A piece of boiled beef, typically from the rump cap, slowly poached with root vegetables and served in copper pans with a clear broth, apple horseradish, chive sauce, roesti and creamed spinach. The plate Emperor Franz Joseph is said to have eaten daily.

Tafelspitz was a court-cuisine dish under the Habsburgs and became a bourgeois Sunday lunch in 19th-century Vienna. Each cut of beef has its own name and use: Schulterscherzel for tenderness, Beinfleisch with the bone in, Kruspelspitz with cartilage. Plachutta opened his Wollzeile restaurant in 1986 specifically to cook the dish, with twelve cuts named on the menu. The dish remains the canonical Viennese boiled-beef tradition.

5 editor picks for Tafelspitz in Vienna, ranked by editorial score. All Vienna signature dishes · Tafelspitz across every city.