Houdini Kino/Bar

Worth Booking? The Quick Verdict

If you are after a Zurich bar that doubles as a cinema and spills onto an outdoor terrace on Badenerstrasse, Houdini Kino/Bar is worth your time. The combination of film programming and a functioning bar in the Aussersihl district gives it a genuinely different purpose from the hotel bars and cocktail-focused rooms that dominate the city's options. Book this if you want an evening with structure — a drink before or after a screening — rather than a night built purely around what is in the glass.

What Houdini Kino/Bar Is For

Houdini sits on Badenerstrasse 173 in the 8003 postcode, a stretch that has accumulated independent venues over the years and sits at a remove from the polished lakefront crowd. The outdoor area here is the practical reason to plan around the season: warm-weather evenings on the terrace shift the experience from a dark cinema-bar into something more social and open. If you have been once for a film, the next visit worth making is an early-evening drink outside before a late screening, which makes better use of what the space offers than arriving solely for the programme.

The Aussersihl neighbourhood context matters for comparison purposes. This is not a destination for a choreographed cocktail experience , for that, Widder Bar is the better call. Houdini works leading when the film schedule aligns with your evening plans and the terrace is open. Check the cinema calendar before you go, because the bar element on its own is harder to justify as a standalone destination when Zurich has strong alternatives.

For broader planning across the city, see our full Zurich bars guide, our full Zurich restaurants guide, and our full Zurich hotels guide. If experiences with programme or cultural context appeal to you, our full Zurich experiences guide covers more options in that vein.

Nearby and Related

Other Zurich bars worth knowing in this bracket: Bar 3000 and Bar am Wasser for outdoor-adjacent options, and the 25hours Hotel Zürich Langstrasse or 25hours Hotel Zürich West if you want a hotel bar with a similar neighbourhood energy. For reference points further afield, Brasserie, Bar und Event Volkshaus Basel in Basel is a useful comparison for the arts-venue-with-bar format, and Bar Leather Apron in Honolulu shows what a genuinely cocktail-led programme looks like for contrast. Viniviva Wein in Dübendorf is worth a look if wine is your priority over mixed drinks. See our full Zurich wineries guide for more on that side.

Happy Hour at Houdini Kino/Bar

No confirmed happy hour details are available in our current data for Houdini. Given the cinema-bar format, pre-screening drink deals are common at venues of this type, but we cannot confirm specifics without verified information. Check the venue directly , pricing structures at arts-focused bars in Zurich's District 4 tend to be more accessible than the hotel bar tier, so expectations on value should be reasonable even outside a formal deal window.