The best bars and cafés Geneva

Plug into 220 volts early in the morning for an energetic, dynamic day! Breakfast at Café Willi's is definitely the place to get back on track: live music, pepsy and arty decor, bright and modern furniture. It's ideal for a no-fuss meal or a good salad at lunchtime. We especially recommend it for its bar and breakfast options. A simple, pleasant place, with attentive, meticulous service, a stone's throw from the station and close to the tourist office.

A trendy bar, very decorative! Street art, a bit crazy, pop art and colored walls define the very trendy atmosphere of this bar known for its conviviality and the good tapas served in the evening. If your day did not go very well, well here, between the staff and the decoration, your morale will be boosted to spend an excellent moment. For more intimacy, a small room at the back allows you to taste quietly the good home-made dishes of the chef and especially the home-made desserts to fall on the ground! In the evening, it is relaxation and good atmosphere.

A lounge concept, a crazy atmosphere as soon as the DJ makes an appearance, a decor that travels between the armchairs of the fifties and the 1980's faceted ball, with a continuous projection of black and white films on the wall and a colourful clientele of students from all faculties. We love the relaxed atmosphere, the vintage furniture, the artwork style washrooms, the Sunday brunch and the pink and green walls. And if there's one culinary specialty here, it's burgers, whose meat comes from the famous Molard butcher shop.

On the first floor of the Maison des Arts du Grütli, a cultural center, the café offers a pleasant break after a good film or concert at nearby Victoria Hal. In summer, you can lunch or dine on the pleasant terrace, and in winter, the restaurant's two-storey room is well worth a visit, as it serves as an exhibition space for current artists. You can see their works on the wall or hanging from the ceiling. The menu features highly creative vegan and vegetarian world cuisine, as well as traditional dishes. Good and original dishes to try.

Founded in 1921, the Remor is recognizable by its retro Belle Époque façade adorned with 1930s Art Deco. An almost "mythical" café, the Remor is a true Geneva institution, and a meeting place for many prominent personalities. The establishment attracts the whole of Geneva. On the menu, you can choose from daily specials inspired by Western and Asian gastronomy, as well as hamburgers, pizzas, hot pies, soups and salads. The atmosphere is authentic. Reservations recommended.

For more than 100 years, we have been perpetuating our know-how with respect for tradition and quality. Next to the Place de la Navigation, La Vouivre is an unusual and original address that is worth the detour whatever the time of the day. Come to the scene and immerse yourself from the place to the dreamlike and theatrical atmosphere. The sung classical music or bedroom accompanies you throughout your tasting. Veils, chandeliers, mirrors gallery and antique furniture are aesthetics with the inspiration of the owner. We would like to see you in the heart of Vienna with gilt, baroque decor, comfortable seating chairs, old chandeliers, wooden tables, antique dishes. Early in the morning, a crowd of people who are used to it press for the famous black chocolate or milk bread, even from the left bank to search for it! Homemade bakery and homemade confectionery are more flavourful than others! The merit of a real pastry and artisan chocolate is to be seen when we open up many hot spots… If there is still, not to miss the delicious cereal bread, the cookie ginger or thé tea, the almond-crispy bird nests and the onctueuses ice. Beautiful variety of well-stocked shrimp and avocat sandwiches. Several varieties of bread are on sale: cereals, dried tomatoes, olives, corn…. But the charm of the place is also this beautiful mix of clients: all generations, social classes and nationalities are represented. It is an indispensable address, full of flavours with a soul to visit in Geneva.

Relaxed but far from being "Olé Olé" and rather well kept with a trendy mixed clientele. It's a very pleasant place for groups of friends who come to relax in an afterwork atmosphere. In a loft-style space with high ceilings that reveal the ventilation ducts, the atmosphere is relaxed and conducive to tapas. The speciality is therefore to share copious plates with the flavours of the world. In the summer, in front of the restaurant's three glass arches, you can enjoy a mojito.

