How to avoid tourist restaurants!
What is a tourist restaurant?
A tourist restaurant is a large restaurant with an industrial kitchen and often coach parking nearby. It is designed to serve tourist groups fast with a boring international set menu with, sometimes, a tamed local specialty added. That pretty much defines what you ate on the flight over, right? It is not bad, but certainly not memorable. On the positive side, you won't be surprised by odd exotic flavors, and you'll be in and out in no time. Group tours can do lunch or dinner in one hour flat! It is also likely to be inexpensive, assuming the restaurant offers the same menu to walk-in tourists as they do to booked tours. The downside is that the meal can be disappointing.
But you will not get sick! Because tour operators generally want to make sure no one gets sick, over and above the taste and quality of the meal. At times, the prices shown on the menu can be far higher than what groups actually pay ... because it makes the group tourists think they are getting a fancy and expensive meal! At worst, you sit and wait for service while they are busy catering to two groups of 50 tourists.
At times, a good surprise!
Having said that, some tourist restaurants are actually a good deal, serving a fair meal quickly for a moderate price. They may be unavoidable because of location. For example, Jungfrau, Gornergrat (where you go to see the Matterhorn) and Zugspitze feature above average "tourist" restaurants all serving excellent meals, which is quite a feat being higher on the Alps than aircraft cabin altitude.
How to spot the bad ones?
About the truly bad tourist restaurants, the ones you have to watch out for. Typically, they are located on a high-traffic tourist path with a set menu posted outside in ten languages. That in itself does not automatically mark them as "out to get you"; what does, and what you cannot see on travel sites, is the complete lack of local patrons, especially the younger ones. Because even on the tourist strip, there are locals there ... to work in the tourist shops and attractions. They eat and drink too! And the younger ones are typically more sensitive to meal prices. Of course, there are always a few pearls to be found, but considering your limited timeframe, you can't spend two hours searching for the perfect lunch spot.
How to find the better ones?
Even with limited time and local knowledge, you can quickly locate and identify a good and welcoming restaurant. First, you have to get off the strip and step into the side streets where fewer tourists venture, and where rent is much cheaper (big impact on menu prices). If they have a menu posted outside in English, it is not a bad sign in this context; it shows that they do welcome tourists, and if that menu looks interesting (no rubber chicken and meat in sauce), so much the better. Peeking through the window, you see some younger and obviously local patrons, then you have probably found the right place; it's not a tourist restaurant but a restaurant where tourists are welcome and likely to be treated well.