Where to eat BOLIVIA 🇧🇴 Genève: Willy's Restaurant Bolivien

Willy's Restaurant Bolivien

Rue de la Servette 21, Genève

What we ordered: Two salteñas, one chicken and one beef, one tamale, one empanada de arroz (rice empanada) and four cans of Paceña Bolivian beer.

Cost: 48 CHF / €51 / $55

Willy's Restaurant Bolivien is a total treat for a brunch any day of the week. More a coffee or pastry shop than a restaurant, it is an oasis for the local Bolivian community and curious commuters on their way to the nearby Geneva Cornavin train station. With a record shop down the street and a grocery store stocked with Latin products next door, there is a timelessness about Willy's. Its hipster bonafides are sealed.

In this extraordinarily friendly spot, you can find just about everything a breakfast catering to Central American tastes can serve up.  The salteñas are totally authentic, sealed perfectly so the juices inside, created by combining the empanada filling with gelatin, do not spill out. The chicken one was like American Thanksgiving in every bite, with the slightly spicy, yet sweet salteña dough. The yellow tint comes from an ingredient called achiote, sold in paste or powder form.

The tamale and rice empanada were also delicious but consisting of just masa in the tamale and delicious crunchy and gooey rice in the empanada, they lacked the bite of the salteñas and ventured into the realm of pure comfort food.

The décor was colorful, vibrant and a nod to the altitude and rainforest, from foliage to animals. It was a fun place in the sense that you felt transported out of Switzerland to a new world so distant and comparatively exotic. For those who call Bolivia home, the South American country no doubt feels ever closer at Willy's. Given the distances, both cultural and geographical, this is no tiny feat.

The prices on everything were utterly reasonable and the very light beer could have easily been supplanted with one of the many batidos (part milkshake, part yogurt drink) or even espressos. As far as hospitality, high marks for the very nice people not just employed by Willy's but the Bolivian customers as well. You could feel a sense of community that you do not have everywhere. By all means a spot to pop into for a quick snack or failing the time for a proper dining experience, to grab something to take out.

How to get to Bolivia from Switzerland:

By air, it is a solid day of travel at least, with at least two airplane changes from Zürich and Geneva. Most routes change planes in Frankfurt, Madrid or Barcelona before hopping over the pond. On the other side, most flights are routed through either Lima, Peru or Bogotá, Colombia.

How many Bolivians are in Switzerland: More than 2,500

Distance between Bern and La Paz: 10,283 km

Distance from Willy's Restaurant Bolivien to La Paz: 10,160 km

Learn how to make Bolivia's national dish, salteñas, and about its origins.

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