City file · Switzerland

Geneva.

Lake swims, serious lunches, neighbourhood bars and the places people here actually send to friends.
24 places · 24 HoodTips · 1 tipsters
Geneva city filePlaces, properly filed.

Places worth knowing.

24 places

Geneva

Tanuki

Genuinely some of the best sushi in Geneva. A Japanese couple runs it — he makes the sushi, she handles the rest. Takeout only. When they run out of something, that's it for the day. Get a nice bottle of sake. Take a platter home. A+ sushi evening. The wasabi is homemade, which makes a larger difference than you'd expect — completely different from the stuff in little plastic sachets. The fish is good. The rice is good. The whole thing is quiet and honest.

Geneva

The best place to actually sit in Lavaux and drink wine.

Lavaux is one of the most beautiful wine regions in the world. UNESCO-listed since 2007. A belt of terraced vineyards along the north shore of Lake Geneva, first planted by Benedictine monks in the 12th century. Vines dropping into the water. French Alps across.The problem with Lavaux is finding somewhere to actually sit and drink it. Leave cash in the box. Take a bottle. Sit on the patio with the lake below you and the Alps across the water. An A+ way to spend an afternoon. Domaine Saint-Amour is the answer. Take the train, walk up through the vines. Small caveau, stone patio, the wine made on the slope behind you. On Sundays the rest of Switzerland is closed. The door here is still open. Fridge stocked. Honour system.
More places in Geneva →

Guides to Geneva.

Longer collections of places worth knowing.

6 placesWhere to get a cheeky beer after workA walk down the hill from the UN to the river, with six worthwhile stops.

5 placesWhere to swim in and around GenevaFive spots, from the Pâquis to a bar you climb out of the Rhône into.

Latest HoodTips.

Every recommendation keeps its own author and permanent link.

Watch · GenevaJaeger-Le CoultreThe store is full of the most beautiful watches you'll ever see. If you're in Geneva and want to buy a serious Swiss watch — and actually leave with it — this is the place to go. Walk in, buy the watch, leave with it on your wrist. In Geneva that's rarer than you'd think.

By Dave

Restaurant · GenevaEn FaimExcellent Mediterranean-style lunch spot. The food is fresh, properly made, and the kind of thing that's surprisingly hard to find well-executed in this part of the city. Good hummus, solid salads, a chicken wrap that actually works. Not Sabich Tchernichovsky. But for Geneva — still nice.

By Dave

Tip · GenevaWant a Nomos in Geneva? There is exactly one shop.Rue Etienne-Dumont sits just below the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre at the eastern edge of the Old Town. Cobblestones, arched ground floors, wrought-iron balconies, the kind of quiet you don't get on the lakefront. Combine the visit with a wander up to the cathedral and a coffee on Place du Bourg-de-Four — the prettiest square in Geneva and a two-minute walk away. A German watch, in the global capital of Swiss watches. Slightly subversive. That's part of the fun.

By Dave

Café · Juice · GenevaJoe & The JuiceGeneva just got a Joe & The Juice. The people are lining up. This city is ripe for expansion — the people are hungry. Praying we get Chipotle next. Praying we get Chipotle next.

By Dave

Restaurant · NationsEmpanadas FactoryThe area surrounding the United Nations in Geneva is shockingly devoid of good food. Empanadas Factory is an exception. Grab empanadas take away if you're in a rush. But if you have 25 francs and want to sit down and eat something properly, get the Beef Boliviano — steak and egg on rice with fries, the whole thing. Décor is full Saved by the Bell. It works. Ask for the sauce picante. They make it in house.

By Dave

Bar · GenevaBongo JoeIt started as a record shop — still is one, technically — and the outside terrace just became the main event. The music is good. The vibe is unpretentious. Nobody is performing anything. Geneva can feel like a city where everyone is busy being correct about something; Bongo Joe is the exception. One of the only places in this city that feels genuinely relaxed.

By Dave

Tip · GenevaBijouterie GrégoireThe German watchmaker's work is displayed here as it deserves to be: on clean timber blocks, in a room quiet enough to actually think. The selection covers the full range — from the pared-back Tangente and its classically Bauhaus face, to the Autobahn Neomatik, which manages to make an energy-reserve display look genuinely elegant. Prices visible, no pressure implied. NOMOS watches in a Vieille Ville stone building. Ring the bell. Geneva tip by @paddy.

By Dave

Tip · GenevaMusée d'Art et d'HistoireThe weaponry rooms are also genuinely interesting. The gun cabinet looks like something from a Wes Anderson film. The sword display is properly medieval — the kind of thing you don't expect to just be standing in front of, free, on a Tuesday. The café downstairs is the kind of place you'd go to specifically if you knew about it. Most people don't.

By Dave

Swimming · GenevaBains des PâquisThe Bains des Pâquis is a Geneva institution in the truest sense — not a tourist trap dressed up as one, but the real thing. A floating bathing complex on the lake, opened in 1932, with a proper seventies vintage feel that's completely authentic. The diving board. The wooden jetties. The hammam that's been running for decades. The bar with cold rosé and a Greek salad that is, genuinely, a good Greek salad. You jump in, surface, and there are the French Alps. Geneva keeps catching you off-guard.

By Dave