Old Swiss House
Löwenplatz 4
Cuisines: European, French
About
This half-timbered building near the Lion Monument is one of the most photographed attractions in the area. This crowd-pleaser -- often filled with groups -- is a mandatory stopover on a dining tour of Lucerne and has been since it started attracting a horde of British visitors in 1859. To its credit, it has endured and outlasted everything else, with the food remaining good. The restaurant is decorated in 17th-century style, with porcelain and antique glass, hand-carved oak doors, wooden stairways, leaded- and stained-glass windows with heraldic panes from 1575, antique silver, and old pewter. There are also original oil paintings throughout the house. Perhaps the most outstanding item of the entire collection is a handmade porcelain stove from 1636, in the Knight's Room. The house has a long bar near the entry, private banquet rooms upstairs, and a dining room downstairs. In fair weather you can have lunch on the terrace. There's a city parking lot 180m (590 ft.) away. Waitresses wear regional dress and speak several languages. One of the dishes this place does best is an elegant version of Wiener schnitzel -- a bestseller here for more than 40 years -- that's pan-fried aboard a trolley that's wheeled alongside your table. Freshwater fish (fera, omble chevalier, pikeperch) from the nearby lake are excellent too, as well as turbot meunière, filet of beef stroganoff, calves' liver, roasted rack of baby lamb from Scotland, and sliced veal in cream sauce.
