A beautiful cafe with an interesting history. Lots of great little nooks and comfortable chairs to sit around, chat, sip a cappuccino or sparkling water or soda, read a book and watch people walking by. I had the pork schnitzel, with french fries and veggies. It was perfectly adequate, nothing to write home about (except for this one piece of broccoli which was infused with salty buttery flavor -- not sure what was going on with that). The ambiance is what really draws me to this place. read more

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Cafe Odeon is famous! It is an iconic place that has been a regular spot for the likes of Albert Einstein, Benito Mussolini, Vladimir Lenin, and many other famous people. The interior is very nice, plenty of nice seating. I enjoyed a cappuccino and admired the history of the place. It is close to the river and the opera house. I think it is a great place to visit for a coffee or a meal while in Zurich! read more

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Great cafe for lunch. Had the fried chicken burger with fries. Very tasty sandwich with very crispy chicken patty covered in yummy cheese and sliced jalapeños. A touch of their special sauce as well as mayo. Then those fries. These were cut like crinkle discs. Sliced up like scalloped potatoes then deep fried. Lightly salted and man were they good. So good our table ordered four side bowls of them to eat. Wry good lunch joint. read more

Service was somewhat slow and waiter was inattentive. Food was decent as we ordered the tartare. Not used to so much smoke as we sat outside. tables are close together so if you dont like this, go elsewhere. I will. read more

Lovely and historic cafe in the heart of Zurich not too far from the edges of the lake. The ambiance was wonderful and the coffee and food was even better. I ordered the Eggs Benedict that has their hollandaise-Prosecco sauce, which was delightful. Honestly, it might be the best Eggs Benedict I've ever had. May have to come back tomorrow just to have the same dish again! read more

With a history like Odeon's, I had to stop in to check it out. It was packed full of people - usually a good sign. It was too late in the day for me to want coffee so I opted for a chai latte (not made from a powdered mix - it came with a tea bag and an optional sugar cube.) They could do side order substitutions, so I went with the bacon wrapped chicken breast, mashed potatoes, and veggies, with a bowl of minestrone meat soup. All of the food was delicious. read more

Café Bar ODEON - Minestrone meat soup and a chai latte - Bars Near Me - Zürich, ZH

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Nice history and conveniently located right next to a bus station, but the service was pretty slow. The Vienna pancakes were essentially crepes with a small bit of apricot filling with some whipped cream and berries on top - we really liked it! Fun stop but I wouldn't go again. read more

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Came here for lunch today - a much more reasonable option than the dinner. Interior has beautiful and interesting period decor and certainly if you come here for the history as well as food you have to at least look inside if not sitting there. The outdoor tables are small rounds with umbrella shade pushed pretty tightly together in custom European fashion, so best come during non peak hours if you want to avoid sitting elbow to elbow with others. We had the hot dog and chicken leg lunch set - the chicken is by far the better presentation and tasting as well as the better deal at 26 euros. Big portions with a very fresh salad although bit swimming in too much dressing - two wanting a lighter meal can definitely share one set. Some of the indoor tables are nice and private if you don't mind being tucked away in a corner. Service was ok eventually although it was busy when we showed up so other than seating yourself you practically couldn't get anyone's attention no matter how much you try, so all the more reason to try coming here when it's less crowded. read more

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Great spot for breakfast, excellent service and nice ambiance. We enjoyed the eggs Benedict, waffles with berry compote & the fried eggs. All sound pretty typical but it was the best eggs Benedict and fried eggs we've ever tasted. Not sure how such simple everyday dishes could be so much better than we are used to! read more

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Great spot for an afternoon spritz. Dinner at the bar is also great - good food and service, a real local spot.

Pretty good stop for breakfast. We left satisfied but not to full. My husband liked his coffee too read more

Café Bar ODEON - Bars Near Me - Zürich, ZH

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The atmosphere and food looked good, but it was short lived. They elected not to serve us because we only had CDC Covid card and not the Swiss app. We quickly realized that this was our fault and we're able to fill out the proper form. However, This was an embarrassing experience. Plenty of other restaurants to enjoy in the area. read more

Café Bar ODEON - Don't go here - Bars Near Me - Zürich, ZH

Burgers and Club sandwich were large and delicious. Very good atmosphere with an aged look.

This is perhaps the most European Cafe in Switzerland and one of the best in Europe. Its walls have seen virtually a Who's Who of the Old World Literati and also some of the Ignobile... The philosophical movement Dadaism was coined within its walls. Einstein savored coffee there. So did Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, and Leon Trotsky. The infamous dancer-turned-spy Mata Hari danced upstairs. The author James Joyce, author of Ulysses, ate and conversed with friends here. Stefan Zweig, the Austrian novelist, came here with his partner, playwright Frank Wedekind. Karl Jung, Thomas Mann and others made this their hangout. And it continues as a center for the crowd-watchers, the poets and also the well-fed.... Odeon has had a history of open admission to all walks of life and this includes LGBT people; as a matter of fact, is has been a known hangout for LGBT folks for over a hundred years. And the views of the river, the people watching, the Roman City across the river and its sights, the wonderful trams of Zurich streets, are a wonderful side dish to the senses. The food.... ahhhh the food. The open-face hamburgers are superb, on a lettuce salad bed and Rosti. Even Champagne by the glass. And incredibly affordable considering the normal Zürich prices. A part of world history, not to be missed in Zürich visits. If not for the food, the history and the views, for the well-being of the wallet.... read more

