Holy Cow Basel: Address, Opening Hours, Menu Prices and Reviews
Holy Cow Basel at Steinenvorstadt 30: daily hours, every burger price in CHF from the June 2026 menu, ratings and FAQ, checked on 7 October 2026.
Holy Cow Basel is at Steinenvorstadt 30, 4051 Basel. It opens every day at 11:00 and closes at 22:00 from Sunday to Wednesday, 23:00 from Thursday to Saturday. A burger costs 12.40 to 22.40 CHF on its own, or 17.90 to 27.90 CHF as a meal with fries and a drink. Diners rate it 4.6/5 on TripAdvisor and 4.3/5 on Google, according to Wanderlog. I have not eaten at this branch yet, so this page is a fact sheet, not a verdict. I checked every figure in it against the chain’s official sources on 7 October 2026. My reading of those figures: Suisse Garantie beef, seven days a week, on Basel’s busiest burger street, at prices that are fair by Swiss standards.
Holy Cow Basel at a glance
Holy Cow! Gourmet Burger Co. has one restaurant in Basel, on the Steinenvorstadt in the city centre. It serves Swiss beef, Swiss chicken and veggie burgers at mid-range Swiss prices.
| Holy Cow! Basel | |
|---|---|
| Address | Steinenvorstadt 30, 4051 Basel, Switzerland |
| Opening hours | Mon–Wed 11:00–22:00, Thu–Sat 11:00–23:00, Sun 11:00–22:00 |
| Services | Dine-in, Click & Collect, delivery via Uber Eats, loyalty app |
| Also on | Just Eat (eat.ch) |
| Burger prices | 12.40–22.40 CHF alone, 17.90–27.90 CHF as a meal |
| TripAdvisor | 4.6/5 (14 reviews) |
| Google (via Wanderlog) | 4.3/5 (808 reviews) |
| Info checked | 7 October 2026 |
Holy Cow Basel address and how to get there
Holy Cow Basel sits at Steinenvorstadt 30, 4051 Basel, the only Basel address on the chain’s official restaurant list. The Steinenvorstadt is the pedestrian street that runs from Barfüsserplatz towards Heuwaage, lined with cinemas, bars and, these days, a lot of burger joints.
Holy Cow Basel is on the Steinenvorstadt, Basel’s pedestrian street of cinemas, cafés and burger restaurants between Barfüsserplatz and Heuwaage. This photo is from 2009, before the restaurant opened at no. 30. (Photo: Basmus, CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Basel\_Steinenvorstadt\_2009-05-31.jpg))
Two tram stops serve the street: Barfüsserplatz and Heuwaage. I could not confirm which lines stop closest to number 30 or how long the walk is, so check the BVB journey planner (bvb.ch) or the SBB app before you set off.
The official Basel page lists no phone number. The +41 21 312 24 04 number you will find on search.ch and TripAdvisor carries a Lausanne area code and is most likely the head office, not the Basel restaurant.
Map of Holy Cow Basel at Steinenvorstadt 30, 4051 Basel, on the pedestrian street between the Barfüsserplatz and Heuwaage tram stops. (Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL (marker from OSM node 8059059296))
Holy Cow Basel opening hours
Holy Cow Basel opens at 11:00 every day, Sunday included. It closes at 22:00 from Sunday to Wednesday and at 23:00 from Thursday to Saturday.
| Day | Hours |
|---|---|
| Monday | 11:00–22:00 |
| Tuesday | 11:00–22:00 |
| Wednesday | 11:00–22:00 |
| Thursday | 11:00–23:00 |
| Friday | 11:00–23:00 |
| Saturday | 11:00–23:00 |
| Sunday | 11:00–22:00 |
Holy Cow Basel opening hours: daily from 11:00, until 22:00 Sunday to Wednesday and until 23:00 Thursday to Saturday (official page, checked 7 October 2026). (Table: Burger Breton, data from Holy Cow! Gourmet Burger Co. official Basel page)
These are the hours on the official Basel page, and Wanderlog and TripAdvisor show the same. Search.ch says Friday and Saturday run until midnight. I trust the official page over a directory, but if you are counting on a burger after 22:30 on a Saturday, check the Holy Cow! page or the app that day.
Holy Cow Basel menu and prices in CHF
The Holy Cow Basel menu runs from the Big Beef at 12.40 CHF to two double-beef burgers at 22.40 CHF. Turning any burger into a meal with fries and a soft drink adds 5.50 CHF. All prices below come from the official national menu PDF dated 15 June 2026. The PDF calls them indicative and says they can vary by restaurant and delivery platform. I could not open the Basel listings on Uber Eats or Just Eat to compare.