The Britannia is one of the first pubs to have seen the light of day in Geneva, established in the city since 1972. A pub in pure British style. Beers from all over the world, 50 bottled beers and a choice of 11 draught beers. The pub also offers a catering service to accompany the good match evenings. The long bar and upholstered seating will appeal to UK fans. 60 inch screens are placed all over the walls of the pub to follow in the crazy atmosphere, the matches and sport in general.

An unusual place on the river. La Barje is the quintessence of alternative Geneva: eco, socio, ethical. A caravan on the water's edge, an enchanting setting, local products and waste recycling, ethical drinks and concerts several nights a week. All this on deckchairs for a dreamlike flight in the middle of the city. A bit offbeat for an escape from the urban frenzy. There is the same concept, La Chaloupe à Vapeur, in front of the Museum of Sciences and the Garden of Nations.

The Marchand de Sable is well known for its atmosphere, especially on weekends. It has become a trendy bistro and offers themed evenings such as "Foie Gras Tasting and Craft Beers" or "Aperitif Tasting and Hunting in the Merchant Style". Trendy animations, and modern menu ideal for an aperitif dinner. It's a place to go with friends after a hard day's work. You'll get a feel for the local atmosphere and the joie de vivre of the people of Carouge. Take the opportunity to taste a local beer.

One of Geneva's top spots for creative cocktails. L'Apothicaire Cocktail Club in Les Eaux-Vives promises drinks that are spicy, sweet, smooth and, above all, colorful. Quentin Beurgaud and his team are passionate about delighting cocktail lovers with their artfully prepared cocktails. They'll suggest the cocktail that best suits your palate. Delicious gin with cardamom..

A slightly offbeat place that looks like a garage renovated with retro furniture. At Yvette de Marseille, there is a real air of the south with this terrace shaded in the summer and the bar with a nice choice of pastis, a decoration with old frames and furnished with old benches, chairs and bistro tables. It is one of the fashionable places in Geneva where you can meet in the evening with friends for a drink around a small menu of 8 tapas and 2 desserts (tarte tatin). You can taste hummus with Lebanese bread, nachos with guacamole or shrimp skewers. Warm welcome, only the southern accent and cicadas are missing on sunny days. An address full of life in good weather.

Cocktails of all colors, from all corners of the world, like caipirinhas, mojitos, served as they are or revisited; with or without alcohol, based on fruits and vegetables, the alcoholic ones guaranteed without hairache the next day - it's proven that it's not bullshit, the alcohol is quality. Some answer to the venerable name of "monkey balls": quite a program. To soak it all up, the bar - also a restaurant - offers a wide range of meat, fish or vegetarian burgers. Theme nights.

A lot of people are wondering about this pink elephant that manages to fit inside a can. Is it a delusion or simply a link with Délirium beer? It's up to you to find out. This student bar is always busy. Young people come here to find a relaxed atmosphere where a few dishes are also served, such as meats on the slate and tartars (beef and horse) at modest prices. The house specialty is the zekilla, exclusive to this bar.

Le Scandale is a real loft with floors revisited industrial pop. This bar-restaurant is very popular for lunches, dinners and above all, wild aperitifs. The red and white checked tablecloths give an atypical and trendy atmosphere to the place. You will find a young and stylish population in a festive and relaxed atmosphere. In the basement, a dance-floor welcomes you. Pizza, pasta and tapas make you want to eat, as does the choice of wine. In the evening, electro music enlivens the room dedicated to the dance floor.

A historic tower that houses a nouvelle cuisine style restaurant. One can say that the entrance to the city is well guarded! Built in old stones and on five floors, its ascent will make you discover small universes favourable to the tasting of wines of the canton. The Molard Tower offers a new concept: it originated in China with the baozi, the famous and delicious steamed bun, to give birth to the bao burger. Based on rice flour and tapioca, we create bao burgers, meat or vegetarian.

