off the beaten track, this one is well worth seeking out.

Zum Guten Glück (which is German for “fortunately” or literally “to the good fortune”) is open daily and offers a tasty range of sweet and savoury pancakes, waffles and freshly made ice-cream. If you’re in a hurry there is also a take-away service. The pancakes are wonderful! Unfortunately they took my favourite – with Bolognese – from the menu so please ask for it to get it back (thank you!).

The venue – a café during the day and a bar at night – is separated into two rooms. When you enter, a huge bar made of pure tin, handcrafted by a local artist, will catch your eye. Since the smoking ban, both rooms are non-smoking. The locale also offers five stylish rooms for a good price.

Zum Guten Glück is situated right at Weststrasse which used to be the motorway connection through the city – so a lot of traffic! Since May 2009, there is now a motorway that leads the traffic around the city and finally, in autumn 2011, the street was turned into a residential road with a maximum speed limit of 30 km/h.

Café Bar Plüsch is a Zurich veteran. Plüsch means plush, which describes how this venue’s interior looked years back when I’d just moved to Zurich. It opened its doors 13 years ago and I’ve had many good times in there, but it was about time that a new lick of paint and polish was given to the old girl. 

This bar has become one of my most frequented locales over the last years, as I live nearby. It offers great breakfast and coffee (best decaf in town!), tasty lunches (salads, quiche, sanwiches) and snacks, and is a nice place for a drink in the eve as well. So with this venue you’re taken care of all around.

In the morning, most seats are taken up by individuals who are reading the newspaper or enjoying a cup of coffee before work. During the day its clientele mostly consists of small groups but in the evening it can get really packed.

The sandwiches and fresh salads are also available for take-away.

Caritas runs several charity shops in Zurich where people can donate and buy used clothes, shoes and household items. Three of them are located in Wiedikon, all within a stone’s throw of each other: a clothes store at Birmensdorferstrasse 52, a bargain clothes store called Netto at Birmensdorferstrasse 38 and a shop selling bric-a-brac.

It goes without saying that the Netto store has the highest fun factor out of them all. Wacky and bold-colored garments reign supreme here. If browsing is your cup of tea you can sift through piles of clothes for hours on end here.

Out with the old, in with the old! In the yard you can donate your old clothes through a flap lid before restocking your wardrobe at the shop. This is charity and recycling in one neat little package.

Across the road at Birmensdorferstrasse 53, Kunst & Krempel is the closest you will get to a jumble sale this side of The Channel.

No matter which store you’ll go for, you can shop to your heart’s content at Caritas, safe in the knowledge that with your purchase you support their worthy cause, helping the poor and the needy in Switzerland and abroad.

What comes to mind when you think of Indian food? I personally fantasize about tandoori and curry, chicken and shrimp. I crave those delicious sauces expanding over the basmati rice. The connoisseur would not put too much sauce on the rice, he would try to spread the flavor without softening the rice excessively. And the hedonist would maximize pleasure by ordering the tandoori chicken as appetizer and then the Malay Curry shrimp as a main course.

Only for three of my ten years in Zurich was I lucky to have an office downtown. Back then, King’s Curry was one of the places that made the ritual of lunch break a real pleasure. Lunch buffet (all you can eat) is available on workdays but the best day to go is Friday. For some reason, even an Indian restaurant follows the catholic tradition of serving fish on Fridays. So on Fridays I was sure about savoring my favorite dish. And on Fridays I could afford the less productive afternoon, an inevitable consequence of the excessive food intake.

In any case: to enjoy a buffet, follow the basic rules: Avoid rice, bread and other carbohydrates. Focus on the fish, meat, chicken etc. Do several rounds. Accompany with carbonated water.

Now that distance prohibits a lunch break, the option is dinner. I prefer the summer since there is a nice terrace. The setting is urban, you are facing the Wiedikon train station. The area offers several options for continuing after dinner: maybe a drink?