Café Bar Odeon has nothing to do with ancient Greece as the name might imply, but rather gives you the feeling you're in Paris or Vienna. Once you open the menu, however, you know you're in Zürich. The "rösti bällchen" kind of give it away. And, speaking of bällchen, it's supposed to be a gay joint, but I wouldn't necessarily hang that sign on it since quite a cocktail of different types frequent Odeon - students, business types, grey hairs, and since it's supposedly one of the oldest cafes in Zürich, it also boasts quite a noteworthy guestbook of names... Einstein, Mussolini and Lenin to name a few. The service, I hear, is notorious for being less than pleasant, but I haven't had any appalling experiences. I mean my tolerance of terrible customer service has grown incredibly since I've lived in Switzerland. The menu is creative and offers some interesting twists on traditional local specialties. The rösti bällchen mentioned above are an appetizer of rösti potato balls stuffed with cheese and fried. And speaking of rösti, the rösti burger is sensational. It's open-faced with no bun underneath, but a rösti pancake as a bed for the juicy ground beef, fresh tomato, onion, lettuce and pink sauce, served with a small bowl of crunchy veggie salad. All of their burgers are tip-top! And there are more traditional offerings like a tall club sandwich and a number of creative salads. But it's a "Café Bar" so they also do honest coffee and have a full bar in the middle of the dining room, with a decent cocktail list. Less known is that the kitchen is open until 2am! It's the cousin of the late night American diner. There's plenty of outdoor seating and the location is right across from the Limmat River before it flows into the Lake of Zurich. It's caddy corner to Bellevueplatz, so if you like to people watch, it's good for that. Prices aren't out of the ordinary for Zurich. It's a great place to come for lunch, brunch or a midnight snack... or a coffee... or some drinks... or... read more

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Nice cafe in the center of Zurich. The prices are typical Switzerland prices (steep!) and the service is typical Switzerland service (amazing!). The food is decent and the coffee-based drinks are well crafted. One interesting fact about this cafe is that (supposedly) Vladimir Lenin visited here while in Switzerland. They have an indoor seating and outdoor seating area. If the weather is nice, I'd definitely recommend the outdoor seating so you can people watch and enjoy the nice views. Take your time. No one here is in a rush. You can sit there for one hour or the whole day- the waitresses will still keep serving. read more

Café Bar ODEON - Bars Near Me - Zürich, ZH

When you visit Café Bar Odeon you'll not only get some truly excellent food, but you'll also experience a bit of history as well :-) The breads they serve here are outstanding, and the burger I enjoyed was among the best I've had in recent memory. This restaurant is very popular, and was quite crowded when we visited, but we lucked into an outdoor table after only a brief wait, and the prices are very reasonable - especially for Zurich. read more

Meh. The number of people who list this place as a "must-visit" while in Zurich somewhat astound me. Sure, the list of famous folks who've passed through these doors is long, but the place itself is just nothing spectacular, and the food is average, at best. We went well out of our way to get to this well regarded place in District 1, walking all the way from Langstrasse on a cold, rainy morning, and received equally cold service in a dull setting that hopefully comes more alive later in the day. There seemed to be a table of eccentric regulars meeting for breakfast early along with us, but aside from that the space was all but empty. As noted, the food here is rather simplistic, but for that simplicity you still pay Zurich's obligatory high prices. Breakfast runs 20+CHF per person, depending on what option you get, and frankly none of the options were really all that appealing. I wish we had researched the menu more before deciding to come here, because I could have easily seen how disappointing the choices would be. I guess the best thing would have been my butterzopfli, the only truly distinctive item. Everything else (except perhaps the Camembert wedge) could easily be found in any typical American diner for just a couple $USD. My hot chocolate was nice, but how hard is that to achieve? Suzy's egg dish looked a good bit more satisfying, but was relatively without flavor. All of the historical significance of Odeon was lost to us, due to the uninspiring food, indifferent employees, and overall boring atmosphere. It's got a pretty interior that looks like the type of place that must be bustling at some point, but if you're considering it as a destination and you've only got minimal time in Zurich I suggest looking elsewhere. Odeon is not necessarily bad, but given the reputation it's a pretty big disappointment. read more

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Great place to chill or socialize with friends, new and old. Friendly staff, cool & convenient location. Good food & drinks. Fun, inviting atmosphere. Sit outside on the warm days. It's winter now (and night time), so we sat indoors and enjoyed the music. read more

