24 Best Restaurants in Vienna, Austria

The classic Austrian dessert, the Sachertorte, resulted from a family saga that began with Franz Sacher, Prince von Metternich's pastry chef, and ended with Franz's son and his wife, Anna, opening the 19th-century hotel. Today, the Restaurant Grüne Bar continues the tradition of creating some of Vienna's finest cuisine. The restaurant has two menus—one with traditional Austrian fare, and one featuring more innovative dishes. The slightly less formal Rote Bar, at the front of the hotel, always has classics on offer, including Tafelspitz (boiled beef), the favorite dish of Emperor Franz Josef.

Considered one of the world's 50 best restaurants and holding two Michelin stars, this eatery is definitely the most raved-about place in Austria. Winning dishes include delicate wild boar's head with "purple haze" carrots, turbot in an avocado crust, or char in beeswax, yellow turnips, and cream. At the end of the meal, an outstanding selection of more than 120 cheeses awaits. The restaurant is in the former Milchhauspavilion, a grand Jugendstil-vintage dairy overlooking the Wienfluss promenade in the Stadtpark, the main city park on the Ringstrasse. If you don't want the whole gala Steirereck experience, opt for a bite in the more casual lower-floor Meierei, which is still stylish, with its hand-painted floor and furniture in shades of milky white.

Back when Beethoven dined at the Black Camel, it was already a foodie landmark. Since then, it has been renovated (but only in 1901) and more recently split into a Delikatessen and a restaurant. Try the former if you're in a hurry—fresh sandwiches are served at the counter. If time allows, dine in the elegant, intimate, Art Nouveau dining room. The Beinschinken (Viennese ham) is the specialty of the house and is renowned throughout Austria.

If you're lucky, you can snag a table in the idyllic garden of this low-key pub, hidden away inside a delightful Biedermeyer cobbled courtyard. The staff is young, hip, and carefee, and will gladly serve you breakfast until 3pm—both traditional Viennese-style plus vegan and vegetarian options. Vines and ivy provide cover from the intense summer sun while walls of the passageway leading from the courtyard are lined floor to ceiling with concert placards. In winter, there's nothing more cozy than to sit inside and sip the ginger apricot punch.

This Wiener schnitzel institution might be touristy, but it's known for breaded veal and pork cutlets so large they overflow the plate and still attracts locals, too. The cutlet is hammered—you can hear the mallets pounding from a block away—so that the schnitzel winds up wafer-thin. It's delicious because the quality (as well as the size: half a pound each) is unrivaled; don't forget to add lemon juice. The potato salad made with Styrian pumpkin seed oil (the oil is an Austrian specialty) is the best in town, and if you want to try the recipe at home, you can even buy its cookbook. If this location is full, try the one just around the corner, at Bäckerstrasse 6.

The best place for a bite of traditional food near the Kunsthaus Wien and the Hundertwasser House is Gasthaus Wild. Formerly a wine tavern, it's now a down-to-earth beisl (the equivalent of a pub, also called a gasthaus), where the menu changes regularly but almost always features local dishes. Be sure to try the Schinkenfleckerl (delicious pasta squares stuffed with ham and cabbage), and, most importantly, check out the selection of wild game when in season. The restaurant also offers fine wines (mainly Austrian) and an extensive dessert menu.

One of the friendliest places in Vienna, this wood-panelled wonderful old cellar—just across the street from the Konzert Haus—offers some of the heartiest home cooking in town. Come here to enjoy dishes that hail from Carinthia, one of the best being the Kas'nudeln (potatoes and spinach pasta filled with cheese and onion), best served with green leaf salad. Another favorite is the Tafelspitzsulz mit Kernöl und Zwiebeln (cold cut of beef in aspic served with onions). You'll want to use the Semmel (white bread roll) to sop up that last drop of dark-green pumpkinseed-oil dressing. In clement weather, the outdoor area has an appealing beer garden-esque atmosphere.

Dating back four centuries, this engaging old-world house sits in the heart of Old Vienna. It is one of the country's top addresses for beer connoisseurs and serves brews, both draft and bottled, Dunkeles (dark) and Helles (light), from the Gösser brewery in Styria. Of the four eating areas, many diners opt for the covered courtyard, where beer seems to taste better no matter the weather. Beyond the obligatory (but first-class) Wiener schnitzel with potato salad, another good choice is the Kas'nocken (pasta dumplings topped with melted Tyrolean mountain cheese).

Neatly tucked away in a quiet and quaint area of the Old City, this ancient inn goes back half a millennium (Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert all dined here). Yes, it's touristy, yet the food, including all the classic hearty dishes like goulash soup, Wiener schnitzel, and Apfelstrudel, is as good as that in many other beisl. You can hear its age in the creaking floorboards when you walk through some of the small, dark-wood-panel rooms. The Mark Twain room has walls and ceiling covered with signatures of the famed who have been served here.

