{"id":7596,"date":"2026-10-30T18:48:49","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T17:48:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/banoo-interlaken.ch\/?p=7596"},"modified":"2026-10-30T18:53:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T17:53:26","slug":"persian-mezze-starters-interlaken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/banoo-interlaken.ch\/en\/persian-mezze-starters-interlaken\/","title":{"rendered":"Mezze: Persian starters to share in Interlaken"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.bnu-blog{max-width:760px;margin:0 auto;padding:48px 20px 72px;}.bnu-blog h1{margin:0 0 24px;line-height:1.25;}.bnu-blog h2{margin:34px 0 14px;line-height:1.3;}.bnu-blog p{margin:0 0 18px;line-height:1.65;}.bnu-blog__img{margin:0 0 28px;}.bnu-blog__img img{display:block;width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:8px;}<\/style><article class=\"bnu-blog\" lang=\"en\" data-no-translation data-no-dynamic-translation><h1>Mezze: Persian starters to share in Interlaken<\/h1><figure class=\"bnu-blog__img\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" src=\"https:\/\/banoo-interlaken.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/mezze-banoo-interlaken-768x724.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/banoo-interlaken.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/mezze-banoo-interlaken-768x724.jpg 768w, https:\/\/banoo-interlaken.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/mezze-banoo-interlaken.jpg 1292w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 760px\" width=\"768\" height=\"724\" alt=\"Mezze at BANOO Interlaken: seven clay bowls on a wooden board with herb frittata, aubergine dip, mirza ghasemi, falafel, cucumber yoghurt, salad and thin flatbread\" decoding=\"async\" \/><\/figure><p>At a Persian table nobody eats alone from their own plate. First a lot of small bowls go in the middle, everyone reaches in, bread gets passed around and you try a bit of everything. That is the idea behind our mezze: six starters on one board, for two, for four or for a big table. At BANOO on Centralstrasse 28 in Interlaken it is No. 7 on our menu, and everything on it is vegetarian. Here are the six bowls.<\/p><h2>What is mezze?<\/h2><p>&#8222;Mezze&#8220; is the word used around the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East for small dishes that are shared. In Persian, starters are called <em>pish-ghaza<\/em>, literally &#8222;before the food&#8220;. In Iran, though, many of them stay on the table through the main course: a spoonful of yoghurt with the rice, a piece of bread with aubergine dip in between. You take whatever you feel like.<\/p><h2>The six bowls on our mezze<\/h2><p><strong>Kuku sabzi (herb omelette).<\/strong> An omelette with more herbs than egg: fenugreek leaves, dill, chives and parsley. In Iran kuku sabzi is a traditional dish for Nowruz, the Persian New Year in spring, and the green herbs stand for a fresh start. We make it all year round, and you can also order it on its own (No. 1).<\/p><p><strong>Kashk-e bademjan.<\/strong> Baked, pur\u00e9ed aubergine with <em>kashk<\/em>, a tangy whey made from yoghurt, plus onion, chopped walnuts and fried mint. Creamy, a little sour and nutty, and best with bread. On its own: No. 5.<\/p><p><strong>Mirza ghasemi.<\/strong> Grilled aubergine with egg, grilled tomato and garlic. It comes from Gilan, on the Caspian coast in northern Iran, and the story goes that it is named after a governor called Mirza Ghasem Khan who loved it. Smoky, warm and slightly sweet from the tomatoes. On its own: No. 6.<\/p><p><strong>Falafel.<\/strong> Fried patties of beans, chickpeas, herbs and spices. Falafel is best known from the Levant, and in Iran it is especially popular in the south of the country. On its own: No. 9.<\/p><p><strong>Mast-o khiar.<\/strong> Yoghurt with cucumber and mint. Cool and fresh, and it goes with almost anything that comes off the grill afterwards. On its own: No. 19.<\/p><p>And Persian bread to scoop it all up.<\/p><h2>How to eat mezze at BANOO<\/h2><p>Our tip: tear off a piece of bread, scoop up some kashk-e bademjan or mirza ghasemi and add a spoonful of mast-o khiar. Kuku sabzi is good warm or cold.<\/p><p>The mezze is made for sharing. After that, try something from the grill, such as our <a href=\"\/en\/koobideh-persian-kebab-interlaken\/\">kubideh<\/a>, or a slow-cooked stew like <a href=\"\/en\/ghormeh-sabzi-persian-herb-stew-interlaken\/\">ghormeh sabzi<\/a>. <a href=\"\/en\/halal\/\">All our meat is halal.<\/a> We do not use alcohol in our cooking. If you&#8217;d rather order starters one by one, our <a href=\"\/en\/menu\/\">menu<\/a> has more, such as hommos, babaghanoush, borani esfenaj and the herb noodle soup ash reshteh.<\/p><h2>Persian food in the centre of Interlaken<\/h2><p><a href=\"\/en\/\">BANOO<\/a> is the only Persian restaurant in the Canton of Bern. You&#8217;ll find us at Centralstrasse 28, 2 minutes on foot from H\u00f6heweg and Interlaken West station. With 100 seats we have room for families, <a href=\"\/en\/gruppen\/\">groups<\/a> and walk-ins, and our menu has plenty of vegetarian dishes. For a group, a mezze in the middle of the table is a good way to start. Our sister restaurant is Banoo in Rapperswil.<\/p><p>We are open Tuesday to Sunday, 12:00\u201322:00, and closed on Mondays. <a href=\"https:\/\/pos.banoo-interlaken.ch\/book\/1\">Book a table<\/a> online at <a href=\"https:\/\/pos.banoo-interlaken.ch\/book\/1\">https:\/\/pos.banoo-interlaken.ch\/book\/1<\/a> or call us on <a href=\"tel:+41765007142\">076 500 71 42<\/a>. We look forward to welcoming you.<\/p><\/article>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kuku sabzi, kashk-e bademjan, mirza ghasemi, falafel and mast-o khiar: our mezze is six vegetarian Persian starters to share. BANOO, Interlaken.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7594,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/banoo-interlaken.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/banoo-interlaken.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/banoo-interlaken.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banoo-interlaken.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banoo-interlaken.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7596"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/banoo-interlaken.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7599,"href":"https:\/\/banoo-interlaken.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7596\/revisions\/7599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banoo-interlaken.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/banoo-interlaken.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banoo-interlaken.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banoo-interlaken.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}