Dinner for two will run you 80-100CHF easy at any midrange establishment. This is 2 beverages and 2 main courses, with perhaps an appetizer OR dessert. But IKEA has hotdogs, coffee, and sodas for 1 CHF apiece...
I save my "eating out" money for when I'm traveling in other countries, like Germany. I find that I can cook most of what's on the menus here myself, and it tastes just as good for a fraction of the cost.
Meat is stupid expensive here. I saw some Canadian Bison steaks the other day at Coop, and 170g (1/3lb) was easily 25CHF (IIRC).
Expect to pay about 5CHF for a 33cl beer at any bar or restaurant. A individual serving of Coca-Cola is also about this price. Neither comes with refills. Wine is measured by the dL, and 2dL is not that much of a glass, but at some establishments this is how wine is portioned, so be prepared to ask for a double portion, if you like a full glass... I've not ordered many cocktails or mixed drinks, but I've seen them start at 7-10CHF and go up from there.
Some servers will look at you as if you've grown a second head for asking...
there are student friendly joints like tschingg that sell pasta for 10chf, you find chinese dishes for 15-17 chf but let it be said: its massively expensive to germany. if you dont have a job here, get just german bafög (ch has no such program)or support from you parents you will need double to three times as much you need in germany.
a flatshare/wg is 500 outside zh with luck and up to 1200 chf that equals 1000 euro etc etc.
question: who dined and wined out in restaurants in his studies? we cooked at home, shared cheapest booze and hung out in student club as budget as possible.
I did. Because I lived in Hannover Linden, where a Kebab was 1.50 Euro... and most ethnic shops were cheaper than the universities Mensa. At 10 CHF as in Zurich and >5CHF for a beer would my life have been very different. I am sure that ZHs universities are top class - but without working at least half time or coming from a rich family would I probably choose a cheaper place to study.
(Bafoeg is nothing an international student in Germany would get, is it?)
Sorry, but can we now officially file this one in the Myths & Other General Bollocks folder alongside bog flushing after 10pm & Sunday laundry deportations, staring, and that all Swiss are humourless, rude & impossible to make friends with?
I've lived in Zurich for 7 years and eaten out all over the city & indeed, all over Switzerland, and I've never been charged for a glass of tap water, or even had it insinuated that I'm a freak for asking for one.
It's not a myth, some places do charge for tap water though it's not as high as CHF5 for a glass! I noticed that it depends how you ask, if you order a drink and tap water to go along with it then it's ok. If you just ask for water then the automatic question is "with or without gass?" which means you are paying for bottled water regardless of your answer!
You will get strange looks if you go up to a bar and just ask for Tap water though! In fact the barman will probably ask you to repeat your order if you ask for anything non alcoholic!
Ok, but that's a different story... the reason the food in my area was so cheap is not because they used bad ingredients at all - they simply sold Kebab at shop costs or even at a loss. Because the shops sold... let's just say "more than just kebab" and the food was the money laundering part of the operation.
My local butcher had five apprentices and they all drove Benz... that's the part of town one can afford as a student.
I agree that way around - but how do you know your cow is cow? Horse meat wholesale is a quarter of the price of beef - you think that the Swiss test beef for horse DNA so regularly that it couldn't happen here?
I can only assume that when the local butcher has the name of the farmer from the next village on the wall (as the source of the beef) he isn't trying to pull a fast one.