Hiltl Bar is the cocktail lounge inside Haus Hiltl at Sihlstrasse 28 in central Zurich, the bar end of the world's oldest vegetarian restaurant. Haus Hiltl holds a Guinness World Record as the oldest continuously running vegetarian restaurant, founded in 1898, and the building spreads a restaurant, a bar-lounge and a club across its floors. The bar sits within that institution rather than standing on its own.
Published December 27, 2025 · By James Harlow
The room
The bar-lounge occupies part of the multi-storey Haus Hiltl building, with the buffet restaurant on the ground floor and Club Hiltl downstairs for late nights. In Your Pocket describes the building as a restaurant, bar and club under one roof rather than a single room. The lounge reads as a calm spot for a drink within a much larger operation.
Sihlstrasse, the surrounding street, runs through central Zurich near Bahnhofstrasse and the old town. Haus Hiltl has held its corner of it since the nineteenth century. That long tenure gives the bar a sense of place few Zurich lounges match.
What to order
The bar pours cocktails and Swiss wines, with the option of pairing a drink with the kitchen's vegetarian and vegan plates, since Haus Hiltl runs a menu that is about ninety percent vegan across more than a hundred dishes. The food, more than a cocktail programme, is what the house is known for. A cocktail or a glass of Swiss wine with a few vegetarian plates is the way to use the bar.
The format is a drink within a vegetarian institution rather than a destination cocktail den, so the order often pairs a glass with plates from the buffet or the a la carte menu. The vegetarian kitchen is the draw that sets the drinks in context. A Swiss wine and a board of meat-free plates is an easy order here.
Who it is for
Hiltl Bar fits a vegetarian who wants a drink with the meal, a visitor curious about the oldest vegetarian restaurant in the world, and anyone who rates a historic institution over a new opening. Skip it for a pure, spirit-forward cocktail crawl, since the bar sits inside a restaurant built around its kitchen. It rewards guests who treat the drink as part of a meal at Haus Hiltl.
Best time to go
Haus Hiltl runs daily from the morning, with the bar-lounge into the evening and Club Hiltl on weekend nights, so the time to go depends on what is wanted. An early-evening drink catches the lounge before the dinner crowd, while the club is the late, weekend option. Hours vary across the floors, so a check ahead is wise.
A weekday evening is the calmer window for the lounge, before the weekend fills the building. The club downstairs comes into its own on Friday and Saturday nights. For a quiet drink, the early evening in the lounge is the move.
The detail worth knowing
The Guinness World Record is the detail worth knowing, since Haus Hiltl is recognised as the oldest continuously running vegetarian restaurant in the world, founded in 1898 and now run by the fourth generation of the Hiltl family. Wikipedia and the restaurant's own history both record that lineage. Drinking at the bar means drinking inside that institution.
Few bars anywhere sit within a venue of this history, a vegetarian house running since the nineteenth century. The mix of a restaurant, a bar-lounge and a club under one roof keeps the building busy from day to night. For a drink with a piece of culinary history, it is a singular Zurich call.
The bottom line
Hiltl Bar is the cocktail lounge inside Haus Hiltl on Sihlstrasse, the bar end of the world's oldest vegetarian restaurant, founded in 1898 and holding a Guinness World Record. Come for a cocktail or Swiss wine with the kitchen's vegetarian plates, take the early evening for the lounge, and the weekend for the club downstairs. It is a drink within a historic institution rather than a stand-alone bar, and the history is the reason to go.
Keep exploring with our best cocktail bars in Zurich guide, the full Zurich bar guide, and our edit of cocktail bars worldwide. Pair Hiltl Bar with Kronenhalle Bar, Widder Bar, and Old Crow.