Cheapest burger per range at Holy Cow Basel (CHF, alone): beef 12.40 (Big Beef), veggie 13.90 (The Veggie), Swiss chicken 15.40 (The Chicken), double beef 22.40. Source: official menu, 15 June 2026. (Chart: Burger Breton, data from Holy Cow! Gourmet Burger Co. official menu PDF (15 June 2026))
The chain says its beef and fries are certified Suisse Garantie, and its buns are made in Switzerland and delivered fresh every morning.
Beef burgers
There are eleven beef burgers, and the meal price is always the burger price plus 5.50 CHF.
| Burger | What’s in it | Burger alone | Meal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big Beef | Classic beef burger | 12.40 CHF | 17.90 CHF |
| Big Cheese | Beef and cheese | 13.40 CHF | 18.90 CHF |
| Smoky Big Cheese and Bacon | Beef, cheese, bacon | 15.40 CHF | 20.90 CHF |
| Bacon Avocado Beef | Beef, bacon, avocado | 16.40 CHF | 21.90 CHF |
| Elvis Blue Cheese | Gorgonzola, bacon | 17.40 CHF | 22.90 CHF |
| Yo Ginza Beef | Teriyaki, wasabi mayo | 17.40 CHF | 22.90 CHF |
| Viva España | Goat’s cheese, chorizo, honey | 17.40 CHF | 22.90 CHF |
| Mexicana Beef | Mexican-style toppings | 18.40 CHF | 23.90 CHF |
| Röstigraben | Vacherin Fribourgeois AOP, rösti, fried onions | 19.40 CHF | 24.90 CHF |
| Smokin’ Holy Cowboy | Double beef, double cheddar, bacon, Cajun mayo, BBQ | 22.40 CHF | 27.90 CHF |
| King Kong Carnivore | Double beef, double chorizo, double bacon, spicy monkey sauce | 22.40 CHF | 27.90 CHF |
If I could order only one, it would be the Röstigraben, at 19.40 CHF. It is the most Swiss thing on the menu. The name refers to the cultural divide between French- and German-speaking Switzerland, and the burger pairs Vacherin Fribourgeois AOP with rösti. You are unlikely to find that at the American-style diners down the street.
Swiss chicken burgers and tenders
The seven chicken burgers use Swiss chicken and cost 15.40 to 19.90 CHF on their own.
| Burger | Burger alone | Meal |
|---|---|---|
| The Chicken | 15.40 CHF | 20.90 CHF |
| BBQ Chick’n’Cheese | 16.40 CHF | 21.90 CHF |
| Bacon Avocado Chicken | 17.40 CHF | 22.90 CHF |
| Satay Chicken | 18.40 CHF | 23.90 CHF |
| Mexicana Chicken | 19.40 CHF | 24.90 CHF |
| Buffalo Crispy Chicken | 19.40 CHF | 24.90 CHF |
| Crispy Chicken Club | 19.90 CHF | 25.40 CHF |
Tenders come in 2, 4 or 6 pieces at 4.90, 9.50 or 13.90 CHF. Swapping to crispy chicken in a meal costs 2.50 CHF extra.
Vegetarian burgers and salads
Holy Cow Basel has four vegetarian burgers on a house-made veggie patty, starting at 13.90 CHF for The Veggie.
| Dish | Alone | Meal |
|---|---|---|
| The Veggie | 13.90 CHF | 18.90 CHF |
| Veggie Zest | 14.90 CHF | 19.90 CHF |
| Veggie Chèvre | 16.90 CHF | 21.90 CHF |
| Aztec Veggie | 16.90 CHF | 21.90 CHF |
| Veganator salad (veggie patty, funky salsa, quinoa base) | 15.90 CHF | 20.90 CHF |
| Satay Express, Skinny Sumo, Holy Goat or Baja Dreams salad | 16.90 CHF | 21.90 CHF |
No burger on the menu is labelled vegan. If you eat vegan or have allergies, check the official 2026 allergen matrix on holycow.ch before you order.
Sides, extras, drinks and desserts
Sides and drinks are fair for Switzerland, not cheap. One detail changes how you should order. Fries alone cost 5.90 CHF, but turning a burger into a meal with fries and a drink costs only 5.50 CHF more, so the meal is the obvious choice.
