Viennese Cuisine

About Viennese Cuisine

By the ULTIMATE Vienna Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Viennese cuisine is one of the few in the world named after a city rather than a country. Shaped by the many peoples of the Habsburg empire, it joins imperial refinement to hearty tavern cooking, and it ends, always, in a coffee house. This is our guide to the dishes and where to taste them.

Viennese cuisine

Viennese cooking, the Wiener Küche, is a deeply historical and celebratory tradition, and one of the few cuisines named after a city rather than a country. The multi-ethnic legacy of the Habsburg empire, from Bohemia to Hungary, shaped it, and it moves easily between imperial refinement and hearty, comforting tavern food.

Wiener Schnitzel

The crown jewel: a tender slice of veal pounded very thin, coated in breadcrumbs and fried to a golden, rippled crust. Made with pork it must be called Schnitzel Wiener Art. It comes with lemon and, traditionally, a refreshing potato salad.

Imperial refinement and tavern comfort, finished with cake in a coffee house.

Tafelspitz

Prime beef simmered gently in a broth of vegetables and spices, a favourite of Emperor Franz Joseph. It is served in its copper pot with the broth, and with apple-horseradish and chive sauce on the side.

Goulash and Zwiebelrostbraten

Rindsgulasch is Vienna’s take on the Hungarian classic: beef slow-cooked with plenty of onions and sweet paprika into a deep, warming gravy, eaten with a bread dumpling (Knödel) or Spätzle. Zwiebelrostbraten is roast beef in gravy under a generous heap of crisp fried onions.

The coffee house table

Dessert in Vienna is an institution, eaten at the afternoon Jause in a historic coffee house. Sachertorte is two layers of dense chocolate sponge with a thin seam of apricot jam under a glossy chocolate glaze. Apfelstrudel wraps spiced apples and raisins in paper-thin pastry, served warm with vanilla sauce or whipped cream. Kaiserschmarrn is a fluffy pancake torn up and caramelised in the pan, dusted with icing sugar and served with plum compote, Zwetschkenröster.

Where to taste it

For Tafelspitz, Plachutta on the Wollzeile; for Wiener Schnitzel, Figlmüller, around the corner, which has served it since Johann Figlmüller opened his wine tavern there in 1905. The Griechenbeisl on the Fleischmarkt, with its vaulted rooms and zither player, has served guests for centuries, and the Wiener Wiazhaus in Wieden is a friendly neighbourhood inn of homemade cooking, cash only. For cake, Café Sacher, Demel on the Kohlmarkt, Café Central and Café Landtmann. All are in this guide.

Our advice: lunch is the time for Tafelspitz, and an afternoon is not complete without coffee and cake; order a Melange.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Viennese Cuisine before you go.