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Today, Haus Hiltl isn’t just one Zürich’s most popular dining options; it’s recognised by Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest continuously run vegetari

Today, Haus Hiltl isn’t just one Zürich’s most popular dining options; it’s recognised by Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest continuously run vegetarian restaurant - i dont get this, India has a long history of vegetarianism for centuries and you find thousands of "dabas" or small eateries all over India for centuries. How can it be the oldest?

gautamdivgi 7y ago
Maybe not the dhabas since there wasn’t any long distance road transportation in 1890’s in India. However, train stations - at least some of the really old ones may have something. Apparently there’s one with its original 1856 structure still in operation - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royapuram_railway_station https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royapuram_railway_station
occamschainsaw 7y ago
It’s probably difficult to prove any (one) of the dhabas have been continuously running for centuries. If there is definite proof, calling Guinness should fix it.
- signa11 7y ago
  no it is not that hard, for example one of my acquaintances who is from lucknow, uttar-pradesh, india, swears by ‘ram asrey’ (http://www.ramasrey.com/ http://www.ramasrey.com/) which has been around since 1805 :) ! needless to say, the stuff from there is just amazing...
  - unwind 7y ago
    Uh, okay, but from their web site they seem to be a sweets shop, which of course can't "win" as oldest veg restaurant.
- amriksohata 7y ago
  But it's not difficult to prove vegetarianism has existed in other parts of the world, so we cannot categorically say the European restaurant is the first one
tsjq 7y ago
I'm sure Indians gonna raise a huge noise over this. >How can it be the oldest? ultimately it'll boil down to what one knows versus what one can prove.
- Kalium 7y ago
  It's very easy to have family folklore that a dhaba has been operating at a location for a thousand years. Proving it might be more complex.
- yumraj 7y ago
  1) The above comment is rather condescending 2) 100 years is nothing in Indian history 3) Our ancestral home, which still stands, is over 150 years old and there are small eateries below which have been family run for ever and are vegetarian. 4) There are probably 1000s of 100 year old vegetarian restaurants in India. Granted they are not probably as fancy as the one in Switzerland, but they are vegetarian and restaurants and over 100 year old nonetheless. 5) If the post said in Europe, I'll believe. But given history of Asia, I have no doubt that it is not the oldest vegetarian restaurant.
  - billfruit 7y ago
    Problem with most of Indian History is lack of written or otherwise corroborating evidence. Also the claim is not for the oldest, but oldest continusly running. Even then the ship of Theseus argument can be raised.
    - sachdevap 7y ago
      And the Ship of Theseus argument does not apply to Haus Hiltl because ... ?
    - chimeracoder 7y ago
      > Problem with most of Indian History is lack of written or otherwise corroborating evidence. That's what tends to happen when invaders literally blow up your temples and libraries, burn your books, etc.
tootie 7y ago
Also, Buddhists. It's possible that temple food doesn't qualify as a restaurant.
- shrimp_emoji 7y ago
  Indian Jains! Some of them must have had restaurant-analogues. Jainism mandates vegetarianism, and it seems to predate Buddhism.[0] 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_religion#The_Ancient_Era https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_religion#The_Ancie...
  - shriphani 7y ago
    I believe members of this community refrain from entering the restaurant business due to religious reasons.
PhasmaFelis 7y ago
Guinness World Records was purchased by an entertainment company in 2001 and it's been a shitshow ever since. They ditched the old doorstopper reference book in favor of a big line of glossy picturebooks that contain only a few hundred records on a single subject each. They make up contrived records specifically for whatever's cool at the moment just to get mentioned in articles like this one, for free advertising. I see them a lot in gaming articles, with shit like "Most voiced lines of dialogue in a single-player RPG" (Fallout: New Vegas) and "Longest unbroken cutscene sequence" (Metal Gear Solid 4). Nobody applied for these records; someone at Guinness researches popular games to find any random statistic that might be unique. My guess is that's what happened here--someone decided that vegetarianism is hot right now and went looking for records, without too much concern for their relevance or accuracy.
- NeedMoreTea 7y ago
  Yep. They made it as real as reality TV, with the same directional steering behind the scenes. Sadly it still has much of the popular and media reputation from the careful efforts of the McWhirter's, and the Guinness years. I hope to see their failure soon.
- mrob 7y ago
  See this video by ibxtoycat where he beats a laughably bad Guinness world record in Minecraft, applies to have his result recognized, and then has his application expire unexamined because he didn't pay the large fee for priority application: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5YzeUWJ2xk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5YzeUWJ2xk Their business model clearly no longer involves providing accurate information about records to people who buy the books.
mc32 7y ago
I was thinking the same thing. Also family run ryokans or Buddhist temples in South Asia or east Asia, but as others have mentioned it probably mostly has to do how Guinness qualifies their records.
dhruval 7y ago
I dont think this is the oldest in the world, but easily verifiable because it is in Mumbai and quite famous (beats Haus Hiltl by 50 years)... https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/food/the-story-of-mumbais-iconic-pancham-puriwala/article26329825.ece https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/food/the-story-of-mu...
- stcredzero 7y ago
  Right. My immediate thought on starting to read the article, was that there must be an older establishment in Asia.
dang 7y ago
The claim is that it is the oldest continuously run. Presumably that requires documentation of continuous runningness, the sort of documentation that either hasn't existed for all that long or wouldn't have tended to survive.