Set sail for the Navy for a culinary voyage of Swiss and Italian inspiration. In the heart of the old town and adjacent to the Syracuse pizzeria, the Navy-Syracuse is the anchorage of many Genevans. It is even a real institution! We suggest a trip to the land of local gastronomy. Dishes to be savoured on land, but in an all-wooden, old-rigged style decoration created in the 1950s. Here, we invite you to cast off for a nice time! It's cosy, convivial and comfortable.

A modern-day guinguette spirit, ideally installed on the left bank of the Rhône in fine weather. Floral ornaments are omnipresent, and you can sit back and contemplate the lake in this urban setting. It's the place to be for afterworks. The ephemeral long bar offers a range of snacks, including sandwiches and salads , and tastings of Geneva wines. The atmosphere is very peaceful, without being stuffy. It's a very pleasant spot on the riverbank, and very popular in summer for aperitifs!

The Starling Geneva hotel's C bar & lounge is a very designer place to start or extend the evening over a drink while enjoying Fabrizzini 's, a speciality of the chef Fabrizio Domilici, which accompany the inventive cocktails with or without alcohol offered at the bar. In a subdued atmosphere with a refined design, you are in an elegant and spacious universe, ideal for sharing an aperitif before sitting down to eat. The place can be entirely privatized for events. Free transfer service to the airport until 11:45 pm.

A bit offbeat and mysterious, if you fall for crazy places, the Kraken Bar will fill you with the mythological spirit it contains. Originally, the Kraken is a fantastic creature from medieval Scandinavian legends who seized the hulls of ships to capsize them, sinking the sailors. In Plainpalais, there is nothing so frightening. The bar offers a warm and friendly atmosphere in a subdued atmosphere. Between libraries, old ornate books and decorative skulls.

This is the place of predilection for an artistic and gastronomic evening. The terrace of the 3 Glasses is unmistakable summer and winter with its shrubs and its bright red blinds. Les Trois Verres, as its name suggests, is an oenotheque where we suggest you close your eyes and travel through all the regions of Italian wines. A wide choice of wine bottles, as well as wines by the glass and also wine discoveries. An address of undeniable quality to combine aperitif tasting and nibbling some tapas.

Before or after a gourmet evening in one of the countless restaurants on the rue de l'Ecole de Médecine, the Café du Bout d'la Rue will whet your appetite and perhaps continue the party in one of the nearby nightclubs such as La Gravière or La Parfumerie. This bar with a sober and classy decoration, with black walls where the multiple names of shots and beers are written, is very popular with students (very close universities). Your taste buds will be in effervescence to identify all the ingredients.

Le Temps d'une Pause combines all the pleasures for gourmet readers and gourmands alike! Immersed in a decor of books, you can quietly enjoy your cappuccino while devouring the lines of your novel...

Located in the heart of the Pâquis, the Boléro bar is unique. Its baroque decoration with bright colors, its paintings of mythical American actresses such as Marylin Monroe or Audrey Hepburn or the cool and lively atmosphere make this place an ideal and friendly place to go for a drink on the terrace in the summer, a beer with friends or the very good and beautiful cocktails that make the reputation of the house. The establishment offers good cigars. Cocktails certainly enticing, but also cigars to be discovered.

We had spotted it at its beginnings and it has become a royal place for those who love conviviality and Italian delicacy. In addition to finding all the equipment to relive at home the intensity of the coffee from its Neapolitan roaster, you will enjoy on the spot cappuccinos, espressos and even a homemade Italian-style catering of course (minestrone, parmigiana...). It has also become the den of good after-works with the possibility of sipping very good cocktails at very convenient prices for the city.

A wine bar in a 200 year old building! The main thing is not to have a profusion of choice but a selection of very good quality wines. Here, the focus is on the origin and wines of well-known producers. Particular attention is given to organic farming. With your tasting of savoury sandwiches, allow yourself a moment of pure red delight of this sweet nectar.

In the heart of Carouge, an enviable place overlooking the market. Al Mercato makes you want to meet and share an aperitif. It is also an ideal place to taste fresh pasta. When the weather is fine, the terrace is ideal for meeting and chatting.

