Gasthaus Wolf on Grosse Neugasse in Vienna's Wieden cooks classical Beisl plates with a serious offal carte, a wood-panelled side-street room locals book and tourists rarely find.
Signature dishes: Offal, Beuschel, Wiener Schnitzel
Must order: Beuschel; the kitchen's offal handling is what brings the regulars back.
Tip: Dinner only, Monday to Friday from 18:00; the room takes weekends off and books up two weeks ahead.
Address: Grosse Neugasse 20, 1040 Wien, Vienna
Gasthaus Ubl on Pressgasse in Vienna's Wieden has been a family-run Beisl for over fifty years, the green-tiled stove and wood-panelled rooms turning out Zwiebelrostbraten and Schinkenfleckerl to a regulars' crowd.
Signature: Zwiebelrostbraten, Schinkenfleckerl, Tafelspitz
Order: Zwiebelrostbraten with crisp onions; the kitchen's most-ordered plate.
Tip: Cash only; book by phone because the room is almost always full.
Cafe Anzengruber on Schleifmuehlgasse in Vienna's Freihausviertel has been in Croatian hands since 1949, serving Wiener Schnitzel and one of the city's most defended Goulash plates.
Signature: Goulash, Wiener Schnitzel
Order: Goulash with bread dumpling; the kitchen's signature.
Tip: Sit in the Schanigarten in summer; the room turns into a football-screening crowd when the Croatian team plays.
Vollpension on Schleifmuehlgasse in Vienna's Wieden hires Viennese grandmothers and grandfathers to bake the menu of Strudel, Torten and Mehlspeise, a social-enterprise cafe that runs a Naschmarkt branch too.
Signature: Apfelstrudel, Topfengolatschen
Order: Apfelstrudel with vanilla sauce, made that morning by one of the resident grandmothers.
Tip: The dining room fills fast on weekends; the Naschmarkt branch at Stand 343 takes the spillover.
Gasthaus Ubl on Pressgasse in Vienna's Wieden has been a family-run Beisl for over fifty years, the green-tiled stove and wood-panelled rooms turning out Zwiebelrostbraten and Schinkenfleckerl to a regulars' crowd.
Signature: Zwiebelrostbraten, Schinkenfleckerl, Tafelspitz
Order: Zwiebelrostbraten with crisp onions; the kitchen's most-ordered plate.
Tip: Cash only; book by phone because the room is almost always full.
Glacis Beisl inside the MuseumsQuartier on Breite Gasse in Vienna's Neubau cooks classical Viennese plates in a tucked-away bistro with a walnut-shaded garden for summer dining.
Signature: Wiener Schnitzel, Tafelspitz
Order: Wiener Schnitzel from the lunchtime carte, with a Pfiff of Gemischter Satz.
Tip: Open daily 12:00 to midnight, kitchen to 22:30; the walled garden under the old walnut trees is the room's best seat.
Figlmueller Baeckerstrasse in Vienna's first district runs the Figlmueller pork-Schnitzel carte across the cobbled square from the original Wollzeile room, family-run since 1905.
Signature: Wiener Schnitzel, Kaiserschmarrn
Order: The Original Figlmueller Schnitzel; one plate-overhanging cutlet feeds two.
Tip: Open daily 11:30 to 23:30, kitchen to 22:00; the Schnitzel-plus-Beisl menu also runs a vegan Schnitzel option.
Cafe Anzengruber on Schleifmuehlgasse in Vienna's Freihausviertel has been in Croatian hands since 1949, serving Wiener Schnitzel and one of the city's most defended Goulash plates.
Signature: Goulash, Wiener Schnitzel
Order: Goulash with bread dumpling; the kitchen's signature.
Tip: Sit in the Schanigarten in summer; the room turns into a football-screening crowd when the Croatian team plays.
Schweizerhaus in Vienna's Prater is the city's most famous beer garden, the Karlovary-style pork Stelze and unfiltered Budvar tap drawing crowds from March to October under the chestnut trees.
Signature: Stelze (pork knuckle), Budweiser Budvar
Order: Stelze, the slow-roasted pork knuckle, with sauerkraut and a Krug of Budvar.
Tip: Open mid-March to 31 October only; the Stelze sells out by 21:00 on busy summer evenings.
Vollpension on Schleifmuehlgasse in Vienna's Wieden hires Viennese grandmothers and grandfathers to bake the menu of Strudel, Torten and Mehlspeise, a social-enterprise cafe that runs a Naschmarkt branch too.
Signature: Apfelstrudel, Topfengolatschen
Order: Apfelstrudel with vanilla sauce, made that morning by one of the resident grandmothers.
Tip: The dining room fills fast on weekends; the Naschmarkt branch at Stand 343 takes the spillover.
