where to have Raclette in Zurich

Old Town Zahringerstrasse 16, Zurich 8001, Switzerland
+4144 251 4130

Unfortunately I do not know of a restaurant in Zurich to recommend, but my mouth watered at the title of your post. I first experienced Raclette last summer while staying with my friend's family in Baden (just north of Zurich) and it was so delicious, I'm constantly craving it. Good luck on finding a place, and let us know what you think of the one you do try! I will be heading back to Zurich this fall and would love to give my fiance the proper raclette experience.

"Each time the dish was different but it was not the real version with the cheese melting device. Advice, anyone?" I'm not sure exactly what you mean by the "real version", because the "melting device" is just a piece of equipment that makes scraping the melted cheese onto the potatos easier. The traditional method is to soften the cheese on a stone pan in an oven and then scrape the cheese onto the potatos with a large knife. But the end result is the same no matter the method- melted, slightly aromatic cheese on boiled or baked potatos. I had the dish only once in Zurich (have eaten it elsewhere, though)... but for the life of me, I can't remember the name of the restaurant. All I can remember is that is was near the river and the hauptbahnhof. I don't know if they used the device or a knife, but it didn't matter. It tasted good just the same.

One of the nicest Raclettes I ever had (with my wife) was outdoors at the top of the Allmendhubel funicular across the valley from the Monch, Eiger and Jungfrau with the music of alphorn resounding around. It was brought out from the kitchen in as authentic a way as I have enjoyed. There was no electric machine melting the cheese on my table. It didn't matter. I couldn't have been happier. (and the sun shone, too)

Some restaurants will have a large holder for half of a wheel of raclette cheese with an overhead heater. As the cheese melts, one turns the entire wheel of cheese and scrapes off the melted part onto your plate. For those of us at home, they have table top raclettes, where you put your potatoes or what have you in a tiny pan, put the cheese on top and then put it under a small broiler. There is usually room for 4-6 people to put their little trays in here at a time. It is a special sort of smelly cheese. They always have a wheel of this melting at one of our farmers markets on Saturday in downtown Frankfurt. You can smell it from pretty far away.

Raclette is rustic food, best eaten at a mountain restaurant such as Nigel describes. Nevertheless, you can find it in Zürich. Restaurant Swiss Chuchi, in Hotel Adler in the Altstadt, has an entire raclette menu. The basic raclette is served with "Poached pear, tomatoes, champignons, pickled gherkins, baby corn, pickling onions, and potatoes." I think that is 24,50 CHF. You can also get it as a side dish to various types of meat or chicken.