We can organize aperitifs well in advance or just meet at the Imprévu for more spontaneity! It's a nice place to share tapas and delicious cocktails while chatting quietly.

The BDG is a friendly, welcoming place to have an aperitif, dinner with music, listen to live music or dance. Several animations and evenings are organised at the weekends around a wide variety of musical styles. Thus, depending on the evening, you will go to the BDG for funk, soul, "acid jazz," or for more latino rhythms and salsa... Thursday is blues live night because the BDG is the place where the Blues Association of Geneva (BAG) organizes concerts and jam sessions from 8:30 pm. A good sport for music lovers, between blues and jazz.

In a room intended for the offices of a company specializing in computers, a new Internet café has sprung up near Uni Dufour and Uni Bastions. Convenient! 30 min connection for 3 CHF, 5 CHF for 60 min and subscription formula. A dozen computers are available for network games or sending emails in a very friendly atmosphere. This nice space works without any real lucrative purpose, the coffee being a supplement to their real activity in engineering and sale of computer products. Fax, photocopier, black and white printer.

It is difficult to define La Fabrik 46'' and that is undoubtedly what makes its charm. This industrial space in the heart of the Les Bains district is at the same time a club, a bar and a gallery where various artistic events can take place. The guest DJs are either international DJs who have not yet come to Geneva, or local DJs who are not yet known. For each evening, VJs officiate next to the DJs. More and more contemporary art will be programmed, in the form of performances or video projections.

The atmosphere heats up and comes alive with funky-house music. Rather nice.

A concept store that will leave no one indifferent. Everyone will find the latest small accessories or designer furniture. It's hard to just come and have a drink in this huge space that houses a decoration shop and of course the Comptoir gourmand and the bar area. A heterogeneous and surprising place where you can come and have breakfast in the morning, snack all day long salad, soup, vegetable pie, or even taste a good wine at the end of the afternoon. All this in a gigantic loft that gives you lots of ideas!

In the middle of the long boulevard Saint-Georges, at the corner of avenue Sainte-Clotilde, this café has all the hallmarks of an old bistro that's been around. An atmosphere of yesteryear that plunges us into old movies. A character all of its own: the tapestry on the wall, its weathered wooden tables must have heard more than one anecdote, and its Parisian-scented bar, more than one bar joke! It smells of regulars mingling with a young, trendy clientele, and the two are a great fit. You could write a whole poem about it! Gay friendly, terrace

En route to the lands of the Caribbean and South America, the urge to dance to Latin sounds. Tropical climate on the dance-floor, with salseros rhythms for discerning revelers. A beautiful room with South American accents, sounds from Brazil, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Miami. A young, colorful, multi-ethnic clientele on the move! Mojito, piña-colada or caipirinha under the palm trees and the rules of the art, there's nothing like bathing again in this Latin atmosphere full of color and life.

The old stones of the vaulted cellar take you straight into a cosy, hushed world. This is a place to discover, so original and sympathetic is it, an atmosphere of a world country where Ganesh is king. A superb setting with the character of the past, furniture and objects straight from the neighboring boutique, L'Enfer Vert, and a sublime wooden floor that creaks under our feet. We love sharing a tapas slate and indulging in the latest trendy cocktails.

The oldest bar in the Rue de l'Ecole-de-Médecine is mainly attended by students, who are delighted to enjoy the games and comics on offer, cheap drinks and some simple food. At more than thirty years old, the place is in great shape! Quiet during the day, the young people play card games, but more hectic in the evenings and at weekends. There is a terrace in the inner courtyard which can be enjoyed during the hot summer months. The thirsty ones can also drink their coca in large cans usually intended for beer.

A tiny jewel for lovers of good Italian cuisine. The 15 tables in the small room are usually packed because the Cantina dei Vini allows lovers of good Italian wine to taste nearly 100 vintages, while enjoying the delicious antipasti from the Flavours of Italy grocery store. We love this place during the lunch break to eat a sandwich with ingredients, some more appetizing than others, such as succulent smoked San Daniele ham, mortadella, sundried tomatoes.

