The world’s oldest vegetarian restaurant is in Zürich, and it's reinventing itself

Haus Hiltl in Zurich was founded in 1898. (Photo: Hiltl AG via Wikimedia Commons)

Being a vegetarian, when I first heard of Haus Hiltl a few years ago, the concept of a vegetarian restaurant sounded like music to my ears. And as I headed to Sihlstrasse, I was blown away to find a buffet of over 100 pure vegetarian dishes that you can pay for by weight! Yes, you read that right, this is also part of the restaurant’s strategy to curtail food wastage.

Haus Hiltl in Zurich now. (Photo: Adrian Michael via Wikimedia Commons)

Currently run by the fourth generation, the restaurant holds the Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest continuously run vegetarian restaurant.

Rolf Hiltl, the restaurant CEO, says, “My great grandfather was a tailor who lived close to Munich and being from a poor family, he came to Zürich looking for work. He was diagnosed with arthritis... he could not move his fingers any more. That is when he was asked to change his diet and he shifted to a vegetarian diet for three months eating at ‘Vegetarierheim & Abstinenzcafé’... He was the only customer and he fell in love with the head chef and took over the restaurant and today we have an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records for the oldest still existing restaurant run by the same family.”

The Hiltl Academy teaches how to cook vegan and vegetarian dishes, which is not taught in culinary schools there. (Photo: Bindu Gopal Rao)

While the entrance to the restaurant is just as it was in 1898, the restaurant has grown and serves over a thousand people every day across 20 restaurants in Switzerland. An associated "Academy" showcases what they do, and teaches students how to cook vegan and vegetarian dishes, which is not taught in culinary schools there.

Rolf’s grandmother, incidentally, attended the World Vegetarian Congress, as a delegate from Switzerland in 1952 and learnt about Indian cuisine. The academy has images of her with former Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai. In fact, she started serving Indian vegetarian food after she returned from that trip.

The restaurant is also doing its bit to encourage plant-based eating. (Photo: Bindu Gopal Rao)

The best way to sample a meal here is to head to the extensive buffet that serves all kinds of vegetarian food from across the world. Alternatively, you can also choose from the à la carte menu. The food that contains eggs is also marked as such, so, you can pick what you want. The buffet has over a 100 dishes with a fare which includes Indian, Swiss, Thai, Central European, European, Mediterranean and Asian cuisine.

The aim is to encourage vegetarianism in a meat-eating country like Switzerland, though, Hiltl admits, things are changing slowly. “Young people are very open to being vegetarian. We just published this cookbook called Greentopf, and it has vegan and vegetarian recipes from us for the culinary schools. What we do there is show the Switzerland of 2022 and how it is today. We show how young people can cook vegetarian and vegan food. This book is very successful and shows that this is going in the right direction.”

The buffet has over a 100 dishes spanning Indian, Swiss, Thai, Central European, European, Mediterranean and Asian cuisine. (Photo: Bindu Gopal Rao)

The team also has Hiltl Vegimetzgeat alternatives such as tofu, seitan, temp, and a vegetarian butchery where you can buy meat alternatives like paneer, tofu, soya, Hiltl Tatare, Züri-Geschnetzeltes, Cordon Bleu and more. The store also sells food that you can grab and go, as well as wines to complement the vegetarian fare.

Apart from incorporating measures to curtail food wastage, the restaurant is also doing its bit to encourage plant-based eating with its diverse menu offerings. They also work with the food start-up Too Good To Go where excess unsold food is sold after a specific time at a discount. We want to take responsibility towards the diverse creation of humankind, animals, and nature and we take this seriously. Our menu is also 80 per cent vegan so even using eggs has reduced. We also know that eating meat is one of the less sustainable ways of nutrition.

Rolf Hiltl, CEO, Haus Hiltl in Zurich. (Photo: Bindu Gopal Rao)

On the nature side, takeaway food is cheaper, and we use Too Good to Go. Also, while organic food is good, we do not have many sunny days to grow them, and it is more complicated as it needs energy to grow when there is no sun,” says Hiltl. For a restaurant that has been in existence for so many decades, the charm of a meal at Hiltl never fades as they are always reinventing and reimaging vegetarian food.