Where to eat IRELAND 🇮🇪 Zürich: James Joyce

James Joyce

Pelikanstrasse 8, Zürich

What we ordered: For two people, one order of fish and chips and a James Joyce burger topped with a fried egg, bacon, cheese and fried onions served with French fries. To drink, one dry Belvedere martini, two bottles of Irish Magners Original Cider, two pints of Guinness and a 50cl bottle of sparkling water.

Cost: 125 CHF / €134 / $142 

James Joyce is the Swiss banker’s Irish pub. There is one in every city in every country everywhere in the world but this one happens to be near the flagship UBS office near Paradeplatz on Bahnhofstrasse.

Tucked away on a nearby street, the most distinguishing things about this iteration of the Irish pub are the dazzling interior – majestic and perhaps more Irish even than the Irish pubs in Ireland – and the fact that the literary legend himself James Joyce, the namesake of the pub, is buried in Zürich having died in the Swiss financial capital in 1941 during the war.

Interestingly, it was not the only war Joyce spent in Zürich as the Zürich James Joyce Foundation features a list of addresses Joyce maintained in the city throughout the late 1910s. When the continent was at war, it seems the Irish literary master found home, zen and a room of his own to write in the city. He stayed in a modest hotel, the Pension Delphin, until he fell ill on January 10, 1941 and was taken to the hospital with stomach pains. His last residences including the hospital where he died have all been demolished to make way for new buildings.

What little is left of the spirit and strength of James Joyce in Zürich is almost regrettable in comparison to the strength of his words and works. The James Joyce pub is a gem of a place but sadly it is also a sad husk of a satisfying experience. It is perhaps not unlike how Joyce left this city, which at least remains intact except for the march of so-called progress, as Switzerland’s professed neutrality has allowed it to skip so much of the destruction and afflictions of the European continent at wartime and again.

The prices at James Joyce are quite extraordinarily high for what it is, namely ordinary pub food that is barely elevated beyond what the menu descriptions are. The fish and chips were breaded not floured and better suited for a kids table than a banker’s buffet.  This is Zürich after all, a city that attracts as many detractors as it does moneyed devotees. Money can’t buy class after all, nor does it much care who owns it.

The burger looked vastly better and seemed to be but with a fried egg and bacon, who needs all those extra fried onions? It was good while it lasted but then it was an occasion for heartburn and stomach turns later. Both were priced at over 30 Swiss francs which means this might have been among the most expensive fish and chips and bacon egg cheeseburgers we have ever consumed anywhere in the world. Was it worth it? Well, no.

The fries were standard but at least did not suffer any embellishments of being hand or steel cut. Everything was perfectly ordinary, but the décor, at extraordinary prices. The Swiss banking and financial sector set was in force after work and that’s a kind of ambiance one neither needs nor requires. You could imagine who might hook up with who, who might get a promotion – who cares?

As we got up to leave, we saw a chalkboard with some specials we were not told about when the daily specials were recounted to us on arrival, including an Irish stew. That would have been nice to try if only to break out of the pro forma Irish pub food outside of Ireland menu, though as no one bothered to inform us, who knows if that board was even up to date or part of the ambiance instead.

The bar itself though was very lovely. If we return it would likely be for an after-work drink, maybe an overpriced appetizer but maybe it might just be nicer to have a drink before catching the train at our secret tucked away spot in the train station? Fewer finance bros and no chance of spending too much for so little.

It is not the usual Irish pub in that you can escape whatever the surroundings of whatever the city and vanish into a little outpost of Irish drink and hospitality. Rather at James Joyce in central Zürich, it is more of a full plunge into the depths of the surroundings, finance bros and high prices but it is only a quick walk to the train station to escape and go home.

How to get to Ireland from Switzerland: 

It is about a 19-hour drive from Switzerland to Dublin via France and England with a route that involves a train through the tunnel between France and England and a ferry from England to Ireland. 

By rail, it is more than a day via Paris, London and the British Midlands before a ferry on to Ireland. Many transfers are involved after London and the rail lines in England are notoriously unreliable.

Swiss Air and Aer Lingus operate nonstop flights between Zürich and Dublin and Aer Lingus operates a nonstop flight from Geneva to Dublin. Flight times average around two and a half hours. 

How many Irish people are in Switzerland: Around 6,300

Distance between Bern and Dublin: 1,561 km

Distance from the James Joyce Pub to Dublin: 1,549 km

Learn how to make Ireland's national dish, Irish stew, and about its origins.

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