Café Bar ODEON - Odeon platter (small) - Bars Near Me - Zürich, ZH

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Apparently a classic Zurich bar. I had no idea, but was drawn in by the outdoor cafe seating ambiance while walking around one Saturday. Service was prompt and polite, I ordered a Cassis Blanc, read a book, and people watched. I would come back again for more of the same, or to meet a friend and try the food. A good place to stop if you're looking for a classic Zurich cafe bar experience. read more

Great place but pricey. Nice setting and very convenient. Service very good. First place we visited for lunch. read more

Café Bar ODEON - Bars Near Me - Zürich, ZH

Nice, comfortable ambience, when it's sunny weather you can sit outside. The drinks are marvellous to a good price and the waiters very friendly. The location is practical close to the trainstation and "bellevue". You should try odeon out. read more

Café Bar ODEON - You can try fresh drinks here. - Bars Near Me - Zürich, ZH

Right on Lake Zurich Canal, where tons of people stroll-on-by. Great spot to indulge in a midday coffee and a smoke...or lots of refreshing Swiss beers. The service is actually quite prompt and definitely friendly. It is next to a slew of restos and boutique stores, so get your drinks on, shop, drink, shop, drink, shop, eat, shop and drink. That's what you call Swiss Protocol. Be like Louis R, travel to Switzerland. read more

For Stefan Zweig ,Jame Joyce and Maugham , have to sit here for a while to see what they saw . Great salad and gin tonic . What a wonderful city, here you really could feel peace and happiness . read more

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Looks better than what it is. The house looks amazing from the outside and nice in the inside: art nouveau style, with exciting historical stories -viz their website. I can recommend to savour a glass of prosecco while admiring the interior, however, the Odeon Glamour salad was a bad surprise. There are shrimps, avocado and artychokes listed on the menu, so I´ve expected these ingredients being emphasized and accompanied by a whatever salad mix. I have received a wild mix of vegetable - grated carrot and radish, pepper, tomato, various kinds of salad etc. served in a strange side dish style and truly accompanied by artychokes, shrimps (not very good ones) and avocado. The tastes didn´t match well at all overall. Not worth CHF 26, not worth a single frank. They should rather not offer food, beside bar snacks. The staff was fine though :). read more

We had the beef burger and the Swiss style burger. + : nice atmosphere, very friendly waiter and reasonable prices. The burgers themselves were big and tasty. Nothing to complain there. Service at 10.00 PM on a Friday night was no problem either. - : the side salad with the Swiss style burger was drenched in dressing, half the bowl was full of balsamic. The fries were also not very crispy. Overall, for a quick bite late at night, a nice place to go! read more

Cool place to go and have a drink. This is one of those cool old fashion cafés that have been around for over 100 years. The details inside are really nice and is a great place to just sit and relax for a drink. One thing that I did not like so much is that they were playing really modern music there, I think it would have been much cooler to be playing old fashioned music in that environment. read more

We "discovered" Cafe Odeon by reading about it in all our travel books. Stopped by for some breakfast before doing some Zurich sightseeing. Nicely decorated and with a rich history (apparently this was a favorite haunt of Lenin's), it's a nice European experience. Of course, the sticker shock of how much things cost in Switzerland is the negative but I suppose you can't really fault the cafe for the high cost of living here. Breakfast, which was about $20, consisted of various bread, meat, jams, cheese, oj and coffee. The freshly-squeezed OJ and the amazing "braided" bread were the highlights. While we elected to sit inside, there is nice al fresco dining as well (it was too chilly for us but apparently 50 degree weather doesn't faze the Swiss!) Service is just so-so (but I discovered that this is generally the case in Europe compared to the US). You have to seriously wave down waiters to take your order, to get the check, etc. read more

Pros: - beautiful interior - this place has a long history with many famous people having eaten here - The food (we had the Odeon burgers) was good for the price but nothing extraordinary. Cons: - our waiter was extremely unfriendly and did not answer our questions or just made some sarcastic remarks and was generally annoyed although the place was not busy - the whole time, the music that was playing was some top 100 charts radio, extremely annoying, we just wanted to get out of there ASAP --- Conclusion: The nice impression when you first walk in is ruined by the music and the way you are treated in this restaurant. I recommend to get your food somewhere else with a nicer atmosphere. read more

i only go to the Odeon for breakfast. A great cup of coffee and lots of different breakfast choices. The decor has not changed for the past 30 years, its home away from home. A must stop when in Zurich for everyone, coming for lunch be sure to make reservations read more

I really loved this restaurant and bar. I had an amazing swiss dish and delicious wine, and a table with a window view and it wasn't too expensive for swiss standards. Try out the weiner schnitzel or the swiss sausage!I would return again and the staff were great! read more

A classic cafe that is known for its distinctive food and its well deserved place in history. Knowing that a cafe where the likes of Karl Marx has dined, is just around the corner makes it all the much better to go. Try the salads, you won't be disappointed! read more

Had flatbread with cheese tomatoes and arugula, with my wife on the first day of our week-long vacation in Switzerland. Got sick and threw up as well as diarrhea for the week. It almost ruined our entire vacation. Came back to California and the bug is still not gone, continue to remain sick. read more