Zürich Restaurant Tips by Nemorino

Sternen Grill: Where the opera singers eat sausages

Photos:
1. Sternen Grill (Star Grill)
2. Cartoon by Mike van Audenhove
3. Eating at the Sternen Grill

Just a block and a half from the opera house, at Bellevue Square, is the most celebrated of Zürich's many sausage stands, the Sternen Grill (Star Grill).

They serve their sausages with ultra-sharp mustard, so be careful, otherwise you'll feel like the cartoon character in the second photo.

The cartoon, which is displayed proudly on the front wall of the Sternen Grill, is by the American cartoonist Mike van Audenhove (1957-2009), who until his untimely death at age 52 did a full page cartoon called "Zürich by Mike" every week in one of the local papers.

The Sternen Grill website features tongue-in-cheek biographies (in German only, sorry) of the people who work there, the "dream team" consisting "without exception only of the most skillful specialists of the worldwide grill scene." One, from Bangladesh, claims to have grilled the last hamburger that Elvis Presley ate before he died, with hot bacon sauce and four centimeters of peanut butter. Another, from Turkey, claims to be a confirmed vegetarian.

Address: Theaterstrasse 22 (Bellevue)

Comparison: least expensive

Phone: 044 251 49 49

Price: less than US$10

Rating: 4

Theme: Local

Website: http://www.vorderer-sternen.ch/sternen-grill.asp

elvetino: Dining on the train

The dining cars on Swiss trains are now called "elvetino", which I assume is derived from the Latin name for Switzerland, Confoederatio Helvetica, which in turn is derived from the Helvetics, a Celtic tribe who were the first known people to live here before the ancient Romans appeared on the scene.

I have a thing about dining cars and always eat in them whenever I can, even in the German ones, which are getting more perfunctory every year.

Favorite Dish: Had a nice salad here in the "elvetino" on the trip from Zürich to Bregenz.

Rating: 4

Theme: Diner

Website: http://www.elvetino.ch/engl/ueber_uns/index.php