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.

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Z am Park | Bars, Coffee & tea, Snacks | Brunch from CHF 9.50
Zurlindenstrasse 275 | Kreis 3 Wiedikon
Mon – Fri 07:30 – 00:00, Sat – Sun 10:00 – 00:00

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.

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Zum Guten Glück | Bars, Coffee & tea, Restaurants (Pancakes) | Food CHF 9.00
Stationsstrasse 7 | Kreis 3 Wiedikon | +41435407299
Mon – Sat 09:00 – 00:00, Sun 09:00 – 20:00

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.

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Plüsch | Bars, Restaurants (Intern.) | Large salad CHF 10.00
Aemtlerstrasse 16 | Kreis 3 Wiedikon | +41438101626
Mon – Wed 07:30 – 00:00, Thu – Fri 07:30 – 01:00, Sat 09:00 – 01:00, Sun 10:00 – 17:00

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.

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Caritas store | Shopping | Secondhand shoes CHF 3.00
Birmensdorferstrasse 38 | Kreis 3 Wiedikon
Tue – Fri 10:00 – 13:00 &14:00 – 18:30, Sat 10:00 – 16:00

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?

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King’s Curry | Restaurants (Indian) | Lunch Buffet CHF 28.50
Freyastrasse 3 | Kreis 3 Wiedikon
Mon – Fri 11:30 – 14:00 & 18:00 – 22:30, Sat 18:00 – 22:30

This is a cozy cafe bar to while away the hours in, yet when describing the place to people it sounds anything but. For a start, Sisu is decorated almost entirely in white, and thanks to the large windows it’s bright with a rather dazzling effect. With Sisu being situated next to a busy thoroughfare, cars and lorries are constantly whizzing past. In addition, some of its clientele may come across as a little too cool for school.

None of this, however, should deter you from paying a visit here. Despite appearances to the contrary, the place is very friendly, homely and welcoming, with its decor evoking a living room rather than a sterile operating theatre. Everybody here seems to know each other, albeit in an inclusive rather than a cliquey way.

Sit down on one of the sofas, grab a coffee and just look out the windows all afternoon. There really is nothing more relaxing than watching a constant flow of traffic, having found shelter in a chilled-out little café bar.

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Sisu | Bars, Coffee & tea | Cup of coffee CHF 4.50
Meinrad-Lienert-Strasse 1 | Kreis 3 Wiedikon
Tue – Fri 09:00 – 00:00, Sat – Sun 10:00 – 18:00

Vietnamese cuisine probably isn’t quite as well-known as its cousins from China, Thailand and Japan but in Zurich Petit Saigon has gone some way to rectifying this, serving a wide range of curries, spring and summer rolls, rice and noodle dishes to eat in or take away.

I would like to be able to tell you whether the other dishes at Petit Saigon are any good, but unfortunately I have never managed to get past their beef noodle soup. At 19.50 it ain’t cheap, but it’s a perfectly filling large pot of delicious homemade broth, filled to the brink with meat and veg. You get Thai basil, bean sprouts and a lime on a separate plate to add to the soup, and may help yourself to chillies and condiments at your own discretion to suit your palate (and heat tolerance).

Some people only eat soup when it’s cold. It’s an attitude I cannot disagree with strongly enough, especially as it means missing out on Petit Saigon’s delightful pho for most of the year.

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Petit Saigon | Snacks, Restaurants (Vietnamese) | Beef noodle soup CHF 19.50
Birmensdorferstrasse 126 | Kreis 3 Wiedikon
Mon – Sat 10:00 – 23:00

At this small cafe restaurant near Idaplatz, crêpes and galettes are the order of the day. Whether sweet or savory, they’re made with love and fresh, seasonal ingredients. There’s a small selection of mains, different ones every day, as well as soups and salads for a smaller appetite. On Saturdays and Sundays they serve a hearty breakfast at Babette’s. 

Getting a table straightaway is a lucky streak at weekends, as the place is packed with locals, and you can’t book a table. It’s a pretty, colorful place – the old front door, the wooden counter and the two rugs near the bar add a nice touch of homeliness.

This café takes a little piece of Bretagne straight to Zurich’s Kreis 3 and in the process, it comes across so effortlessly French I’m not sure why the place isn’t called ‘Chez Babette’. All that is missing, really, is people shouting ‘Garçon!’ when trying to get the waiter’s attention.

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Bei Babette | Bars, Restaurants (French) | Savoury crêpe CHF 18.00
Bertastrasse 16 | Kreis 3 Wiedikon | +41433668502
Wed – Sun 10:00 – 00:00

“Wir arbeiten hier nicht modern, sondern mit Gefühl”. This quote by Ruedi Stäheli on the front page of their website pretty much sums up my experience at this special steak house – it’s certainly not modern but the place emanates emotion from every square inch of its décor. The first time I set foot in there I felt like I’d stepped onto a film set – partially because the waiter serving us had such a peculiar air about him. He was perfectly nice but there was something about his mannerisms that kept having me think, “is this for real?”

It all adds to the experience though and although old school dining scenes are not where I usually feel most at ease, this place has a different edge to it that doesn’t make you feel out of place the way you would if you walked into Chanel wearing sneakers!

The food is exquisite and while it doesn’t look like much when it’s placed in front of you, don’t let that fool you! The Café de Paris sauce my steak was swimming in was sublime and the non-stop supply of pomme allumettes ensured I soaked up every drop.

If you’re on the lookout for a meaty dish but you don’t want the mucho bravado that often comes with steakhouses, then this is your place, well, actually, it’s my special place now, but I’m willing to share!

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La Cote | Restaurants (French) | Whole meal CHF 80
Aemtlerstrasse 26 | Kreis 3 Wiedikon | +41442419191
Mon – Fri 11:00 – 15:00 & 18:00 – 00:00, Sat 18:00 – 00:00

Since moving to Zurich I find that rather than stick a slice of bread in the toaster I am willing to go the extra mile on the weekends and venture over to a bakery to buy myself some freshly baked gipfeli (the Swiss German word for croissants).

There are three bakeries near my house, the other two being 200m closer to me but I always make a point of going the extra (1/8 of a) mile to this place. The gipfelis are astoundingly good – they’re buttery and extra crispy, which I’m pretty sure has got to be a hard combination to perfect! In addition, since it’s a Greek bakery, they offer an amazing array of Mediterranean looking sweets.

You have to go early though or hope that when you get there they’ve just pulled their latest batch out of the oven because these babies sell out fast!

I have to say, I always used to walk past this place without giving it a second thought as there are bakeries galore in Zurich. It wasn’t until we were out of bread on a Sunday that I discovered it and I’ve never looked back. Yes, that’s right, it’s actually open on a Sunday!

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Artos | Snacks
Bremgartnerstrasse 66 | Kreis 3 Wiedikon
Mon – Fri 06:30 – 18:30, Sat 06:30 – 13:00, Sun 07:00 – 12:00