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Where to eat in Vienna: my 26 favourite restaurants

Nobody eats well following the tour buses. These are the 26 restaurants in Vienna I'd send a friend to: the cheap neighbourhood place, the one locals keep to themselves, the splurge that's genuinely worth it. No photo menus.

Bitzinger Würstelstand Albertina€5–10 · Sausage standThe legendary sausage kiosk behind the opera, where black-tie opera-goers queue next to taxi drivers for a Käsekrainer at midnight. Directions
Café Central€10–25 · Café · AustrianA palatial 1876 coffee house where Trotsky and Freud once sat: come for a slice of cake, a Melange and the soaring arches. Directions
Café Hawelka★ 4.3 · $Smoke-stained walls, sagging velvet benches and barely a renovation since Leopold Hawelka opened the doors in 1939. Directions
Café Jelinek★ 4.3 · $No piano player, no tour groups, just a wood stove crackling in winter and locals reading papers beneath photos of long-gone regulars. Directions
Cafe LandtmannVienna's most famous coffeehouse, open since 1873 and once Sigmund Freud's regular. Directions
Cafe PruckelA 1950s time capsule on the Ring, all mint-green banquettes and original mid-century interior, protected as a landmark. Directions
Café Sacher★ 4.2 · $$Home of the original Sachertorte since 1832, all red velvet, chandeliers and tuxedoed waiters. Directions
Café Sperl★ 4.4 · $Billiard tables from 1880, original Thonet chairs and the rustle of newspapers on wooden holders: Sperl is the coffeehouse other Viennese coffeehouses imitate. Directions
Demel★ 4.3 · $$Former purveyor to the imperial court, and the pastry kitchen still works behind glass so you can watch strudel dough stretched to transparency by hand. Directions
Ferhat Döner★ 4.3 · $The line down Favoritenstraße moves quickly because everyone orders the same thing: charcoal-grilled beef döner from a Styrian farm, no heavy sauces masking the meat, around €6. Directions
Figlmüller Wollzeile€20–35 · AustrianThe home of the schnitzel so big it overhangs the plate: a Vienna institution since 1905, just off St Stephen's. Directions
Gasthaus Grünauer★ 4.8 · $$A 4.8 Google rating, evenings only, closed on weekends: this family-run Neubau gasthaus, going since 1957, cooks for its regulars and nobody else. Directions
Gasthaus Pöschl€20–35 · AustrianA tiny, cosy traditional tavern near the opera doing perfect Viennese home cooking: schnitzel, goulash, Tafelspitz. Directions
Gasthaus Zu den 3 HackenOne of Vienna's oldest inns, a Beisl going back to 1450 where Schubert once kept his regular table. Directions
GriechenbeislThe oldest restaurant in Vienna, serving since 1447 in a warren of low vaulted rooms. Directions
Mayer am Pfarrplatz★ 4.4 · $$Beethoven lodged in this Heiligenstadt house while working on the Ninth; today the estate pours Wiener Gemischter Satz from its own vineyards under chestnut trees. Directions
Mochi★ 4.6 · $$Vienna queues for this Leopoldstadt Japanese spot the way other cities queue for clubs. Directions
Mraz & Sohn★ 4.7 · $$$Two Michelin stars hide in workaday Brigittenau, a district with zero tourist attractions, which is precisely the point. Directions
Plachutta Wollzeile€35–55 · AustrianThe temple of Tafelspitz: Vienna's signature boiled beef, served with all the trimmings and a little ceremony. Directions
Restaurant Amador★ 4.6 · $$$Juan Amador cooks beneath vaulted glass in a working brick wine cellar under the Grinzing vineyards, splicing Spanish technique into Austrian produce across three-Michelin-star tasting menus. Directions
Steirereck im Stadtpark€150+ pp · Austrian · MichelinVienna's finest restaurant: two Michelin stars in the Stadtpark, modern Austrian tasting menus that regularly rank among the world's best. Directions
Trzesniewski★ 4.5 · $Some two dozen kinds of open-faced sandwiches, most under €2, served the same way since 1902: egg and cucumber, herring and onion, the famous bacon with egg spread. Directions
Vollpension★ 4.5 · $Real Viennese grandmas bake the cakes here, employed by a social business built to pay seniors for what they do best. Directions
Würstelstand Leo★ 4.4 · $Vienna's oldest sausage stand has been frying at the Döblinger Gürtel since 1928, run by the founding Mlynek family for generations. Directions
Zum Schwarzen Kameel★ 4.3 · $$$Trading since 1618 and dressed in Art Nouveau since 1902, the Kameel is two places in one: a formal dining room and a standing bar where suited Viennese demolish Beinschinken rolls with freshly grated horseradish. Directions
Zur Herknerin★ 4.7 · $$Stefanie Herkner cooks her late father's recipes in a tiny Wieden dining room with a handwritten menu that changes daily. Directions