Marküs earns early Michelin star talk in Zurich

Marküs, chef Markus Stöckle's new tasting-menu restaurant in Zurich's old town, has been open two weeks and critics are already discussing Michelin stars.

The restaurant opened on September 8, 2026, at Glockengasse 7 in Kreis 1, inside a building dating to 1260 that previously housed the historic tavern Kaiser's Reblaube. Milan studio Dragó redesigned the ground floor with red lacquered walls and black trim; upstairs, the 13th-century Goethe-Stübli, where the writer reportedly once stayed, is due to reopen later this year as a second dining room.

Stöckle developed Marküs with his partner Elif Oskan, authorized signatory of the new company behind it. The two also built Gül Restoran together and run Studio ELMA, a platform spanning gastronomy, design and art; AMUSE detailed the build-out when Marküs opened on the site of the old tavern.

Two weeks in, Marküs is already arguing its case for stars.

Marküs by the numbers

The tasting menu runs to twelve courses at 266 Swiss francs, including water and VAT, with a vegetarian version available. Dinner service currently runs Tuesday to Saturday; an à la carte lunch was added from September 23.

There is no terrace and the dining room is tight, a deliberate contrast to the price. Guests pay close to what they would a few streets away at the Hotel Widder's two-Michelin-star kitchen, a comparison Stöckle has not shied away from.

From Rosi to star talk

Stöckle trained under Heston Blumenthal at The Fat Duck in England before running Rosi for seven years. The restaurant held 17 GaultMillau points and Stöckle was named the guide's 2024 Rising Star before he closed it in December 2025, a decision he described as not financial but made to clear space for a new project.

NZZ Bellevue critic Wolfgang Fassbender rated the kitchen and the hospitality both 8 out of 10 after Marküs's first weeks, and singled out a char fish jelly finished with cream as a dish that "would already be worth those two stars." He called a quail consommé with dumpling "easily worth one," putting the early cooking in the same conversation as this year's closely watched Michelin star debuts elsewhere.

Not every course landed at that level, in his account: Lake Zurich whitefish, a reworked Älplermagronen topped with Argentine black truffle, and a Kaiserschmarrn dessert drew what he called small doubts. A plum-schnapps glace, by contrast, he rated world class.

The kitchen draws on tsukemono pickles and a daylily kimchi alongside regional Swiss produce, artisanal dairy and in-house fermentation, a direction shaped by an ongoing collaboration with ETH Zurich researchers.

Michelin's next Swiss selection is still months away. For now, the only verdict on Marküs belongs to the critics who ate there first.