A few doors down from the Hofburg Palace, Julius Meinl am Graben opened as a caterer to the Habsburgs in 1862 and has remained Vienna's most posh grocery store. On the first floor up is a cozy salon, all dark wood and deep-orange banquettes. The window tables have stunning views over the Kohlmarkt. Allow the excellent staff to guide you through the daily changing menu with their expertise and charm. Note: after 7 pm you enter via an outdoor elevator on Naglergasse.

This landmark café is on one of the most charming squares in Vienna. The "Little Cafe" is open daily for coffee, cocktails, and light snacks, and few places are more delightful to sit in and relax on a warm afternoon or evening. In summer, tables are set up outside on the cobblestone square where the only sounds are the tinkling fountain and the occasional chiming of bells from the ancient Franciscan monastery next door.

In case its name doesn't give it away, the proximity to the opera house should be a clue that among the dinner guests will be many of the city's regular operagoers, sitting for a meal before the show. Located on a side street near Kärntnerstrasse, this restaurant focuses on traditional Austrian dishes. Other favorites on the menu include pork roast with cabbage and dumplings covered in a light caraway sauce, and roasted veal liver with marjoram gravy over buttered rice. The decor is stark white and the interior long and narrow, making it the perfect contrasting canvas for the warm comfort food it serves.

Set within the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), this warm and stylish restaurant offers fresh, locally grown fare under high, coffered ceilings and with furnishings and flatware to feed appetites for design. Everything is either made on-site or commissioned from independent local enterprises. Dishes might include tasty European char tartare with red-cabbage mayo and miso, or octopus stew with broad beans and chorizo.

This "beautiful pearl" is one of the most popular dining spots for locals in Leopoldstadt. It offers traditional Austrian comfort food, including Tafelspitz—boiled beef, the favored dish of Emperor Franz Josef—and Wiener schnitzel, but its real palate pleasers are the wide selection of vegetarian dishes on the menu. Avocado salad, pumpkin cream soup, spinach ravioli, and red lentil soup are among the top favorites. The interior is surprisingly spacious, so the restaurant can get crowded, but not cramped. The staff is friendly, and seems to tolerate well the children who can't resist roaming the vastness.

When you're at the Prater, try to eat at Schweizerhaus, which has been serving frothy mugs of beer, roast chicken, and Stelze (a huge hunk of crispy roast pork on the bone) for more than 100 years. The informal setting, with wood-plank tables indoors or in the garden in summer, adds to the fun.

Many restaurants have set up shop in former stalls on the market square in the artsy neighborhood that has sprung up around Karmelitermarkt, just across the Donaukanal, including Skopik & Lohn. The menu features international fare, such as roast chicken with figs and chestnuts, and linguine with fresh chanterelle mushrooms (which only grow two months out of the year). The interior is rather minimalist and modern, except for artist Otto Zitko's massive doodling spree on the ceiling. The black-and-white art creeps like a vine onto the walls---you'll want to get out your markers and color it in.

Long known as a reliable haunt for breads and strudels, Ströck has multiple locations throughout the city. Open for evening and weekend meals, the eateries serve only organic, locally grown goods. For a light dessert, try the vegan chocolate-dipped cherries with brown sugar. Breakfast and lunch are served only on weekends.

The pioneer of private dining in Vienna, Angelika Apfelthaler prepares and serves a gourmet dinner three times a week in her lovely Mediterranean-color dining room. This is a one-woman show from start to finish. Her effortless presentation of subtly flavored dishes—such as tomato stuffed with mackerel and seasoned with pine nuts and raisins—is available for a maximum of 14 guests. Toward the end of the meal comes the fantastic cheese plate, with Apfelthaler's homemade mostarda (a blend of melon, pineapple, and ginger), and then the grand finale, her signature "chocolate heaven" cake. The price for six courses is €55.

Attached to the Burgtheater, this was once the carriage vestibule of the emperor's court theater. Today, the dining room is full of splendor and a menu that changes frequently, but diners can expect the best from one of Austria's most celebrated chefs. Dishes often include their famous Hummerkrautfleisch, a Viennese creamy cabbage dish, with the addition of lobster, a house specialty (which you can order in three sizes---a taster, an entree, or a main clourse).

Down an old cobbled lane between Singerstrasse and Schulerstrasse and a stone's throw from the cathedral, Weibels Wirtshaus is one of the coziest places to have a lazy lunch or a quiet dinner. The dinner menu changes with the season; in summer try the cold cucumber soup with cilantro shrimp, and strawberry-rhubarb mousse for dessert. Try to reserve a table upstairs in the intimate Galerie where there are only a few tables. On sunny days, opt for outside seating in the delightful garden. In winter, Wiener schnitzel with beer is about as cozy as it gets.

In a delightful tree-shaded courtyard, this Biergarten has quickly become immensely popular. Zattl is the owner and he loves his beer, and the secret to his success is to have huge tanks of Bohemia's best brew, unpasteurized Pilsner Urquell, delivered to the cellar to be tapped directly into the glass. Good local dishes like veal goulash and grilled chicken are inexpensive and well prepared. Stick to the garden for a quiet break, unless you prefer the pub-like atmosphere inside.