In Zurich West, Feeding the Hip and the Hungry

Now the area has emerged as the city’s latest culinary hotbed, with serious new restaurants, interesting bars and Zurich’s first permanent covered food market. Their openings are fueled by rapid construction and new infrastructure, including 1.86 miles of tram tracks that made their debut in the district last month, making it easier to hop among the city’s most thrilling spots to eat and drink. Among the restaurants is Clouds (Maagplatz 5; 41-44-404-30-00; clouds.ch), an ambitious spot that opened in December with floor-to-ceiling windows atop the Prime Tower, a 36-story building that not only punctures the city’s low-slung skyline, but also ranks as Switzerland’s tallest. “Zurich changes all the time, and we’re part of the new Zurich,” said Magnasch Joos, Clouds’ general manager. On a weekday at noon in early January, diners savored delicate raviolone stuffed with buffalo ricotta and a perfectly runny egg (22 Swiss francs, about the same in U.S. dollars) and sautéed pike-perch with smoked-almond-crusted potatoes (46 francs) against a stunning backdrop of Lake Zurich. A layer of fog hovered over the water, with the snow-capped Glarus Alps beyond. A young crowd congregates below at the Hotel Rivington & Sons (Hardstrasse 201; 41-43-366-90-82; hotelrivingtonandsons.ch). The drinking establishment opened in October with one of the city’s quirkiest bottle collections, including spicy ginger wines from Scotland. But the scene-stealer is the painstakingly recreated speakeasy-style décor. The 80-year-old wooden bar, chicken-wire glass and six tons of white subway tiles were shipped from New York City to Hamburg, Germany, then trucked into Zurich, said Emil Looser, an owner. A block away, the 1,640-foot-long Im Viadukt (im-viadukt.ch), with 50 vendors, cuts a striking swath through the neighborhood; it opened in 2010 beneath century-old stone railway arches. Its intimate Restaurant Viadukt (Viaduktstrasse 69/71; 41-43-204-18-99; restaurant-viadukt.ch) operates with a civic mission, combining a youth job training program with live bands and a modern menu of dishes like meltingly tender boiled beef and sphered turnips and carrots, served with a horseradish-fig sauce (29 francs). At the complex’s heart is its covered market, which is anchored by another restaurant, the more casual Restaurant Markthalle (Limmatstrasse 231; 41-44-201-00-60; restaurant-markthalle.ch), where creative types and dot-comers dine on homey meat-centric dishes. Those include the restaurant’s signature veal meatballs that, on a visit in December, were luscious and still light-pink on the inside (19.50 francs). A communal ethos pervades the restaurant. Its lengthy wine collection, supplied by the wine shop Südhang (Limmatstrasse 231; 41-44-262-48-48; suedhang.com), located one arch over, includes small-production bottlings made from grapes grown around Lake Zurich. Its raw milk cheeses come from the cheese shop Tritt-Käse (Limmatstrasse 231; 41-43-366-87-88; tritt.ch), tucked under another nearby arch. A few blocks away on vibrant Josefstrasse is the Senior Design Factory (Josefstrasse 146; 41-44-440-46-46; senior-design.ch), a bright corner restaurant opened in October by Benjamin Moser and Debora Biffi, two young art school graduates whose entrepreneurial efforts epitomize Zurich West’s evolution. They already have a design shop farther down Josefstrasse. And now, in a space accented with a knitted light installation, the duo serve updated comfort dishes that Mr. Moser said are inspired by recipes handed down through the generations, like a creamy leek quiche topped with bright purple rutabaga strips; it is paired with a radicchio-mâche salad (17.50 francs). “People are more welcoming of new projects in Zurich West,” he said. “There are a lot of ateliers, a lot of design shops and a lot of restaurants. It’s the city’s melting pot.”