Pub quiz nights in Zurich: where to play

Ask a Swiss local about a "pub quiz" in Zurich and you'll likely get a blank look. Search in German and you'll find "Kneipenquiz" or "Quiz Abend" instead, and most of those are aimed at locals playing in Swiss German. The English-language pub quiz scene here is really an expat and international thing, built around the city's Irish pubs and English-run bars rather than something most Zurchers grew up with. That's not a knock on it: with so many international residents, students and people who've moved for work, there's a genuine, active circuit of English quiz nights running week to week. Below are the ones we could actually verify, mostly from the venues' own websites, along with what we found and where we found it.

A quick note before you head out: quiz nights are one of the more fragile fixtures in hospitality. Hosts move on, venues change hands, and a night that's run every Monday for years can quietly stop without the website ever being updated to reflect it. We checked each of the following against the venue's own site as of publishing, but that's a snapshot, not a guarantee. Reserve ahead where a venue says to, and it's always worth a quick call or a look at the pub's Instagram before you commit an evening to a quiz, especially if you're travelling across the city for it.

Kennedy's Irish Pub, Langstrasse

Kennedy's, just off the main train station in Kreis 4, runs its quiz every Monday at 20:00. It's free to enter and there are prizes for the winning team, but the catch is popularity: the pub's own site warns that the quiz "fills up every single week" and asks for reservations around two weeks in advance. If you're not that organised, same-day spots are sometimes available by phone, but don't count on it. It's a proper Irish pub rather than a themed bar, which probably explains why the quiz has built such a loyal following.

Source: Kennedy's, events page

The Alehouse, Kreis 6

The Alehouse, near the University on Universitätstrasse, runs a free-entry quiz every Sunday at 18:30. It's a craft beer pub with a solid food menu, and the quiz leans on general knowledge rounds rather than anything too obscure, making it a reasonably forgiving one for casual teams. The venue asks people to reserve a table by email beforehand, which is worth doing since Sunday evening tables can go quickly.

Source: The Alehouse, pub quiz event

If your own local doesn't run anything like this, it's worth a mention to whoever's behind the bar: setting one up costs the venue nothing and it's an easy way to fill a quiet weeknight. Or skip the pub altogether and put one together yourself with our free quiz creator, no reservation required.

Grain Craft Bar & Restaurant, Fluntern

Grain, up near the zoo in Kreis 7, runs a Tuesday trivia night at 20:00 hosted by a regular named Simon. It's a different format to the others: multiple-choice questions answered on your own phone rather than shouted answers on paper, so bring a charged device. Teams can be up to four people, or you can play solo, and there's a prize for the winning team. The venue suggests reserving a table and eating beforehand, since the quiz itself starts at 8pm sharp.

Source: Grain, our events

Brauerei Oerlikon, Oerlikon

This one's a bit different from a standard pub quiz: it's run inside Brauerei Oerlikon's own taproom, a small working brewery in Kreis 11, on the first Monday of every month at 19:00. Groups register in advance, and the brewery's own events page promises "fräsige Preise" (decent prizes) along with a mix of general knowledge and more niche categories. Because it's monthly rather than weekly, it's easy to lose track of the date, so it's worth checking the brewery's events page directly before you go rather than relying on memory of "first Monday."

Source: Brauerei Oerlikon, events

O'Callaghan's Shamrock Irish Pub, Wollishofen

Right at the end of the number 7 tram line in Wollishofen, the Shamrock is a proper Irish pub with live sport and music alongside its Sunday pub quiz. The pub's own site confirms the quiz is a current, ongoing part of its lineup, though it doesn't list a start time. Independent accounts from regulars put it at around 19:30, running five rounds of eight questions plus a picture round, with no entry fee. Given the pub's own page doesn't confirm the time, it's worth ringing ahead (044 482 10 62) to check before you set off, especially since Wollishofen is a bit of a trek from the centre if the details turn out to have shifted.

Source: O'Callaghan's Shamrock Irish Pub

Five venues is a fair snapshot of Zurich's English-language quiz scene rather than the whole of it. We looked at a few other names that kept coming up, including a long-running Niederdorf pub, but couldn't get comfortable that the quiz night was still running as described given what its own site currently shows, so we've left it out rather than send you somewhere on the strength of an old listing. If nothing here fits your evening, there's no reason to wait around for a pub to sort one out: build your own set of questions with our quiz creator and run a quiz wherever you happen to be. We've also written a full guide on how to run a great pub quiz if you want help with pacing, round structure and keeping a room of mixed nationalities engaged for a couple of hours.