Where to eat CROATIA 🇭🇷 Zürich: Restaurant Büsi
For a place named for kittens, we did watch one pull a mouse out from the adjacent fields and strut with the mouse in its mouth under a setting sun.
Restaurant Büsi
Bärenbohlstrasse 47, Zürich
What we ordered: For two people, two shopska salads, one homemade pork sausage plate and one mixed grill plate. To drink, five small beers.
Cost: 98 CHF / €104 / $116
Restaurant Büsi is a cozy neighborhood anchor in Affoltern on the edge of Zürich. It is about a twenty-minute train ride from the Zürich main train station but a world away. You literally come to the edge of where the city meets country and have a garden view with horse stables, the last thing pressing to the very edge of the city limits. The garden terrace looks out onto a field and the open expanse of the rolling hills of the Swiss countryside.
Located just south of the airport but not so close you can catch a breeze with takeoff, it is an idyllic spot to have a beer, some grilled meats and watch the planes take off and circle back to avoid German airspace and the resulting overflight fees. As someone with a husband who obsessively monitors FlightRadar24 and has interrupted happy hours and other leisure activities to monitor air travel disruptions occurring on Swiss Air only to calm down once normalcy is restored to a flight, it’s a pretty sweet spot. Happy husband, happy life?
The bucolic does not end with the aviation obsessive though. For a place named for kittens, we did watch one pull a mouse out from the adjacent fields and strut with the mouse in its mouth under a setting sun. We also saw the horses led out of the stable on our way in, too.
The people watching was fairly international, with at least one adjacent table exchanging English conversation. For the sports fans, we visited during the UEFA European Cup tournament and a big flat screen was assembled on the garden terrace to watch the games. There was also a fierce older woman with big sunglasses and hair darkly colored for variety.
As for the food, the shopska salad was fairly standard, with shredded feta on top rather than cubes or chunks. The grilled meat options were really the only other touches of Croatian or Balkan food to be found on the menu, something Georg attributes to the “overly integrated Swiss.”
What does it mean to be “overly integrated”? Well, when the dominant Swiss culture has overtaken that which is unique about an immigrant culture and the ratio of Swiss-ness to foreignness is somewhat lopsided in favor of Swiss culture and tastes. As I learned when I was a foreign exchange student in high school: it’s not good, it’s not bad, it’s different. Though I suppose the point of integration is that it is not supposed to be so different.
The ćevapčići was very mild, made with quality meat and clearly a house recipe that fits Western European stomachs very well. Georg said this was the best of the mixed grill plate, though the speck was also extremely tasty and of very high quality as well. The pork was a bit spicy, but also quite nice.
The homemade pork sausage Georg described as a greeting from the Balkans to Switzerland. As I had the wurst plate, I would concur it was far spicier (and therefore more delicious) than any and all wurst normally available at the market or in the stores in Switzerland. Homemade pork sausage is always a must as a Midwestern American native when and where it is available, and generally the spicier the better.
Both dishes came with French fries and a host of homemade sauces, four to be precise, among them a garlic mayonnaise that was quite perfect for the French fries. The quality of the ajvar highlighted the fact that the Balkans begins for some on the outskirts of Zürich. The beers were not Balkan but perfectly light on a hot day, the first really warm day of the summer season. As we walked to the train after our dinner, local youth clubs were on the pitch taking advantage of the nice weather for soccer or football practice.
Restaurant Büsi is a wonderful little escape to the near abroad of the Balkans and beyond the city center, right on the edge of town with no exurbs or strip malls or industrial clutter. There is also a Lake Büsi nearby, for which the restaurant shares a name, where one could hike in nature and stop in after for an apéro afterwards as well. As far as urban bucolic adventures go, Restaurant Büsi was a hit.
How to get to Croatia from Switzerland:
By car, depending on departure and arrival locations, it is more than 10 hours from Switzerland to Croatia through Italy and Slovenia before arriving in Croatia.
By rail, too many transfers seem to diminish the likelihood of making the journey either pleasurable or leisurely, but at a minimum it is a 14-hour journey through Germany, Austria and Slovenia before arriving in Croatia.
By air, Croatia Airlines is the only airline offering nonstop flights from Zürich with flight times at just under 90 minutes. Swiss Air, Air Serbia, Austrian Airlines and Lufthansa all offer connections through Belgrade, Vienna, Frankfurt or Munich. With a connecting flight, total flight times can range from just under three hours to 12 hours.
From Geneva, there are no direct flights to Zagreb. In addition to Swiss Air flights connecting in either Zürich or Frankfurt, Germany via Croatia Airlines or Lufthansa on to Zagreb, Air Dolomiti, British Airways, KLM, Lot Polish and Lufthansa all offer connections to the Croatian capital through numerous cities across Europe. Flight times with connections range from just under three hours to over 15 hours.
How many Croatians are in Switzerland: Approximately 33,000
Distance between Bern and Zagreb: 1,009 km
Distance from Restaurant Büsi to Zagreb: 857 km
Learn how to make Croatia's national dish, crni rižot, and about its origins.
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