A simple kitchen to feel at home. With its wooden furniture, coloured paper lamps and exposed stone walls, the Café du Lys has a retro feel. During the day, you can taste the homemade syrups or one of the many teas, comfortably installed in one of the mismatched armchairs, with a slice of chocolate cake on the coffee table, while chatting with your friends. For a more hearty and healthy meal, we opt for sandwiches or vegetarian salads. A reference for tapas in Geneva.

Located in front of the University of Geneva (Uni Dufour), this establishment regularly receives a clientele of teachers or bankers for lunch. In the evening, the latter give way to a clientele that comes to dine after the shows (the Comédie de Genève is close by). You can also have breakfast there. The establishment offers Italian and French Mediterranean cuisine, without forgetting the unavoidable Geneva specialties such as longeoles or the famous perch fillets. Tables are a bit crowded.

En route to the sensuality, life and music of South America, Café Cuba is also a restaurant serving a wide range of Latin American specialties. With a caipirinha or a mojito in hand, you can enjoy tacos, quesadillas and tapas on the red-topped tables, in the sofa area or on the huge, colorful terrace, which gets crowded as soon as summer arrives. On Saturday evenings inside, tables and chairs are pushed aside to make way for the tropical dance floor and its unique atmosphere.

A place you can't miss, not only because it's located in the center of the Place du Bourg-de-Four in the old town, but above all because it's an institution. Here, regulars, Sunday or market-day strollers and tourists stop for a moment on the terrace to catch a glimpse of Geneva life. Clémence refers to the cathedral's largest bell, which can be heard ringing in the distance. There's always a lively atmosphere on the square, with street performers on hand to entertain you over your smoothly frothed cappuccino.

A real period bistro, timeless! The old posters, the newspaper clippings on the ceiling, the caricature paintings on the walls are the witnesses of a popular atmosphere and a frequentation by regulars for years. It is the café-restaurant where it is nice to meet for a drink accompanied by a cold plate or a brasserie dish, without forgetting to enjoy the home-made röstis. A little outside the place du Bourg-de-Four, it offers the advantages of it, the peace and quiet. Nice terrace in summer.

A real buddy bar, so much so that sometimes it's hard to tell the waiters from the customers. Relaxed atmosphere guaranteed.

A place that bears its name well since it is the meeting place of many journalists and novelists. This illustrious café is located in the Jonction district. With its original pointed-edge shape, you can feel the warm atmosphere behind its bay windows and you'll be happy to lean over to the magnificent rounded bar to enjoy a beer and some local tapas. A place that never fails to fill up, with a pleasant terrace on summer evenings. There is also plenty to eat with a large menu, or for a snack at the beginning or end of the evening.

An old name for a wine bar with "new" wine nuggets. Crus by the glass and local bites delight the many customers of this small bar in the Plainpalais district. In a warm and friendly setting, this former butcher's shop with a paved floor and decorated with earthenware is divided into two small rooms, one of which houses the bar and the other an intimate space that invites you to meet people. In the summer, a charming teak terrace with flowers overlooking the Place des Augustins pleasantly extends the bar. The service is relaxed.

The concept of Red and White can be summed up as the combination of red wines with southern flavours, or dry or sweet white wines accompanied by creamy tapas and gastronomic buffets. This chic and creative wine bar perfectly unites the know-how of Eric the chef and the flawless nose of Alain, a sommelier emeritus. Their passion is conveyed in their choice to enhance the terroir through simple and tasty dishes. You will enjoy a rib of beef or a slate of home-made tapas, seasonal products from the local terroir.

Coffee in all its forms but not only. Starbucks is also a warm setting where you can sit down all afternoon and take the time to taste cappuccinos, mocha late, frappucino and other specialties. Here, you can choose everything: capacity, coffee, milk, whipped cream, etc. It's sometimes really hard to make up your mind! The pastries are very good too, and recently you can even order a salad or a sandwich and, of course, everything is to take away. There are several addresses in Geneva, such as rue du Mont Blanc.