The Matterhorn Swiss Restaurant

This was my first visit to Matterhorn. My only comparison is to La Fondue in Saratoga, which I do think had better fondues overall. However, the lady who is one of the Matterhorn owners was just delightful and I like the décor of Matterhorn better than that of La Fondue. The main thing I didn’t care for with Matterhorn’s fondue was the selection of foods to dip in the cheese. There were only apples, potatoes, sausages, and raw mushrooms (which you had to purchase separately). The mushrooms would have been much better if they were served sautéed. The cheese fondue was good though as was the chocolate fondue we had for dessert. But again, the «dipables» were just not as good as those offered at La Fondue. Parking in the area of Matterhorn is quite scarce, so plan accordingly! The Matterhorn is a nice place to have some bubbling warm fondue on a rainy SF day though.

Called in to take an order to go and when I called in, I politely asked the woman who answered if I could place an order and she had no idea what I was talking about, she said they don’t do takeout but it clearly says so on Unilocal.I then calmly told her that I wanted to make an order and she responded exactly with «this is MATTERHORN RESTAURANT WE DONT DO TO GO, who the hell is sending you here?!» That is NEVER how you respond to a customer. Rude staff and will never order from here again.

Wow! What a great evening here! Being from Europe myself, I’ve certainly had my share of fondue in France and the Matterhorn was up there with some of the best I’ve had. I was welcomed by a lovely lady– perhaps the owner? And sat at the table while I waited for my friends. The interior of the restaurant was fabulous! Whole experience was lovely and the price was reasonable too around $ 48 pp and spent the whole evening there. A lovely gem to escape the city! Highly recommend!

This place is fun, fast, and delicious. We’ve been here several times and each time have tried a new type of cheese fondue — they are all good. It’s hard to pick a favorite but I think it is the «Oh La La.» We always get it with the Alpine delight because, who doesn’t want to have delicious meats with their bread and cheese. They have an excellent wine selection and the waitress can easily pair your tastes with what you are eating. I love the kitschy décor and music, it definitely makes it feel as if you’ve been transported to Switzerland, especially after walking off of Van Ness. It’s not cheap, but it is a hearty meal, I have never had room for the Chocolate Fondue, I keep hoping maybe one day!!!

The owner here is super nice and personable. I loved the cheese flavor, but it is hard to make an entire dinner out of cheese and bread and apples. Next time I think I will try some of their meats. Cute ambiance, great for a date night. Planning to come back again !

Wonderful food, great service, and fun and authentic atmosphere! I would definitely return with a group of friends for dinner.

I’m sure I’ve had fondue before, but I’m certain I’ve never experienced fondue before. Bridget is a great host. She’s friendly and helpful and just a joy to visit with. Then there’s the food. It was soooo good. We had the smoky cheese and beef with sausage and potatoes added. I really loved the kiwi and pineapple with lingonberry sauce. It was an all-​around great experience. Well worth every penny. Thanks, Bridget!

Really lousy joint with arrogant owners and immense prices. Stay away from them

Came here for my friend’s birthday. This restaurant is such a jewel. The décor is stunning: beautiful wood everything that looked like it was freshly polished. The shriveled head-​looking mask above the bar is so incongruent it’s charming in a creepy way.
We were a bit confused by the menu, but basically you can order a 1x or 2x portion of anything no matter how many people you have dining. The server patiently explained this to us and suggested that we get 1 cheese portion, 2 meat portion and 1 dessert portion for 3 people. It was a feast, and we pretty much cleaned up.
We ordered the traditional fondue cheese course with additional dipping items. It came with plenty of standard items, too. Then we ordered the beef fondue with red wine broth recommended to us by our super helpful server. Without her advice, we probably would have ordered an oil fondue because that’s what I’ve had in the past at other fondue joints. I have to say that broth is DEFINITELY the way to go. The meat comes out super tender and juicy. Obviously the chocolate fondue was amazing. Dipping things into warm chocolate sauce and eating it is just a purely pleasurable life experience.
Definitely recommend this place for special occasions.

