Where to eat CZECHIA 🇨🇿 Winterthur: Restaurant Schäfli

Restaurant Schäfli

Oberer Graben 18, Winterthur

What we ordered: For two people, one order of the national dish, knedlo vepřo zelo (bread dumplings, roasted pork and sauerkraut) and one order of sekaná (homemade meatloaf) served with Bohemian potato salad. To drink, two small Staropramen Czech lagers and two large Pilsner Urquell beers and two espressos after the meal.

Cost: 106 CHF / €109 / $117 

Restaurant Schäfli is a classic Bohemian-style establishment in the quaint town of Winterthur a short walk from the station on a wide pedestrian boulevard with trees along the median. The restaurant itself is decorated with vintage photographs of Winterthur and has the vibe of an inn. While there is nothing per se distinctively Czech or Bohemian about the décor, it is cozy and full of ambiance and a wonderful place to park for a lunch or dinner on a cold winter day.

The menu itself is replete with Czech classics, everything from garlic soup to the national dish, knedlo vepřo zelo, and many other favorites. The portions are large and the food is robust with classical Czech flavors. Open for 34 years for good reason, owner Eva Pavlík and her team know exactly what they are doing when it comes to traditional Czech fare.

The knedlo vepřo zelo was magnificent and was be hard to replicate at home. The pork itself was so tender it came apart with the touch of the fork, exactly how it should be. Just a hint of caraway seeds, a classic in Czech cuisine, made it and the zelo, or sauerkraut, pop. The bread dumplings that accompanied it, known as knedle or knedlík in the plural, were so fluffy they were like a sponge soaking up all the gravy and the additional gravy that was provided. Overall, extremely high marks for authenticity. It was like being in someone’s home in the best sense.

My husband loved the sekaná (meatloaf), describing it as extremely tasty, heavy and warming the body from the inside. This Czech take on a traditional pan-European dish left him impressed and satisfied. Meat, first deconstructed then reconstructed, combined with the flavors of the Bohemian landscape reflects highly on the greater Czech culture, a country known for the best shoes, the best cars and the best literature, in his opinion. 

At Restaurant Schäfli, they treated the raw materials, meat in this case, with such care that it left him with the impression that this is why the Czechs exist at the very center of Europe. The potatoes were a mere afterthought comparatively. When downed with some wonderful but standard Czech beers and finished off with two espressos, it was a hearty, quality meal on a frigid day.

How to get to Czechia from Switzerland:

Depending on your point of departure in Switzerland, the drive to the Czech capital Prague is around eight hours through Germany.

By rail, depending on your connections and any potential delays in Germany given Deutsche Bahn’s now notorious unreliability, the journey will take more than ten hours.

Swiss Air operates nonstop flights from Zurich to Prague. The journey is under ninety minutes. From Geneva, Easy Jet and Eurowings fly direct. Flight times are just over ninety minutes. 

How many Czechs are in Switzerland: 11,000 

Distance Bern and Prague: 806 km

Distance from Restaurant Schäfli to Prague: 656 km

Learn how to make Czechia's national dish, knedlo vepřo zelo, and about its origins.

Follow our social media pages @swissglobaldining on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube