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The Three-Minute Travel Guide to Vienna Restaurants and Bars

It’s not all currywurst and Wiener schnitzel. Lunches are long, dinners are shorter—and the Viennese dine late.

The Three-Minute Travel Guide to Vienna Restaurants and Bars
A dish from Shiki’s autumn menu. (Source: Shiki)

(Bloomberg) -- From the Jan. / Feb. 2018 issue of Bloomberg Reserve, a Bloomberg Markets publication.  

Vienna is moving beyond its staid past as a center for the U.N. and OPEC meetings and taking its place as another alternative for business in Europe. Historically a bridge between East and West, its storybook 18th-century feel has been augmented with new office towers on the edges of its 23 districts, gentrified neighborhoods, and easy transport, making it one of the most livable and delicious cities to work and to visit. 

Where to Eat and Drink

It’s not all currywurst and Wiener schnitzel. Lunches are long, dinners are shorter—and the Viennese dine late.

Steiereck
The city’s most famous restaurant, wrapped in space-age polished steel, serves modern European cuisine. The food is serious but not pretentious; the bread, honey, and cheese carts in particular will make a grown person weep. The sexy, relaxed Milchbar—downstairs, facing the canal—is the not-so-secret hangout for the business set.

The Three-Minute Travel Guide to Vienna Restaurants and Bars

Plachutta
A minichain, yes, but this is a reliable option to get your fix of Wiener schnitzel or tafelspitz, a Viennese specialty of boiled beef, vegetables, and broth.

Shiki
Japanese at its best. Owner Joji Hattori is a case study in what makes this city so cool: A violin prodigy born in Japan—and a scion of the family behind Seiko Holdings Corp.—he was raised in the music schools of Vienna. Located near the opera, Shiki is open after performances.

The Three-Minute Travel Guide to Vienna Restaurants and Bars

Miznon
This Israeli-run burger joint—located in the shadow of St. Stephen’s Cathedral— is fast, loud, and fun. Burgers come nestled in freshly made pita.

Café Bräunerhof
Eat lunch at this concert/literature cafe if you want to step back in time and see the real Vienna, with its newspapers on wooden rolls and musical instruments stashed in corners. Order the beef consommé, goulash, or beuschel, a ragout of veal kidney, liver, heart, and lungs, with a large dumpling in the middle.

The Three-Minute Travel Guide to Vienna Restaurants and Bars

Café Korb
A coffeehouse famous for its legendary pastries (try the apple strudel) and also for several varieties of würstel (sausage). If it was good enough for Sigmund Freud…

Zum Schwarzen Kameel
The “Black Camel” is the most Harry Cipriani-like restaurant in Vienna, serving coffee and Viennese favorites near one of the city’s most famous streets, the Graben. From here you can pop into all the famous coffee and chocolate emporiums: Julius Meinl, Café Demel, Café Central, and Café Landtmann.

The Three-Minute Travel Guide to Vienna Restaurants and Bars

Loos American Bar
Adolf Loos designed this 290-squarefoot gem in 1908 with its translucent onyx panels, mirrors, and an exquisitely coffered ceiling. Not the best drink in town but certainly the most beautiful bar.

Das Loft
Perched atop the Sofitel in hypergentrified Leopoldstadt, this is the place of the moment thanks to its view, spectacular multicolored ceiling, and crowd of hip millennials.

The Three-Minute Travel Guide to Vienna Restaurants and Bars

Do & Co
The futuristic building, completed in 1990 by architect Hans Hollein, is in the middle of Stephansplatz, Vienna’s most famous plaza. It’s a restaurant, hotel, club, and bar by Austrian-Turkish local-boy-done-good Attila Dogudan. Put on your best, well-dressed cool, and you’ll have the finest view in town from the sixth-floor Onyx Bar.

Blaue Bar at the Hotel Sacher
Tiny and plush, it makes stellar drinks at all hours—and it’s open at all hours.

 

The Three-Minute Travel Guide to Vienna Restaurants and Bars

A Note About Wiener Schnitzel, Tafelspitz, and Wine

Pounded veal and breadcrumbs is, well, pounded veal and breadcrumbs; ask a local for a personal recommendation.

For the luxe version, go to Rote Bar, a grand cocoon of red velvet and silk in the Hotel Sacher, if you’ve never had tafelspitz.

Grüner veltliner is the white; blaufränkisch and zweigelt are world-class reds.

 

10 Other Things to Know

1. It isn’t uncommon to be offered schnapps first thing in the morning to get the day going.

2. In the city that fostered Mozart, Haydn, Berg, Bruckner, and several Strausses—to name just a few of its composers—the recently refurbished Vienna State Opera is an absolute must.

3. See Klimts, Schieles, and Kokoschkas at the Belvedere Museum Vienna, one of the world’s most worthwhile museums. The Albertina is older and more staid.

4. Vienna’s courtly past means the city remains a capital for elegant menswear: Knize for custom suits and accessories; Gino Venturini for shirts; Szaszi or Mühlbauer for hats; Derby Handschuhe for gloves; and Georg Materna or Scheer for shoes.

5. J. & L. Lobmeyr, which made the “sputnik” chandeliers for New York’s Metropolitan Opera House, is the place for all things crystal.

The Three-Minute Travel Guide to Vienna Restaurants and Bars

6. Vienna is famous for fast-moving trams, which don’t necessarily go in the direction you expect them to be heading. Jaywalking can be deadly—look twice and follow the signs.

7. Locals use Mytaxi, not Uber, because it’s less spotty.

8. Those six massive concrete fortresses? Flak towers built by the Nazis during World War II. One houses an aquarium; the city is still considering potential uses for the others.

9. Vienna is a big-small city. Even after a few days, you’ll start to recognize people. Stand in the cold, drinking beer and eating sausages, to make the place come alive.

10. The cost of luxury is high, but it’s easy to reclaim the 20 percent value-added tax— provided you remember the forms and give yourself extra time at the airport.

To contact the author of this story: Peter Elliot in New York at peterelliot@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Siobhan Wagner at swagner33@bloomberg.net, Christine Harper

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.