Haus Hiltl is the world's oldest vegetarian restaurant. Located on Sihlstrasse in Zürich Switzerland it has been serving vegetarian fare since 1898. Find out how the oldest vegetarian restaurant in the world came to be and what is on the menu there now.
Haus Hiltl is one of those restaurants that always features on Zürich must-eat lists. It holds the Guinness World Record for the oldest continuously opened vegetarian restaurant in the world. It was started by owner Ambrosius Hiltl with his wife Martha Gneupel as the cook and chef. It is now managed by the fourth generation of the Hiltl family.
Back in the late 1800s vegetarianism was much less common than it is today. Martha Gneupel grew up in a strictly vegetarian family in Saxony. She started working at the "Vegetarierheim and Abstinence-Café" that opened in 1898. The restaurant's patrons were just derided as "grass eaters". For some it was so embarrassing that diners had the option to enter the restaurant through the back door lest they be seen.
When Ambrosius Hiltl developed rheumatism he became a frequent customer at the restaurant and made a quick recovery due to what he believed, was the vegetarian food. In 1904 Martha and Ambrosius married and took over the restaurant. They also had two sons and a daughter.
Despite its very meat and cheese heavy traditional cuisine, Switzerland is a haven for vegetarians. Not only because of restaurants like Haus Hiltl but also the price of meat is high so eating vegetables makes sense both for the health but also for financial reasons. Couple this with the fact that each Swiss citizen has a duty free limit to the amount of meat that they can bring back into the country from overseas. Even with Germany, France and Italy just across the borders all they can bring back is 1kg/2.2lbs of meat per person per day.
The Haus Hiltl restaurant is enormous and spreads over two levels but has a cosy vibe thanks to the multiple rooms and high partitions of the banquettes. My favourite room is a little hidden away and has a wall lined with books.
When you enter the restaurant, the downstairs section is the vegetarian buffet. Diners choose what they want and then go to weigh it. They'll receive a docket which they keep on the table and at the end they collect their dockets and pay at the table. It's an honesty system in a way. The price is for 4.50CHF per 100g/3.5ozs and the average cost for a plate of food is 35CHF depending of course on how laden the plate is. This is good value for Switzerland.
Usually buffet food is not known for its quality. Food sits under a heat lamp and is mass produced but here it tastes fresh and I see them removing trays of food from the buffet before they are finished. At the Haus Hiltl buffet there are around 100 dishes on offer. They also lend from flavour rich cuisines like Thai and Indian to create flavour packed dishes.
There is also the option to order à la carte from the menu and a lot of the dishes are similar to what you'll find at the buffet but in full sizes. The most popular dish there is the tartar. It has capers, eggplant, okra, green olives, pickles, tomato sauce, Tabasco, turmeric and beetroot powder and is designed to mimic a beef tartare. It comes with four slices of square whole wheat toast and a faux egg yolk to complete the picture.
One of my favourites is the mushroom wings that are actually shimeji mushrooms coated in a batter and deep fried. These are very moreish.
I also try a Zürich specialty called Zürich Geschnetzeltes, which is usually made with veal slices in a cream sauce. Here it is made with brown mushrooms and seitan slices in a creamy sauce. It also comes with a half moon of crispy roesti. I actually preferred the other dishes to this one as I didn't like the texture of the seitan but the flavours are good.
For dessert, I decide to go down to the buffet because some of the other writers had offered me some of their dessert and the strawberries were so incredibly sweet that I make a beeline for the strawberries at the buffet. I pair this with strawberry tiramisu and some Eton mess. The strawberries are so sweet they seem kissed by the sun until juicy and ripe and the Swiss whipped cream is rich and gorgeously creamy.
So tell me Dear Reader, would you try the world's oldest vegetarian restaurant?
NQN dined as a guest of Tourism Switzerland but all opinions remain her own.
Haus Hiltl
Sihlstrasse 28, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland
Phone: +41 44 227 70 00
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