Switzerland Guide
Bern
Eating
1 Altes Tramdepot Beside the Bärengraben 
www.altestramdepot.ch Weave your way past the tourist crowds and into this fine old high-ceilinged place, formerly a tram depot and now a microbrewery, offering three house beers and a speciality monthly brew. The food is solid Bernese, Viennese and Bavarian fare, heavy on game, sausages and rich desserts. It's a sociable place, with good panoramic views from the garden terrace. Opening time: Daily until 12.30am
2 Art Café Gurtengasse 3 www.artcafe.ch Bright, trendy café just off the main shopping streets that discovers a new line in studied urban dissipation after the shops shut.
3 
Brasserie Lorraine Quartiergasse 17 Just about the last café in Bern still owned by a cooperative, with excellent, inexpensive food, wood floors and a summer terrace. Games galore fill the cupboards for free use, and the Sunday brunch is the best in Bern. A cosy, calm meeting-place for alternative types and politicos. Take bus #20 to Lorraine (direction Wyler); Quartiergasse is a little ahead on the left. Opening time: Closed Mon
4 Café Litteraire In Stauffacher bookshop, Neuengasse 25 Cosy espresso bar in Bern's largest bookshop, with snacks and newspapers. Opening time: Closed Sun
5 Café des Pyrénées Kornhausplatz 17 Jovial and unpretentious meeting-place for artists, alcoholics and others with loud voices. Equal quantities of twenty- and forty-somethings crowd the place out nightly, with the Ringgenberg next door catching the overflow. Opening time: Mon-Sat
6 Kornhauscafé In the Kornhaus The vaulted and renovated interior of the city's former granary is now home to a starkly postmodern-style café, with coiffed customers and pricey desserts and sandwiches.
7 Du Nord Lorrainestrasse 2 
031 332 23 38. A quality Lorraine café-bar and eatery, offering a nice mixture between heavy meat-and-potatoes dishes and lighter veggie options. A meal might only come to Fr.23 in the evening, or as little as Fr.13 at lunchtime. All the food is organic and comes from small local producers ensuring freshness, and monthly dance events and occasional concerts add to the allure. Bus #20 to Gewerbeschule (direction Wyler). Opening time: Thurs-Tues
8 Reitschule (aka Reithalle) Graffitied buildings next to the railway bridge 5min north of the station www.reithalle.ch Cooperative-run bastion of Bernese counterculture. The hash-smoky café-bar (named Sous Le Pont) is uniquely amiable; however, if sharing a scratched-up table with a green-haired character in a holey sweater rolling a joint isn't your idea of fun, you should head elsewhere. A red traffic light means table service, green means bar service. Opening time: Tues– Thurs 11.30am–12.30am, Fri 11.30am–2.30am, Sat 7pm–2.30am, Sun 10am–4pm; food generally noon–2pm & 6–10pm, during which dope-smoking is discouraged
9 Zum Blauen Engel Seidenweg 9b Cosy student café near the university, with objets trouvés, worn gilt mirrors, hosts of candles and a crowd of young, arty regulars creating a pleasantly seductive atmosphere in which to while away the evening. Eat before you come, though, since the food is disappointing. Bus #12 to Mittelstrasse (direction Länggasse) – Seidenweg is first right. Opening time: Tues-Sun
10 Anker Kornhausplatz 16 www.roeschti.ch Cosy, smoky pub, with a restaurant section in the back where you can scoff Swiss stomach-liners such as fondue, Röschti and a meat-laden Berner-Teller (around Fr.20).
11 China Imperial Bärenplatz 21 www.baerenplatz.be Moderately good Chinese, worth mentioning for its unique "Tellerservice": for around Fr.20, choose from a large buffet of uncooked ingredients and marinades, and present the lot to the chef who will wok-fry it all on the spot for piling over rice. They also have à-la-carte options, but at a premium. Opening time: Mon– Fri 11am–2.30pm & 10–11.30pm only
12 Cinématte Wasserwerkgasse 7 031 312 21 22 Pleasant riverside nook attached to Bern's premier arthouse cinema. Menus (meat or veggie) and the à-la-carte choice are varied and not expensive. It's a small place, though, so booking is advised. Opening time: Dinner daily, Weds-Mon
13 Della Casa Schauplatzgasse 16 031 311 21 42 www.della-casa.ch An unprepossessing exterior preludes a fine old Bernese institution serving high-quality Swiss fare. The Bernerplatte – a plateful of half-a-dozen varieties of meats with potatoes and sauerkraut – is a house speciality, but doesn't come cheap: you'd be lucky to walk out with change from Fr.50. Opening time: Closed Sat eve & Sun
14 Dragon d'Or Bollwerk 41 Small Thai/Chinese restaurant, on an unromantic, trafficky corner by the Lorrainebrücke, but nonetheless with a long, inventive menu and well-prepared fare.
15 Govinda Marktgasse 7, 3rd floor Tiny Krishna-run diner, serving vegetarian food in an unlikely location above a menswear store. Lunch (Mon– Fri only) is a reasonable Fr.18 or so, and the weekly dinner (Thurs) is Fr.29. Opening time: Mon-Fri
16 Kornhauskeller Below the Kornhaus 031 327 72 72 www.kornhaus.org An atmospheric subterranean restaurant in the vaulted cellars of the former town granary, once a folksy beerhall and now morphed into a classic formal restaurant, serving international and Mediterranean-style cuisine to the accompaniment of live cocktail jazz nightly.
17 Lorenzini Theaterplatz 5 031 311 78 50 www.lorenzini.ch High-flying young professionals flock here both for the café-bar and the top-drawer Tuscan cuisine, although you'll be looking at over Fr.30 for a meal. Opening time: Mon-Sat
18 Markthalle Bubenbergplatz 9 www.markthalle-bern.ch A slick indoor mall devoted to food from around the world – espressos, tapas, cheese, wine, bread, chocolates and more. There's a host of different ways to satisfy munchies, at counters and small eateries serving sushi, pizzas, Thai food, Indian, Indonesian, Turkish and more, as well as the less adventurous Markthalle restaurant in the back. Despite the contrivance, the whole thing works rather well. Opening time: Mon-Sat
19 Menuetto Herrengasse 22 / Münstergasse 47 031 311 14 48 Chic veggie place with entrances from both streets, offering delectable, imaginative dishes and lots of choicePrice: Fr.25 and up. Daily specials can drop as low as Fr.13. Opening time: Mon-Sat
20 Postgasse Postgasse 48 031 311 60 44, www.cafepostgasse.ch . Tiny old den on the quietest of alleys, with wood tables and an intimate, cosy atmosphere. The menu is good and not expensive (around Fr.20), but the joy of the place is its tasteful, convivial ambience. Opening time: Weds-Sun
21 Ringgenberg Kornhausplatz 19 031 311 25 40. Warm and comfortable place that styles itself a Brasserie Bernoise; it's as much a bar as an eatery – although it's worth coming here for the Mediterranean-style food.Price: Around Fr.30 Opening time: Closed Sun eve
22 Tibits Bahnhofplatz 10 www.tibits.ch Bernese branch of the successful Swiss mini-chain of cool, contemporary-styled cafés-cum-veggie restaurants, located within the main train station. The food is excellent and moderately priced – high-quality light bites, salad buffets, sandwiches and full meals, plus fresh juices and coffees. Open daily from breakfast time until around midnight.