So good!!! I took my boyfriend (he’s Swiss) here for his birthday today. We l9ve it! We’ve been to other places and this is by far the best!!! The crème brûlée dessert was amazing!!!

Hands down best restaurant in SF. The Stiegel is great. Decent wine selection. Sexy European waitresses. The food is good but the real treat is the ambience. I try to make it there once a month for special occasions. Just wish they took reservations past 8:30.

The 4 of us came for dinner and the food was decent, not sure why it makes Zagat’s ratings excepting that it is a very unique restaurant which serves fondue. Just like Café’ Jacqueline serves only souffles in the City.
From the outside, the restaurant looks like it’s in a hotel/​motel building. You go down a fairly long hallway before you reach the front door of the restaurant.
Service was slow, there were 4 wait staff who were pleasant but not overly warm.
The restaurant was rather dark on the inside.
We ordered the classic cheese fondue which only came with cubes of bread. We also got the beef fondue with vegetable broth (inside was carrot, zucchini slices) and it came with browned/​roasted potato chunks on the side. There were other small sides, similar to what you’d get at Korean restaurants: tiny pickles, artichoke hearts, pineapples, kiwi, salty slices of olives, etc. A small dinner salad came with the fondues. The chicken breast chunks would take a long time too cook in the fondue pot. The slices of beef came piled high and sculpted like a mountain (Matterhorn! The couple next to us commented on theirs).
It was fun to be cooking your food which is comparable to cooking your own food at hibachi, Korean restaurants or Chinese hot pot places. Prices were expensive for the amount of food you get. They only have 2 beers on draft: blonde and dark, $ 6.50 each which were pretty good.
We ended the meal with a choc fondue for 2, shared by 4. It took a long time for them to bring the dessert after our main courses. The melted choc was very good but there was very little fruit, tiny servings of pineapple, tart kiwi, 2 halved strawberries, some grapes, cantaloupe. «Not a value meal» per Jr. Unilocalers.
A good restaurant to try but everyone agreed not worth a return trip unless you really need to eat fondue.

I have such a soft spot for this place. It’s great for groups. It’s great for dates or family dinners — fondue is a wonderful distraction when you run out of things to talk about.
We’ve ordered a few of the cheese fondues and the Bacchus (wine broth) and have never been disappointed. I love all the little dipping sauces and condiments because you can make so many flavor combinations.
They have a great wine list and can provide pairing recommendations depending on what you’ve ordered (going light is always a good bet). For dessert, of course, go with the chocolate fondue.
I’m numb to SF prices, so it’s always a pleasant shock when we get the bill (especially given how much incredible cheese and meat we’ve eaten).
Service is excellent, the food comes quickly, and there’s not a lot of hovering. Which I appreciate, unless I’ve run out of things to talk about.

I went here for Valentine’s Day with my girlfriend. After reading the reviews on here, I assumed it would be a good pick. I was wrong.
The food was great! Don’t get me wrong. But the service definitely left something to desire.
Since it was Valentine’s Day, they only had one option on the menu. I was fine with that, but I assumed the service would benefit from the lack of options. It seemed there was really only one waitress that was serving/​explaining the food. The restaurant was only about half full, but our service was still painfully slow. The food would be brought out, no one would say anything to us, then about 10 minutes later, the waitress would come by and explain what everything was, what her suggestions were, etc. She seemed disinterested and stressed from being so overworked. Not the experience I expect when I pay over $ 200 for a meal.
The wine pairings were decent, the food was very tasty, but the service really ruined the experience for me. I usually like being left alone to enjoy my meal, but this was a bit extreme. When the food is served at a fondue place, I usually expect the waiter/​waitress to go over what everything is, tell us how to cook it, and suggest pairings with the sauces. Then, if I don’t see them until I’m almost done with the course, I don’t mind. What I didn’t like about my experience here is with all of the downtime that came in the middle of setting up/​cleaning up in between courses.
Overall, I definitely wouldn’t suggest coming here. The food is good, the service is terrible, and it is definitely not worth the price. This meal was supposed to be the highlight of the evening, and instead was something we were both anxious to move on from.

