What is on the plate
The Wiener Schnitzel is a thin slice of veal, breaded and fried. The name is protected by the Austrian food code: a schnitzel described simply as "Wiener" must be veal. The same dish made with pork, which is common and less costly, has to be labelled as such, usually as "Schnitzel Wiener Art" or "vom Schwein".
The other pillars of the menu are Tafelspitz, boiled beef served in its broth with apple and horseradish, said to have been Franz Joseph's daily lunch; Gulasch, the Viennese version of the Hungarian stew; and soups with additions such as sliced pancake or liver dumplings. Puddings are substantial enough to be ordered as a main course: Kaiserschmarrn, a shredded pancake with plum compote, and Apfelstrudel.
The Beisl
A Beisl is a plain neighbourhood inn, typically wood-panelled, with a bar at the front and a short menu of the dishes above. Many offer a set lunch of two courses on weekdays. It is where the traditional cooking is most reliably found, and the tourist board counts some 8,000 places to eat and drink in the city altogether.
The coffee house
The first licence to serve coffee in Vienna was granted in 1685, to an Armenian merchant named Johannes Diodato. The better-known story — that the trade began with sacks of beans abandoned by the Ottoman army after the siege of 1683 — is a legend.
Viennese coffee house culture was entered in the national inventory of intangible cultural heritage in 2011. What the entry describes is a way of using a room: marble tables, bentwood chairs, newspapers on wooden holders, and the understanding that a customer who has ordered one coffee may stay for hours. Coffee is brought on a small tray with a glass of water.
The names on the menu are local. A Melange is coffee with steamed milk and foam; a Kleiner Brauner or Grosser Brauner is a single or double espresso with a little cream; a Verlängerter is an espresso lengthened with hot water; and an Einspänner is black coffee in a glass under whipped cream.
The tourist board puts the number of coffee houses of all kinds at about 2,000.
Cakes, and a lawsuit
The Sachertorte, a chocolate cake with a layer of apricot jam under a chocolate glaze, was created in 1832 by Franz Sacher, then an apprentice cook. In the twentieth century the Hotel Sacher and the court confectioner Demel disputed the right to the name for years; under a settlement reached in 1963 the hotel alone may call its cake the "Original Sacher-Torte".
The Heuriger
A Heuriger is a tavern in which a grower sells wine from the grower's own vineyards, and the word also means the wine of the most recent vintage. The right goes back to a decree of Joseph II in 1784, which allowed growers to sell their own produce without a licence. A true Heuriger is open only for certain weeks of the year, and shows that it is serving by hanging a bunch of pine branches over the door.
Vienna has about 600 hectares of vineyard within the city limits and about 100 Heurige selling wine from their own grapes. They are concentrated in the old wine villages on the edge of the Vienna Woods — Grinzing, Nussdorf, Neustift am Walde and Sievering in the nineteenth district — and in Stammersdorf and Strebersdorf across the Danube, and Mauer in the south-west.
The local speciality is the Wiener Gemischter Satz, a white wine made from at least three grape varieties grown together in the same vineyard and harvested and pressed together. It has had its own protected designation since 2013 and accounts for nearly 40 per cent of the area under vine. Food at a Heuriger is traditionally cold or simple, chosen at a counter. Heurigen culture was added to the national inventory in 2019.
In September and October the taverns serve Sturm, the cloudy, still-fermenting juice of the new harvest.
The sausage stand
The Würstelstand, a kiosk selling hot sausages with mustard, bread and beer until late at night, was added to the national inventory in 2024. The standard order is a Käsekrainer, a smoked sausage with cheese in it, or a Frankfurter — the sausage known everywhere else as a Wiener.
Markets
The Naschmarkt, the largest and best known of the city's markets, runs between Karlsplatz and Kettenbrückengasse over the covered River Wien. Vienna's tourist board gives it around 130 stalls, with a market hall of 13 more selling regional produce. The market trades from Monday to Saturday and is closed on Sundays, though its restaurants open. A farmers' market is held on Fridays and Saturdays, and a flea market at the Kettenbrückengasse end on Saturdays.
The Brunnenmarkt in the sixteenth district and the Karmelitermarkt in the second are the markets at which more of the city does its shopping.
Customs
- Paying. The bill is settled at the table. The usual tip is between five and ten per cent, given by naming the rounded-up total when paying, not by leaving coins behind.
- Bread. Rolls placed on the table are charged for by the piece.
- Smoking has been banned inside restaurants, bars and coffee houses since 1 November 2019.
- Sundays. Shops are closed, but restaurants, coffee houses and Heurige are open.
- Water. The tap water is spring water from the Alps and is served with coffee as a matter of course.