Schuh

Schuh has sat on the Höheweg directly opposite the Höhematte since 1888. It is a grand café in the Swiss mould — patisserie cases running twenty feet, a terrace that looks across the meadow onto the Jungfrau, and a back dining room that has fed tourists and townspeople across three centuries without changing the fundamentals.

The menu is unapologetically Swiss-classic. Wiener schnitzel Holstein with capers and anchovy. Zurich-style veal in cream sauce with rösti. Cheese fondue by the caquelon. Raclette through winter. A proper Älplermagronen — the Alpine macaroni with apple sauce — that most of the valley still sends its grandchildren to eat. The patisserie is a minor Swiss institution: Schuh's own truffles and Engadiner nut cake have been sold in the ground-floor shop for generations.

Wine is small, fair, and local-first. The house pour of Chasselas by the pichet is one of the best-value glasses on the Höheweg.

Lunch for two with a drink lands at 70–95 CHF; a full dinner at 130–180 CHF. Schuh isn't the finest room in town, and it doesn't try to be. It is simply the one that has fed Interlaken, correctly, for 135 years.

Schuh is the team-dinner room in Interlaken. Long tables, a generous menu that works for a mixed group of meat-eaters, vegetarians and a Swiss regional, fair pricing, and a room with enough energy that a corporate eight-top doesn't feel like a boardroom. Book the terrace in summer; the Höhematte sunsets do the rest.