An authentic (non-​pretentious) Swiss restaurant with great fondue selection!
The French publicized the fondue but it originated in Switzerland. People might poke fun at 80’s chalet-​like deco but they stay true to their root.
Pretty vast cheese fondue selection with optional sides to add on. For cheese fondue you can pick sides like cured meat (Alpine something), apples, mushrooms, sausages on top of bread to dip in the liquid deliciousness. Which is absolutely decadent!
They also have meat fondues where you cook the raw meats in chicken broth (think of Chinese hot pot) or hot oil. We didn’t try this but it’s on our next trip.
We also tried the chocolate fondue and some Swiss pinot noir. I never knew Switzerland made wine and it was an easy pair without pretense.
Ok, I need to go to the gym now to workout all the cheese and chocolate i just consumed…

We thought it was great — good food, fair price for the quality & quantity. We thought the décor was cheese but cute.
We had the «Original» fondue + charcuterie, then Apple strudel and Chocolate mousse. Everything was pretty tasty — from the mixed salad appetizer, to the bread, the delicious cured meats and cheese. The desserts were also very good.
I’m sad we waited so long to try this place. We basically always check Unilocal reviews and we tend to skip on places with less than 4 stars. Sadly, lots of people probably just don’t know what to expect and tend to down vote this restaurant.
Shout out to the weirdo who left the previous one star review… They also told us they preferred Amex over our Chase sapphire… but seriously — whatever! If you carry multiple cards, what do you care?

Tasty cheese in a traditional-​esque setting on an unassuming location on Van Ness.
I really enjoyed the quiet setting, and a change from all of the hipster restaurants that all look the same. This place has traditional wooden paneling and a sense of presence.
You can choose from a variety of cheese fondues — or an oil fondue for dipping meat. We got a few different cheese ones and they were both great.
Gluten-​free notes: You’ll have a great time there. They were able to do cheese fondue without flour, and were able to provide vegetables and meat (instead of bread) to use to eat the cheese.

Quaint little place off of Van Ness. The first thing you notice as you walk into the actual restaurant (in the front door and down the hallway) is this excellent woodwork that the owner had brought over from Europe. It must have cost a fortune but is just so perfect. (If you’ve ever been to Chicago’s Berghoff you know what I’m talking about.)
This place is about fondue. You must order it. They give you mounds of food, and we loved the thinly sliced steak!!! Salads were what they are, filler, but you don’t need much as you get tons of food. We also did cheese fondue which was tasty.
I’m giving this place five stars because I’m giving the service a little bit of «Swiss Curve.» In my experience, service in Switzerland is not quite as good as it is in the US, and Matterhorn is not quite a five star in service in the US but would be in Switzerland. Water glasses went empty a couple of times during the meal and empty beer glasses were slow to be offered a refill
Valet parking is rather slow, as I think the poor valet must be running for blocks to go park the cars. Poor guy.

Thoroughly enjoyed our dining experience in my party of four on a Tuesday night. We had a pleasant server who took the time to go over the menu, make suggestions, and chat with us. We ordered an excellent French white wine, and the Original cheese fondue (emmenthal + gruyère) and the Fondue Bacchus (red wine broth).
Delicious salad to start, with oranges and pomegranate seeds. The sides were plentiful and quite varied – I was pleasantly surprised to see kiwi and pineapple added to the expected apples, as well as olives, artichokes, onions, and I can’t remember what else. Also, the meat came with a plate of sauces, from mustard to lingonberry.
We finished with the chocolate fondue, once again including an expected fruit in the cantaloupe choice, and after such a rich dinner, one order was enough for the four of us. We were satiated without feeling as if we were going to burst.
Once again, I’m glad I didn’t take heed to the negative reviews as our experience was on the opposite end of the spectrum. I refuse to waste money at the bland Melting Pot, instead preferring restaurants like this. The only downfall of this place is the price – a bit steep. But for this quality, I would gladly come back.