- Fries or side salad: 5.90 CHF
- Sweet potato fries: 8.90 CHF (or +3.00 CHF in a meal)
- Sauces, 70 ml: 2.50 to 3.50 CHF
- Meal with beer or wine instead of a soft drink: +3.00 CHF
- Meal with Red Bull: +2.00 CHF
- Free-refill syrups (40 cl), water, iced tea, Holy Cola, apple juice (50 cl): 3.90 CHF each
- Valaisanne beers: 6.90 CHF; wine (20 cl): 6.90 CHF; Red Bull: 4.90 CHF; espresso: 2.50 CHF
- Artisan ice cream or sorbet (135 ml) and artisan cookies: 3.90 CHF each
A Holy Cow! burger with Swiss fries, the meal format that adds 5.50 CHF to any burger. Photo taken at the chain’s Lausanne restaurant; the Basel menu is the same national menu. (Photo: Guilhem Vellut, CC BY 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:French\_fries\_@\_Holy\_Cow!\_@\_Lausanne\_(36079284164).jpg))
Student and kids’ meals
Students and children get their own prices. With a student card, a Big Beef meal costs 15.90 CHF and a Big Cheese or Veggie meal costs 16.90 CHF, one meal per card. That is 2.00 CHF off the regular meal price in each case. Junior menus cost 7.90 to 12.90 CHF.
Holy Cow Basel beef burger prices, burger alone vs meal (CHF): Big Beef 12.40/17.90, Big Cheese 13.40/18.90, Smoky Big Cheese and Bacon 15.40/20.90, Bacon Avocado Beef 16.40/21.90, Elvis Blue Cheese, Yo Ginza Beef and Viva España 17.40/22.90, Mexicana Beef 18.40/23.90, Röstigraben 19.40/24.90, Smokin’ Holy Cowboy and King Kong Carnivore 22.40/27.90. Source: Holy Cow! official menu, 15 June 2026. (Chart: Burger Breton, data from Holy Cow! Gourmet Burger Co. official menu PDF (15 June 2026))
Holy Cow Basel reviews: what diners say
Diners rate Holy Cow Basel well: 4.6/5 from 14 TripAdvisor reviews and 4.3/5 from 808 Google reviews, as relayed by Wanderlog. Fourteen reviews is a thin base, so I give more weight to the Google figure. I read it on Wanderlog, not on Google Maps itself.
What reviewers keep praising, in the TripAdvisor and Wanderlog summaries:
- Fresh burgers (singled out in a March 2025 TripAdvisor review)
- Friendly, attentive staff and fast service
- Local ingredients
- Big portions at a reasonable price for Basel
- Good, fresh fries
- Solid vegetarian options
TripAdvisor ranks it no. 215 of 754 restaurants in Basel, in the $$-$$$ price band, under American and fast food. The summaries I read showed no recurring complaint. With only 14 TripAdvisor reviews, that proves little, and I would rather say so than invent a weakness.
How I built this guide
This is a fact sheet, not a tasting review, so there is no score of my own. I took the address, hours and services from the official Holy Cow! Basel page and the prices from the official menu PDF dated 15 June 2026. Ratings come from TripAdvisor and Wanderlog. The history comes from bz Basel, Tageskarte, NoHo Partners and the chain’s own site. Everything was checked on 7 October 2026. Anything that only one unofficial source mentioned stayed out: the phone number, payment methods, wheelchair access, terrace and parking.
Holy Cow history and its arrival in Basel
Holy Cow! is a Swiss gourmet burger chain founded in Lausanne in 2009 by Richard Williams, and Basel is one of its 23 Swiss restaurants. In 2017 a group of local entrepreneurs led by Adrian, the current CEO, bought the company. Since 14 August 2023, Better Burger Society, a vehicle of NoHo Partners and Intera Partners, has owned 76% of it. I tell the founding story in more depth in Holy Cow! in Lausanne, where the chain was born.
Holy Cow! in Lausanne, the city where Richard Williams founded the Swiss gourmet burger chain in 2009, more than ten years before it reached Basel’s Steinenvorstadt. (Photo: Guilhem Vellut, CC BY 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Holy\_Cow!\_@\_Lausanne\_(36743121982).jpg))
The chain grew fast. When it opened its first German restaurant, in Cologne in February 2017, Tageskarte counted 12 Holy Cow restaurants in Switzerland. The official list now shows 23 Swiss locations, including three in Zurich, three in Lausanne, two in Geneva and one in Basel.
On 30 August 2019, bz Basel reported that Holy Cow would take over the former Cindy’s Diner at Steinenvorstadt 30, which had closed in 2011. The paper billed it as the chain’s 15th location and its first in Basel, with opening planned for the first quarter of 2020. I found no primary source for the actual opening date. The honest summary: announced in 2019, opened around 2020.
