Food guide
What to Eat in Liechtenstein, From Käsknöpfle to the Prince's Pinot
Liechtenstein's own cooking is hearty Alpine fare built on cheese and dough, cornmeal, barley and plums. A handful of dishes are worth asking for by name, and the wine comes from the Prince's vineyards directly below Vaduz Castle.
Updated 2026-10-03
Käsknöpfle and Sura Kees
Käsknöpfle is the dish to order first: small dumplings of a simple dough — flour, eggs, water and salt — layered with local cheese and topped with roasted onions, with apple sauce served alongside.
Look out, too, for Sura Kees, a traditional sour cheese made from skimmed milk; some cooks use it in their Käsknöpfle.
Ribel, the cornmeal dish
Ribel is made from cornmeal: the grains are cooked in milk and water into a thick porridge, then roasted slowly in the pan and stirred until they break into small golden lumps. In the Unterland a gentler version goes by the name Tüarggarebl. It is a filling, old-fashioned dish, and one of the most traditional in the country.
Soups, plum dumplings and carnival pastries
Autumn brings Gerstensuppe, a barley soup with vegetables and bacon. Zwätschgaknedl are potato dumplings filled with plums and rolled in breadcrumbs, and Kratzate is a sweet-and-savoury Alpine dish served with plum compote. Balzers keeps its own nearly forgotten speciality, Hafalääb, somewhere between a dumpling and gnocchi, and carnival season brings crisp, sweet Fasnachtsküachle.
The Prince's winery
The Hofkellerei des Fürsten von Liechtenstein is the reigning prince's own wine estate, with about 4.5 hectares of vines on the slope directly below Vaduz Castle. Pinot Noir is the lead wine, aged in small French-oak barriques, alongside a dry Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and Zweigelt, and the quantities are small enough that the bottles rarely leave the country.
The estate sells its wines at the Hofkellerei shop in Vaduz and offers tastings, usually by appointment; most restaurants in the capital pour the house labels by the glass.