Food budget

Check out the farmers market days in Lucerne to purchase fresh yogurt, cheese, fruit, and bread for breakfast and / or lunch.
The Coop store has a food court with reasonable food, closes at 4pm, so great for lunch.
The Manor department store also has a very nice food court, many choices of food, reasonable, with outdoor rooftop seating, (along with indoor,) with really nice views. It closes around 5pm.
The train station has many food options, great to grab if you're headed out on a day trip.
Seems to us that the lunch and dinner prices at Swiss sit-down restaurants are the same (dinner cost), so try to avoid those places for lunch.
Water is about 8 euros a bottle at dinner, but wine is generally cheaper than water. Dinners are expensive. Just try to eat cheaper for breakfast and lunch.
Interesting- We were in Switzerland in 2021, and there was no line on the bill to add a tip.
But enjoy this beautiful country, with an efficient and user-friendly transportation system, and scenic vistas you'll remember forever!
Safe travels!

Check Indian restaurants. We’ve found they skew a little less expensive. Also, if you ask for a carafe of water, they will bring you tap water, and though charge for it, they charge less than for tap water.

Tibits Restaurant is on the upper level of the Lucerne train station. It is similar to a large buffet, in that there are numerous food options. After making your choice, you take your plate to the counter and pay by the weight. They have a large seating area, or you can do take-away. The food was decent. Pastarazzi was very casual; choose your pasta and choose your sauce. It is small, and I believe they take reservations. We enjoyed a nicer dinner at Ammos Greek Restaurant in Lucerne and felt that it was reasonable by Swiss standards. For lunch, we would grab sandwiches or a salad and a bottle of water at the Coop Supermarket. Our hotel in Wengen had a half board option with a 4 course dinner for 35 CHF. That was a bargain for Switzerland!

Coop is a great call for cheap, convenient food. These supermarkets (sometimes mini-marts) are ubiquitous and have a good selection of quality takeaway meals.

The natives like myself, will normally start by looking at what the Coop and Migos supermarket chains restaurant have to offer in the town, next the local "Bahnhof Restaurant/Hotel" and then the family run restaurant where the menu is not in English.

Supermarkets yes, and picnics. Try to limit sitdown restaurant visits. There are two major supermarket chains, Coop and Migros. They offer all manner of premade and prefab food and often sitdown dining.

It also sounds like perhaps you haven't read Rick's restaurant/eating tips in his guidebook, check that out.

You're right, few countries are as pricey as Switzerland but few are as worth it.

Just spent 10 lovely Sept '23 days in Schweiz--food prices are high. But if we couldn't afford them we wouldn't have been there to enjoy that marvelous land. We ate in restaurants, bought street food, took groceries to our apartments and ate very well. Spent lots with no regrets.

We didn't go to Schweiz to scrimp on CHF, but to enlarge our travel life. I suggest picking another European country & pack lunches.

Our restaurant cost for a good Schweiz meal for 2 with drinks, marvelous food, fabulous places would be about 130-150 CHF. Ending our 18 day journey in Munich, we paid about 80 Euros for similar meals at wonderful places. Consider Germany if meal prices are a concern.

I think The Economist's longstanding Big Mac Index is actually a pretty good tool for understanding price differences. I think Switzerland is currently about 38% above the US average for the price of a Big Mac.

FWIW, a visit to Mickey D's in Vienna cost about the same as my local in LA.

In 2121, the price of a Whopper at a Burger King in Bern was around 17chf.

Is the original poster still around???

I love all things Swiss except the food prices. Agree that Coop, Migros, Manora, and Tibits are excellent places to eat without taking out a loan. One wish and one clarification regarding these restaurants:

I wish that Coop, Migros, and Manora cafeterias stayed open for dinner.

It wasn't mentioned in an earlier post, but, unless things have changed since my visit in 2021, Tibits is vegetarian/vegan. Not a problem for me but it may be for others.

Yes, I've been reading and much appreciating the replies. I just was avoiding extra clutter in case others get notices or a forwarded email for each new reply. The advice here and also for a similar post in Spain were very helpful for estimating some kind of dining budget. We knew going in that Switzerland would be probably double the cost of any other European country but don't have a choice as we are meeting my parents at the end of their organized tour. We have a lovely historic hotel with views Beau Sejour, so will probably take the advice for primarily carry out groceries/farmer's market for dinners, then the less expensive rooftop dept. store/train station type places for some lunches.

I don’t actually eat out here that often, but in my experience:

It is still very common for Swiss to eat their main meal at noon. That is why ‘lunch’ prices can seem high, and also why there is not much on offer at the end of the day at the grocery store cafeterias.

I personally would not put Tibits in the same price category as the others, I found it to be quite expensive in comparison.

A good thing to look for is the 'Tageskarte' or 'menu of the day'. This often offers the best value.

In Luzern specifically I have found Asian, Italian and Mediterranean to be more reasonably priced.

and in a pinch, you can always shop around in the food court of a train station