Restaurant Etiquette when paying for meals.

Think what an expensive meal would cost where you live and double it. It is not inexpensive to eat out in Switzerland .

I have several times traveled with friends where we had a group "kitty." Every few days we would replenish it and group meals would be paid out of that. We took turns carrying it.
This works best if everyone will be ordering approximately the same price meals and drinks.
We figured a possible discrepancy of a few dollars at the end of the trip was worth the convenience, but we did enter into it with the expectation/trust that no one would try to take advantage ... and we didn't keep track of who spent what.

Either the group kitty (and you can have those who had the beet salad versus the chicken discussions that drive me nuts) or: assign one person to keep a spread sheet. Decide no matter who eats what it all gets split evenly. Rotate one person paying each day. Add it up at the end of the trip and settle the differences. Split checks, no, this is a major hassle for wait staff.

Hi mpaulyn, my friend and I decided to just alternate who paid for dinner each night. It worked out fine. The wait staff in Switzerland was very nice but not sure how they would react to writing up 4 checks...

Food is expensive. Meals at Coop/Migros were fine for lunch, it's cafeteria-style so you can order and pay for what you want. They all had a good variety of salads, sandwiches, and hot entries and the dining areas were nice and clean (as is all of Switzerland!). Hope you have a great time :)

It is perfectly normal to split the bill in Switzerland. When you get the bill, if you are paying cash, easy, you all put cash on the table until the bill is covered. If you are paying with plastic, just hand over a card and say "xxx on this card please" ("50 Franken bitte").
That is OK if you are splitting the bill equally 4 ways. If you each want to pay exactly the correct amount for your own food, it is best to say at the beginning, then they make up 4 bills: "Wir wollen getrennt bezahlen bitte" (we want to pay separately please). Or at the end say "getrennt bitte" or "zusammen bitte" (separate or all together). Sometimes the staff will even ask "Getrennt oder zusammen?"

For the Coop (or Migros or Manor) it is easy, they are buffets. You choose what you want, take it to the cash desk and pay for what is on your tray. If there are two of you, and one person wants to pay for both, just say "zusammen bitte". Reckon 10-20 Franks for a Coop lunch.
For an evening meal, with starter, main course, drinks, at a waiter service restaurant, reckon 50-80 Franks for a simple restaurant.
Evening meals are always more expensive than lunch, even in the same restaurant. They have to pay the staff more in the evening.

No matter how you look at it Switzerland is expensive and of course your going to be in the tourist towns so that means extra padding... Best tips I can suggest:

• As you already know, shop at Coop or Migros for picnic stuff
• Consider having a hot lunch at either the Coop or Migros and have that picnic in the evening
• Check out the half board offers at your hotel if offered, the menu selection will be limited but the prices should be better
• Look for the Bahnhof Restaurant in each town, usually very close to the station and often called that, it offers meals at reasonable prices.

Enjoy your stay,

Jim.

Thank you for all your replies. All very helpful. Just wanted to know how to best handle the food situation and what to expect as I am organizing the trip and my other travel companions have not been to Switzerland.