Before visiting Vienna, we had a pretty good idea of the foods we were supposed to try. There was Sachertorte, coffeehouses, sausages, beer gardens and plenty of snacks that had shown up in travel videos and TikTok clips.
We checked several of those experiences off the list.
But some of our favorite meals had nothing to do with eating the most famous food in Vienna. They came from walking into a restaurant near our hotel, stopping at a corner bakery, or ordering something simply because it looked good.
Honestly, we didn’t have a bad meal during our time in Vienna.
Breakfast Was Better Than We Expected
We tried several different approaches to breakfast during our stay.
One morning, we stopped at Kaffee Alt Wien for coffee and a proper sit-down breakfast. It gave us some of the traditional café atmosphere Vienna is known for, although we were there for eggs and breakfast rather than lingering over coffee.
We also had Anker Bakery near our hotel. It was the kind of place that worked perfectly when we wanted coffee and a pastry without turning breakfast into a major event.
Our favorite breakfast spot, however, was Budapest Bistro, a Hungarian restaurant only a few blocks away.
We liked it enough that we went back a second time.
The breakfasts weren’t elaborate or designed to look impressive on social media. They were simply filling, well-prepared meals with eggs, sausage, salad and coffee.
After several days of walking around Vienna, that was exactly what we wanted before heading out for the day.
Then there was Dunkin’ at the train station.
Dunkin’ probably isn’t what anyone imagines when talking about the Vienna food scene, but the doughnuts in the display case looked far more interesting than what we usually see at home. And we have somewhat of a tradition of trying the donuts wherever we travel.
We tried a Nutella and the Biscoff varieties, and both tasted as good as they looked.
That was our first reminder that not every memorable food experience needs to come from a famous restaurant.
We Had To Try Coffee And Cake
We’re not really coffee-and-cake people.
Still, we were in Vienna. Skipping the city’s café tradition entirely would have felt like missing part of the experience.
We stopped at Café Mozart, near the Vienna State Opera, for an afternoon break. The setting had the polished, old-world atmosphere we expected from a traditional Viennese café, complete with formal service and a display case filled with cakes and pastries.
Naturally, we ordered a slice of Sachertorte.
We also tried several other desserts, because once you’re sitting in a Vienna café looking at a case filled with cakes, ordering only one feels almost irresponsible.
The cakes were rich and not overly sweet. Did the experience convert us into people who now need coffee and cake every afternoon? No, but we were glad we tried it.
Part of traveling is taking part in the traditions associated with a place, even when they don’t perfectly match your usual habits. We sat in a classic café near the opera and ate Sachertorte in Vienna. That was enough.
A Vienna Hot Dog Isn’t A Vienna Sausage
We also wanted to try some of Vienna’s casual street food.
That included a Vienna hot dog, which is definitely not the same thing as the Vienna sausages sold in cans back home.
We stopped at Bitzinger near the Albertina and Vienna State Opera. Its location makes it an obvious stop for visitors, and it may be a little touristy, but that didn’t bother us.
Sometimes the popular place gives you exactly the experience you’re looking for.
The sausage was served inside a hollowed-out roll, making it easy to eat while standing nearby.
Was it the best meal we had in Vienna? No. But I’m glad I tried it. It was like trying a hot dog in Iceland.
It was different enough from an American hot dog to make the stop memorable.
Meat, Cheese And Drinks At Naschmarkt
One of our more relaxed meals came from visiting Naschmarkt, which was near our hotel.
Rather than ordering an entire meal, we had drinks and a couple of boards to share.
The charcuterie board was loaded with sliced meats, including ham and several types of salami, along with pickles and horseradish.
We also ordered a cheese board with several different varieties, grapes and something sweet to pair with them.
This wasn’t a formal meal, which was part of what made it enjoyable. We could order a few things, take our time and decide what to do next.
By the time we finished, the starters already felt like a meal in their own right.
Our First Biergarten Meal Of The Trip
We had our first biergarten-style meal of the trip at Brandauer Schlossbräu, near Schönbrunn Palace. It was hard to believe we were this far into the trip and hadn’t visited one yet.
I ordered Tafelspitz, a traditional Viennese dish of boiled beef served in broth with vegetables.
It reminded me of a Vienna version of pot roast, although it was much closer to a simple boiled dinner than the rich roasted dish I had imagined.
It wasn’t bad. In fact, the meat was tender and the broth was comforting. It just wasn’t the most exciting thing on the table.
Our friend did much better with the pork
The pork came with crisp skin, gravy and sauerkraut. Compared with my pot of beef and vegetables, it looked much more like the hearty biergarten meal I had expected.
There were also potato pancakes with sauces.
And, of course, we ordered a pretzel.
Unfortunately, everyone started tearing into it before I remembered to take a picture.
By the time I pulled out my phone, only a few pieces remained.
That photograph probably says more about the pretzel than a carefully staged picture would have.
Not Every Meal Has To Be Traditional
There can be pressure when traveling to make every meal culturally significant.
You’re in Vienna, so you should eat Viennese food. You should visit a historic café. You should order whatever dish appeared in the travel video you watched before the trip.
But not every meal needs to check something off a list. One of the most interesting places we visited was Disco Volante, a pizza restaurant near our hotel.
From outside, the colorful neon sign suggested that this wasn’t going to be a typical Vienna dining experience.
Inside, the wood-fired pizza oven was built into an enormous mirrored disco ball.
Every so often, the restaurant dimmed the lights, turned up the music and sent colored lights spinning around the room and for a few minutes, it felt more like a nightclub than a pizzeria.
That was definitely not what I expected to find in Vienna, which was precisely why it stood out. This is why we liked staying outside the most touristy part of the city. We weren’t limited to famous cafés, traditional Austrian restaurants or places aimed mainly at visitors.
Those places became part of our Vienna experience just as much as the Sachertorte and sausage stand.
Vienna’s Food Scene Was Better Without A Checklist
We checked off several, but not all, of the foods and experiences people associate with Vienna.
We had Sachertorte in a traditional café. We ate a Vienna hot dog near the opera. We ordered hearty Austrian dishes at a biergarten and shared meat and cheese at Naschmarkt.
But those weren’t the only meals we remembered.
Some of the best moments came from walking into places near our hotel, ordering something that looked good and seeing what happened. That led us to Budapest Bistro twice, unexpectedly good Dunkin’ snacks at the train station and pizza beside a giant disco ball.
Social media can point you toward viral snacks. Travel guides can tell you which cafés are famous and which local dishes you’re supposed to try. What they can’t predict is the restaurant around the corner that catches your attention when you’re hungry.
Vienna had no shortage of interesting places to eat, as long as we stayed open to explore. And honestly, we didn’t have a bad meal.
Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
Want to sponsor a post, write something for Your Mileage May Vary, or put ads on our site? Click here for more info.
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and sign up to get emailed notifications of when we post.
Whether you’ve read our articles before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