gautamdivgi 7y ago

Maybe not the dhabas since there wasn’t any long distance road transportation in 1890’s in India. However, train stations - at least some of the really old ones may have something. Apparently there’s one with its original 1856 structure still in operation - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royapuram_railway_station https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royapuram_railway_station

occamschainsaw 7y ago

It’s probably difficult to prove any (one) of the dhabas have been continuously running for centuries. If there is definite proof, calling Guinness should fix it.

signa11 7y ago
no it is not that hard, for example one of my acquaintances who is from lucknow, uttar-pradesh, india, swears by ‘ram asrey’ (http://www.ramasrey.com/ http://www.ramasrey.com/) which has been around since 1805 :) ! needless to say, the stuff from there is just amazing...
- unwind 7y ago
  Uh, okay, but from their web site they seem to be a sweets shop, which of course can't "win" as oldest veg restaurant.
amriksohata 7y ago
But it's not difficult to prove vegetarianism has existed in other parts of the world, so we cannot categorically say the European restaurant is the first one

tsjq 7y ago

I'm sure Indians gonna raise a huge noise over this. >How can it be the oldest? ultimately it'll boil down to what one knows versus what one can prove.

Kalium 7y ago
It's very easy to have family folklore that a dhaba has been operating at a location for a thousand years. Proving it might be more complex.
yumraj 7y ago
1) The above comment is rather condescending 2) 100 years is nothing in Indian history 3) Our ancestral home, which still stands, is over 150 years old and there are small eateries below which have been family run for ever and are vegetarian. 4) There are probably 1000s of 100 year old vegetarian restaurants in India. Granted they are not probably as fancy as the one in Switzerland, but they are vegetarian and restaurants and over 100 year old nonetheless. 5) If the post said in Europe, I'll believe. But given history of Asia, I have no doubt that it is not the oldest vegetarian restaurant.
- billfruit 7y ago
  Problem with most of Indian History is lack of written or otherwise corroborating evidence. Also the claim is not for the oldest, but oldest continusly running. Even then the ship of Theseus argument can be raised.
  - sachdevap 7y ago
    And the Ship of Theseus argument does not apply to Haus Hiltl because ... ?
  - chimeracoder 7y ago
    > Problem with most of Indian History is lack of written or otherwise corroborating evidence. That's what tends to happen when invaders literally blow up your temples and libraries, burn your books, etc.

tootie 7y ago

Also, Buddhists. It's possible that temple food doesn't qualify as a restaurant.

shrimp_emoji 7y ago
Indian Jains! Some of them must have had restaurant-analogues. Jainism mandates vegetarianism, and it seems to predate Buddhism.[0] 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_religion#The_Ancient_Era https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_religion#The_Ancie...
- shriphani 7y ago
  I believe members of this community refrain from entering the restaurant business due to religious reasons.

PhasmaFelis 7y ago

Guinness World Records was purchased by an entertainment company in 2001 and it's been a shitshow ever since. They ditched the old doorstopper reference book in favor of a big line of glossy picturebooks that contain only a few hundred records on a single subject each. They make up contrived records specifically for whatever's cool at the moment just to get mentioned in articles like this one, for free advertising. I see them a lot in gaming articles, with shit like "Most voiced lines of dialogue in a single-player RPG" (Fallout: New Vegas) and "Longest unbroken cutscene sequence" (Metal Gear Solid 4). Nobody applied for these records; someone at Guinness researches popular games to find any random statistic that might be unique. My guess is that's what happened here--someone decided that vegetarianism is hot right now and went looking for records, without too much concern for their relevance or accuracy.

NeedMoreTea 7y ago
Yep. They made it as real as reality TV, with the same directional steering behind the scenes. Sadly it still has much of the popular and media reputation from the careful efforts of the McWhirter's, and the Guinness years. I hope to see their failure soon.
mrob 7y ago
See this video by ibxtoycat where he beats a laughably bad Guinness world record in Minecraft, applies to have his result recognized, and then has his application expire unexamined because he didn't pay the large fee for priority application: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5YzeUWJ2xk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5YzeUWJ2xk Their business model clearly no longer involves providing accurate information about records to people who buy the books.

mc32 7y ago

I was thinking the same thing. Also family run ryokans or Buddhist temples in South Asia or east Asia, but as others have mentioned it probably mostly has to do how Guinness qualifies their records.

dhruval 7y ago

I dont think this is the oldest in the world, but easily verifiable because it is in Mumbai and quite famous (beats Haus Hiltl by 50 years)... https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/food/the-story-of-mumbais-iconic-pancham-puriwala/article26329825.ece https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/food/the-story-of-mu...

stcredzero 7y ago
Right. My immediate thought on starting to read the article, was that there must be an older establishment in Asia.

dang 7y ago

The claim is that it is the oldest continuously run. Presumably that requires documentation of continuous runningness, the sort of documentation that either hasn't existed for all that long or wouldn't have tended to survive.