Situated in a dining room within an office /​apartment building, sits The Matterhorn. It’s unassuming at first.
With a Swiss buddy in tow, we nom nom’d away on these super authentic, delicious, sharp, moldy cheeses co-​mingling with wines direct from Helvetia!
Dear friends, this is *REAL* Fongdü — a winter delicacy shared during the frigid months of winter all along the Swiss towns and villages. As they say, ”Fondue isch guet und git e gueti Luune!” (trs. Fondue is good and gives a good mood). Eating at The Matterhorn reminded me that is ever so true. Though seemingly light, it’s a hearty stew-​like meal with copious amounts of bread. It makes your tongue and tummy very happy! It’s a great meal for conversation. You can also choose sausages, mushrooms, apples and/​or potatoes for dipping. It arrives piping hot and aromatic. A unique way to warm up on a chilly night. A scrumptious salad with pomegranate seeds comes for each patron prior to the fondue.
The Matterhorn is the creation of Swiss hoteliers who decided to try their luck in San Francisco — what they developed was a chic setting, brimming with Alpine goodness and all that makes Switzerland what it is. It feels like a ski lodge. Inviting, warm — and decorated with historical images of the SF Gold Rush pioneer Johann August Sutter, who was apparently, of Swiss origin — I learned that here — and all the flags of the regions of Switzerland are displayed here. Be sure to have a look at the Canton Valais Tschäggätta wooden devil masks above the bar! And don’t you dare forget to look up at the ceiling! (the wood was actually imported from Switzerland!)
Staff & service is smart, prompt, efficient and thorough.
Pro-​tip # 1: Make sure to wish your table mate (s): ”En guete!”
Pro-​tip # 2: Real fondue won’t be much like The Melting Pot.
Pro-​tip # 3: Make a reservation!
Pro-​tip # 4: Try the «Half and Half» which is a blend of Fribourg Vacherin and Gruyère cheeses and the «Oh la la» made of Camembert and Raclette!
Pro-​tip # 5: All of these fondues contain white wine, garlic and spices — be careful if you or your guests have certain allergies!
Pro-​tip # 6: It’s $ 39.50 for 2 people w/​full fondue service!
Pro-​tip # 7: There’s a private à la carte menu that must be specifically requested prior to your reservation — it includes Wienerschnitzel for $ 20.50, Veal Cordon Bleu for $ 22.50, Calves Liver for $ 17.50 and Geschnaetzeltes for $ 21.50.
Pro-​tip # 8: A maximum of 3 credit cards can be used at a table when paying!
Pro-​tip # 9: They don’t take Chase Visa/​Master Preferred Cards!
Pro-​tip # 10: If you’re looking for fondue off the beaten path, they offer ”Fondue Chinoise” which is aged beef in vegetable broth, ”Fondue Bacchus” — beef in red wine broth, ”Fondue Bourguignonne” which includes cubes of aged beef to cook in oil, those are served with various garnishes like Tiger prawns, Scallops, Pork or Chicken depending on your preference. These non-​traditional fondues are $ 48 for 2 people.
Pro-​tip # 11: The dessert fondues ($ 18 for 2, $ 8 for extra persons thereafter) are *DELICIOUS* too! Or you can go for Apfelstrudel with Vanilla, Chocolate Mousse Cake, Crème brûlée, Handcrafted Swiss Gourmet Chocolates, Pear «belle Helene» or a Limoncello Float (all $ 8).
Come here, smile, eat well.
O
\ | /​
/|\