Restaurant Recommendations (Lucerne, Weggis, Bern, and Spiez)

In Luzern, my favorite meals were at Manora. It's on the top floor of the Manor department store (complete with view if you can snag an outdoor or window table), and serves delicious food at half the price of a regular restaurant. It's like the "stations" of a Las Vegas buffet, or like Brek in Italy if you know them. The food is not prepared in advance and sitting on steam tables; for instance, if you order fish, it is taken off the ice right then and cooked for you. In addition, with any main dish you can add "beilage" for 3 CHF, meaning all the starches and veggies that fit on your plate. The only disadvantages are that it's always mobbed (the Swiss know it's the best deal in town) and it's only open department store hours, meaning early dinner on Monday through Friday, lunch only on Saturdays, and closed on Sundays.

My other find in Luzern was Tibits. It's hidden on the top floor of the train station (most other eateries in the station are on the bottom floor). It's a vegetarian buffet, and you pay by weight. It's open for lunch and dinner seven days a week, so it's handy when Manora is closed.

Tibits and Manora are also in Bern, but I haven't been to Bern; if I go, these are the first places I'd look for sit-down meals.

I don't remember the other restaurants I went to in Luzern; they were fine, but nothing special, and again, twice the cost of Manora.

I didn't have any meals in Weggis, but if you want to go to Mürren for dinner, I can highly recommend dining at Hotel Bellevue and Hotel Blumenthal. I was just in the Basque country (famous for its food), and I actually had better food at these two places in Mürren! Unlike in Luzern, I'd seek these out again.

We still fantasize about the viener schnitzel for dinner at Old Swiss House in Luzern. A delicious table side production. Wear your spiffies.

In Luzern Burgerstube im Hotel Wilden Mann is wonderful, traditional Swiss German food and almost half the price of the Old Swiss Hotel. Switzerland is very expensive and Luzern is ridiculously expensive. You will also want to make reservations wherever you plan to eat, at least for dinner.