Are all burgers in Zürich bad?

Food & Drink, Events and Entertainment
1
Hey everyone!

Coming from Denmark (Copenhagen area), where there is at least 10-12 burger joints that only serves burgers and are specialists in making proper ones, it’s a bit hard for me to have a burger in Zürich, because of the bad quality.

I only had one good burger here, at a small restaurant near Hardbrücke. They use ecological ingredients in all their food, and it contained 100% pure beef. When I get by again, I will update this post with the name of the place. (It was not “Hive”, even if a lot of people say they cook a good burger).

My experiences from burgers here, even the “gourmet” burgers at some of the fine and expensive restaurants, is that the beef is somehow mixed with 20% pork meet, potatoes or other funny ingredients.

Pork should be in a burger, but only as bacon!

I could write a lot more about what I find bad about the burgers here, and what I find good about the burgers in Denmark/other countries, but I will save that for the debate, if someone can’t agree with me on this topic

I should also add that I make burgers myself, and when I go all in, everything is made from scratch, even the ketchup!

(Tip: for making proper ketchup, get some Five-spice powder, sometimes it’s possible to buy Am Viadukt!)

The big question is... Are the some small hidden places in Zürich, which I probably don’t know of, that serves a badass burger, fresh, meaty and juicy?

Or should the next step be to open a proper burger restaurant for the people here?

Attached is some photos of the burgers I recently made!

2
If I am to be honest, the sight of those burgers actually made me lose my apetite. People in swiss aren't exactly the biggest fans of burgers unlike other european countries - at least nobody around me. Could explain why no burger joints meet your expectations.

Try america. I hear they make some huge juicy ass burgers

3
Why would I want to go to a burger joint? A bratwurst, curry wurst or something local is far more appealing

4
If you have a passion for burgers or just would like a proper one with good meat in it, then you would want to go.

The local curry wursts are great, no doubt about that, but the burgers...

5
If you really must have a burger, go to McDonalds and have their expensive promotionals. can guarantee same quality worldwide there

6
If you really must troll topics, go to a forum where people think it's cool

7
Why the groan gurahamu89 ? The OP said why the burgers are bad (Pork, potatoes) The HOME MADE burgers from the OP in the photos above look fine to me!

The OP is right, fast food here means a slow service, and often almost inedible food. I can buy a good Doner Kebap in Avenches (Main street, near the BCV bank), but the one in Murten is terrible. (Grissely meat, chopped salad and cabbage, with a white salad sauce, and no tomatoes! )

8
I think the photos make the burgers look very tasty, and I am a vegetarian!

9
Go to Burger King then and you will find them more gourmet than anywhere else in the world.

10
Is it because of the synthetic laxative Burger King use, that you think they make great gourmet burgers?

Or because of the horse meat they have admitted using?

Maybe even the azodicarbonamide?

....

11
OP, those burgers look yummy!!!

When I was in Zurich there was a place I LOVED for burgers, Heidi & Tell . Fantastic burgers, fantastic service.

Someone told me that the burgers at Goodman were very good too. Now, I have been to Goodman a few times when I lived in ZH, but could never bring myself to order a burger there, when I could have a piece of juicy, almost raw steak on my plate.

Happy burger-hunting!

12
This place is supposed to be pretty good. Haven't been myself but all my friends are raving about it : https://www.facebook.com/thebite.ch

13
To me, it just seems a little whiny complaining about the quality of food in a specific country. Switzerland isn't known for it's burgers - when people think of Swiss, they think of Sausage, bread, cheese, salami, etc etc etc. When you move or travel to a country, one would usually be aware of the food you would get there beforehand.

As for the pictures of the burgers, I myself find them a little overwhelming. When I have a burger myself, I like the taste of the burger itself along with a decent sauce and a little ruccola or salad - whenever it contains anything which ozzes it's own liquid (like cucumbers or tomatoes) I always remove them because it ruins it for me.

Furthermore, I suggested the more expensive mcdonalds burgers because you can tell when you bite into the meat, it is much better quality meat than say, a hamburger (which is roughly only something like 20% real meat and rest is filler junk).

I do understand the OP's point of looking for a good burger restaurant that specialises in the food, and i was merely pointing out, don't expect too much because Swiss isn't a burger country.

14
To the OP, your burgers look like my style (I am from San Francisco). Good beef is very expensive in CH, so good burgers are priced pretty high.

There are a couple of threads that do a pretty good job of naming just about every good burger place in the Zurich area. I seem to remember that the Nelson Pub serves a decent one.

Check this link for a list of Zurich's Top 10 Burgers . I can't vouch for the list as I left town 3 yrs ago. But food quality seems to be going up. I hear there is even a taco truck at Globus!

I always found that my own were the best, and you have to go somewhere that can grind your meat; a butcher or one of the bigger Coop's.

Good luck!

15
Thank you for the those links. It looks promising!

aaaaaaaand thank YOU for that link too, it looks like they make some delicious burgers!

Will give it a try next week

16
burgers are more of a north european and american food so I don't think you'll find perfect juicy burgers in many places. I've never eaten a burger in my life.

It's like asking a north european to prepare a proper pasta plate. Even if he gets the cooking right (and we're reaching quite low percentages right here), the sauce and condiments will be influenced by his own culinary culture.

At least italians operate restaurants all over europe so you can find italian restaurants.

With burgers, outside of the big cities I don't think you can find much. All big cities have at least one place known for real good burgers, but they're very rare if you compare them to the availability of e.g. sushi restaurants.

Looks like you found one of those places already and people have provided plenty of other places, and you can do them yourself anyway.

PS: how do you eat a panino so big? Do you need utensils?

17
OMG, I totally forgot about the excellent burger I had at a pub, but it was not Nelson, it was Oliver Twist!!! I was there for the pub quiz, and it was a total surprise - very, very good burger.

18
I've also never had a good burger at a restaurant here in CH. The beef is always full of gristle.

Does anyone know why, exactly, beef is so damn expensive here?

19
Because the Swiss care about the quality of life of cows.

20
Not whiny to me at all. She/he just wanted to know if it was possible to find a good burger here. If you had ever had a decent one, you'd understand that the meat in the burgers here often is quite bad.

Despite someone living in a foreign country, you can't expect them to just automatically change their taste buds accordingly. Besides, if the Swiss didn't like hamburgers, then every McDonald's and Burger King that I see here wouldn't be packed at lunchtime.