Holy Cow vs the Steinenvorstadt burger wave
Holy Cow is the only Swiss gourmet burger chain on the Steinenvorstadt, a street bz Basel described in 2019 as hit by a ‘burger wave’. As Holy Cow signed its lease, Hans im Glück was opening at Steinenvorstadt 1. Co-owner Andres Krattinger told the paper the chain looks for high-footfall spots with a good mix of customers, which made the Steinenvorstadt ‘ideal’. In the same piece, Union Diner manager Cyrill Lang said Holy Cow burgers cost about half as much as his. That was 2019, and I have not compared today’s Union Diner menu.
The Webern fountain on the Steinenvorstadt in Basel, the busy street that bz Basel said was hit by a ‘burger wave’ in 2019, when Holy Cow! and Hans im Glück both moved in. (Photo: Mattes, CC BY 2.0 DE (Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Basel\_2012-09-16\_Batch\_(36).JPG))
Here is how the main Basel burger options compare on TripAdvisor (American category, checked 7 October 2026):
| Restaurant | Location | TripAdvisor rating | Reviews |
|---|---|---|---|
| Holy Cow! | Steinenvorstadt 30 | 4.6/5 | 14 |
| Eatery 77 | Basel | 4.6/5 | 622 |
| Burgermeister | Claraplatz | 4.4/5 | 40 |
| Hans im Glück | Steinenvorstadt 1 | 3.9/5 | 71 |
| Union Diner | Steinenvorstadt | 3.8/5 | 320 |
| Burgermeister | Aeschenvorstadt | 3.8/5 | 59 |
Basel burger restaurants on TripAdvisor (checked 7 October 2026): Holy Cow! 4.6/5 (14 reviews), Eatery 77 4.6 (622), Burgermeister Claraplatz 4.4 (40), Hans im Glück 3.9 (71), Union Diner 3.8 (320), Burgermeister Aeschenvorstadt 3.8 (59). (Chart: Burger Breton, data from TripAdvisor (American restaurants, Basel))
Read that table with care. Eatery 77 matches Holy Cow’s 4.6 on 44 times as many reviews, which makes it the rating to beat in Basel. Black Tap also has a Basel location, available on Uber Eats. For the full picture of where to eat burgers in the city, see the best burgers in Basel city guide, or browse every city on our burger restaurant guides hub.
Delivery, Click & Collect and booking
You can get Holy Cow Basel delivered through Uber Eats or Just Eat (eat.ch), or order ahead with Click & Collect. The official page also lists dine-in and a loyalty app. The chain itself notes that delivery prices may differ from the menu prices above.
FAQ: Holy Cow Basel
Where is Holy Cow in Basel and how do I get there by tram?
Holy Cow Basel is at Steinenvorstadt 30, 4051 Basel. The Barfüsserplatz and Heuwaage tram stops serve the Steinenvorstadt. Check bvb.ch or the SBB app for the best line from where you are.
Is Holy Cow Basel open on Sunday?
Yes. It opens 11:00–22:00 on Sunday. Monday to Wednesday is also 11:00–22:00, and Thursday to Saturday is 11:00–23:00, according to the official page checked on 7 October 2026.
How much does a burger cost at Holy Cow Basel?
A burger alone costs 12.40 CHF (Big Beef) to 22.40 CHF (double-beef burgers). A meal with fries and a drink costs 17.90 to 27.90 CHF, based on the official menu of 15 June 2026.
Does Holy Cow Basel have vegetarian or vegan burgers?
It has four vegetarian burgers on a house-made veggie patty, from 13.90 CHF, plus the Veganator salad at 15.90 CHF. No burger is labelled vegan on the menu, so check the official allergen matrix if you eat vegan.
Can I get Holy Cow Basel delivered?
Yes, through Uber Eats and Just Eat (eat.ch). You can also order ahead with Click & Collect.
Is Holy Cow beef Swiss?
Yes. The chain says its beef and fries are certified Suisse Garantie, and the chicken is Swiss too.
Is there a student discount at Holy Cow?
Yes. With a student card, a Big Beef meal costs 15.90 CHF, and a Big Cheese or Veggie meal costs 16.90 CHF, limited to one meal per card.
Holy Cow or Hans im Glück on the Steinenvorstadt?
On TripAdvisor, Holy Cow scores 4.6/5 (14 reviews) against 3.9/5 (71 reviews) for Hans im Glück, but Holy Cow’s score rests on very few reviews. Pick Holy Cow if you want Suisse Garantie beef and Swiss twists such as the Röstigraben.
Do I need to book at Holy Cow Basel?
The official page mentions no table reservations, only dine-in, Click & Collect and delivery. To skip a queue at peak times, Click & Collect is the documented option.
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