Viennese cooking is imperial leftovers: dishes gathered from Bohemia, Hungary, northern Italy and the Balkans and naturalised over a couple of centuries. That is why the “Austrian” repertoire contains goulash, dumplings, strudel and a breaded veal cutlet that probably came from Milan.
Wiener Schnitzel
Legally, Wiener Schnitzel is veal. If it is pork it must be sold as Schnitzel Wiener Art — Viennese style — and it will be cheaper. Restaurants that blur this are not doing you a favour.
It should be pounded thin, breaded loosely so the coating puffs and separates from the meat, fried in clarified butter or lard, and served with lemon and either potato salad or parsley potatoes. Not with sauce. Figlmüller is the famous address and serves a plate-sized pork one; Figlmüller Bäckerstraße, Schnitzelwirt in Neubau and any decent Beisl will do it properly and for less.
Tafelspitz
Boiled beef, simmered slowly with root vegetables and served in its broth with apple-horseradish, chive sauce and rösti. It was Franz Joseph’s standing order and it is the dish that most repays a good restaurant. Plachutta is the specialist and serves it in the copper pot with the marrow bone.
The rest
Gulasch in Vienna is thicker and beefier than the Hungarian soup, and often eaten for breakfast after a long night. Backhendl, fried chicken. Beuschel, a ragout of lung and heart, which is genuinely good and rarely ordered by visitors. Knödel in every form — bread, potato, apricot. Kaiserschmarrn, a shredded pancake with plum compote, big enough for two.
The Würstelstand
The sausage stand is a Viennese institution and not a fallback. Käsekrainer — a sausage shot through with cheese, nicknamed Eitrige in Viennese dialect for reasons best not translated — with mustard, a slice of bread and a pickled pepper. Bitzinger behind the Albertina and the stand at Hoher Markt are the ones people argue about. They are open late and everyone from opera-goers to taxi drivers uses them.
The Beisl
A Beisl is a neighbourhood tavern: wooden tables, a short handwritten menu, house wine in a quarter-litre glass, and cooking that has not changed in decades. This is where to eat if you want Vienna rather than Viennese-for-visitors. Look for them in Neubau, Josefstadt and Leopoldstadt.
The other Vienna
Roughly a third of Vienna’s residents have a migration background, and the food reflects it. Balkan grills, Turkish bakeries and Bosnian ćevapi are everywhere, particularly around the Gürtel and in the tenth and sixteenth districts. The Brunnenmarkt in Ottakring is the largest street market in Europe and is Turkish and Balkan almost end to end. This is as much Viennese eating now as Tafelspitz.
Wine and beer
Austrian wine is very good and mostly drunk locally. Grüner Veltliner is the national white — peppery, dry. Riesling from the Wachau. Blaufränkisch and Zweigelt for reds. Gemischter Satz is Vienna’s own field blend and has protected status.
Beer is Märzen by default. Ottakringer is the Viennese brewery. A Seidl is 300ml, a Krügerl half a litre.
Practicalities
Tipping is five to ten per cent, given by telling the server the rounded total. Lunch menus — Mittagsmenü — are cheap and served on weekdays. Sunday closures are common for smaller restaurants and shops, so plan Sunday around a café or a Beisl that opens.
Tap water is excellent — Vienna’s comes from Alpine springs by aqueduct — and is served free with coffee.
Vegetarians
Better served than the traditional menu suggests. Käsespätzle, cheese noodles, and Eiernockerl, egg dumplings, are standard Austrian dishes without meat. Every Beisl does a Gemüselaibchen or a mushroom goulash, and Kaiserschmarrn is a legitimate main course. Beyond that, Vienna has a large vegetarian and vegan scene concentrated in the 7th, 6th and 2nd districts, and the Turkish and Levantine places along the Gürtel and at the Brunnenmarkt cover it comfortably.
Meal times and Sundays
Lunch runs from noon to about two, and the cheap Mittagsmenü stops when it stops. Dinner is early by southern European standards — kitchens in ordinary restaurants often close by half past nine.
Sunday is the thing to plan around. Supermarkets close entirely, and many smaller restaurants and shops with them. Coffee houses, Beisln in the tourist districts, museums and the Würstelstände stay open. Buy groceries on Saturday.
Markets
The Naschmarkt is the famous one and half of it is priced for visitors. The Brunnenmarkt in Ottakring is the largest street market in Europe, Turkish and Balkan almost end to end, and cheap. The Karmelitermarkt in the 2nd has the best Saturday farmers’ market in the city. The Kutschkermarkt in the 18th is small, local and excellent.