Vienna Recommendations

[sarahsas]

We will be in Vienna for 3-4 days and then in southern Austria for a wedding in October. We are working on booking an apartment from vrbo right now. I'd love recommendations for great food (I'm a vegetarian but adventurous within those parameters, h eats meat), dessert places/cafes, can't miss sites, etc. I love small local places. The outdoor market looks awesome and right up my alley for sure. Thanks!

[jennybee1018]

We were just in Vienna in May (my absolute favorite city!!!). We are big beer drinkers so I do have some recommendations that serve great beer, but they also serve great food :-) I got a Radler everywhere we went - half lager, half lemonade. It's my favorite drink in Vienna!

First and most importantly, 1516 Brewing Company. If not for the beer, for the soft pretzels! Their ribs and spatezle were also amazing! Also, it's sort an expat bar so English is widely spoken. It's the best! (Honestly, we spent half our trip here :-P)

For breakfast, we loved this little place called Corns and Pops! They had 11 different kinds of muesli, bagel sandwiches, waffles, pancakes and good coffee :-) Here is the yelp page, with reviews in English. www.yelp.com/biz/corns-n-pops-wien-2

Corns and Pops is super close to the Naschmarket, which is like an open air farmers market, with restaurants and stores throughout. This is our favorite place to get a doner kebab! And falafel!

A friend had posted about a hot dog cart by the opera house (it's actually outside the Albertina Museum), and we finally got to try it on this visit. It's SO good. They hollow out a huge hot dog bun, fill it with ketchup and mustard and stick the hot dog in the bun. No seats here - just enjoy being outside with the delicious hot dog and fries! It's called Bitzinger, make sure you get there ;-)

I like cats, so when I found out Vienna had a cat cafe, I had to go :-) It's called Cafe Neko and it's really cute! They have tea, coffee, cakes, etc. And cats!

My DH's favorite place is the Schweizerhaus - we happened upon this place two years ago when we stayed close to the Praterstern. It's a beer place - but it's also well known for it's pork knuckle! I had bratwurst when we went, and it was delicious. (They also had some veggie options - pasta, etc) It's also a fun atmosphere - located in the middle of the amusement park, and it has this outside beer garten area that is just kind of magical :-) Definitely try to go!

Praterstern is also fun to wonder through! Amusement parks aren't super popular these days any more it seems, but this one is still popular and frequented by tourists and locals :-)

We also like the Siberstern Brau, which is a beer place, but again has good food - and is pretty touristy so the food must be good! (It's close to the naschmarket so we've always had a doner kebab before going and didn't eat!) They brew their own beer right on premises, so it's a fun place to go.

Not particularly a restaurant rec, but I highly recommend checking out the MQ or Museums Quarter! There are restaurants in the museums which are supposed to be good. Also, there's a neat courtyard area where you can just hang out and relax, and they have free wi-fi :-) So we would stop there to relax and kill some time before heading to our next destination.

Oh!!! And you should go to Tichy!!! It's an ice cream store/parlor - it's located all the way at the end of the Red Line at Reummanplatz, and it's totally worth it :-) You'll see signs all over the city, so make the effort to go. It's really good ice cream :-)

Of course, there's also Schronbrunn, the Opera House and Sacher Torte to experience :-) But these are some of our favorite places to check out in Wien :-) Have a great time! (Just writing this is making me want to go back) :-P

[wanderlustfoodie]

I went to Austria last summer. Here is our itinerary shorthand:

Vienna:
Sights: Belvedere Palace, Naschmarkt, Hofburg Palace/Imperial Treasury, Schonbrunn Palace, St. Stephen's, shopping on Mariahilferstrasse and Kartnerstrasse

Food: Meierei, Café Central, Café Demel for breakfast/pastries; Bitzinger Wurstl Stand for lunch; Gaumenspiel, Zum Finsteren Stern, Vestibul, Glacisbeisl, Poschl, Steirereck (currently #9 restaurant in world based on San Pellegrino ratings) for dinner. My parents had two extra days there and ate at Rudi's Beisl and Figmuller and liked both.

We stayed at the Hotel Imperial, which was very nice. ETA: Just saw you're staying with your sister so you likely won't need hotel reviews but I'll just keep this up for the other posters who are planning trips there.

For day trips we did the following. All of them were fantastic:
Salzburg: lots to see here

Bratislava, Slovakia: like Prague only with fewer tourists

Danube Valley: there's a combi-ticket you can buy at the train station that includes the following: the train ticket from Vienna to Melk, entrance to Melk Abbey (awesome), one way ticket down the Danube river past quaint river-side villages where you disembark at Krems to wander, then train ticket from Krems back to Vienna. It is an awesome deal. We have a friend who imports Austrian and German wines, so while we were in Krems we did some wine-tasting at private cellars our friend arranged for us. It was one of the most memorable days. So idyllic floating down the Danube.

Read more: pandce.proboards.com/thread/275426/austria-sees?page=1#ixzz3ABiDc9so

[sarahsas]

Thanks jennybee1018 and wanderlustfoodie!

I bookmarked several of your suggestions on Yelp. My bff just moved to Vienna and she loves cats, so she is going to die when she hears about the cat cafe! Ha!

I'm in early weeks of being pg and hope I still am while I'm there, so no lager But I often find that breweries have yummy food!

[jennybee1018]

I'm glad to help!

We're lucky that we've been to Vienna a few times, so we're always discovering new things!

The cat cafe is awesome :-) There are 5 cats that live there, and they like to chase each other and play! The whole place is set up with a big cat tree and lots of things for them to climb on. You even buy cat treats for them! We went in the morning when they opened at 10, and they were a little sleepy, but they picked up within the hour or so while we were there.

[sent]

My husband ate at the Bitzinger Wurstl Stand like at least 3 times because he liked it that much.  As a vegetarian, you won't find anything to eat here.  I don't eat a lot of sausage type stuff and found nothing to eat but it was fun to walk there.  We went during the Christmas Markets so we didn't actually eat at very many restaurants while we were there. We had time to spare so we took a morning trip to Bratislava, but I don't think I would've missed anything if we had skipped it. Salzburg, on the other hand, was worth it. We spent 2 days here and I loved it more than Vienna.

[rondonalddo]

Kunsthistorisches Museum has great stuff, and the building is amazing. Good food in the cafe, too. Naturhistorisches Museum right across the courtyard is really cool, too-- it has the Venus of Willendorf anf a kerbillion mineral samples, if that's your bag.

I loved seeing the Spanish Riding School performance. Standing room tickets are cheap, and the show lasts about an hour and 20 minutes, so it's not too long to stand if you don't have leg/back/feet problems. I do recommend standing at the end of the hall, though. Your view gets obstructed if you stand on the longer sides.

Said the Butcher to the Cow had the best burger I've ever had (the chili burger) and they have a huge gin and gin and tonic menu.

Saigon Restaurant was yummy Vietnamese, if you wind up wanting something non-Austrian.

One note on service, waiters are really nice, but you do have to ask for the check (sometimes multiple times)-- they will not ask you if you want the check.