| Location: | Bergrestaurant Hammetschwand |
| Website: | https://burgenstockresort.com/en/dining/baergbeizli-hammetschwand |
| Address: | Bürgenstock, 6363 Ennetbürgen, Switzerland |
| Status: | Open (last checked on 14 August 2025) |
| Eaten: | "Hammetschwand Plättli," two cans of beer (Baarer Urhell) |
Bürgenstock by the Lake Lucerne offers a strange combination of an exclusive mountain resort and a surprisingly “normal” hiking location. There is a beautiful cliff path, with panoramic views over the lake, several tunnels and Europe’s highest outdoor elevator, but at the end, the path turns into a narrow and occasionally quite steep Wanderweg, culminating in a viewing point, a mountaintop pasture with a few friendly cows and Bergrestaurant Hammetschwand. Actually, if you are completely lazy (and don’t mind spending 15 Swiss francs), you can quickly reach the restaurant with the aforementioned elevator, but that’s cheating.
For some unexplainable reason, many Swiss mountaintop restaurants are self-service only, and Hammetschwand is not an exception. True to Swiss traditions (and being close to Bürgenstock), it is also ridiculously expensive, offering cans of beer for 6 francs and a medium-sized, very simple Brettljause for 24.50 francs. At the same time, as I am starting to realize, even the simplest Swiss Brettljausen carry a certain style that makes it hard to dismiss them. In this case, the hams were actually tasty and the cheeses were gratifyingly strong, while the bread was so fresh and good that I would not have minded eating it alone and nothing else.
Despite Hammetschwand’s closeness to the resort, I doubt that many rich and famous actually reach it, and if they do, the choice of dishes on offer is quite certain to turn them away. If you are not rich and famous, however, and are only visiting Bürgerstock for its nature and hiking opportunities, this self-service eatery is quite OK. Compared to some bland Brettljausen I had had in Austria, Hammetschwand’s one is not unenjoyable.