Mraz und Sohn holds two Michelin stars in a family-run Brigittenauer room on Wallensteinstrasse in Vienna, with the Mraz brothers cooking a long modern Austrian tasting under their parents' roof.
Signature dishes: Tasting menu, Suckling pig
Must order: The full evening tasting; dinner only, no a la carte.
Tip: Dinner Monday to Friday only; the room takes weekends off entirely.
Address: Wallensteinstrasse 59, 1200 Wien, Vienna
Plachutta on Wollzeile in Vienna is the canonical Tafelspitz address, the boiled-beef pot served in copper pans with rösti, apple horseradish, and chive sauce in a 1010-postcode dining room.
Signature: Tafelspitz, Beuschel
Order: Tafelspitz vom Schulterscherzel; the cut Franz Joseph is said to have favoured.
Tip: Open daily 11:30 to 23:30; the kitchen runs lunch through dinner without a break.
Figlmueller has hammered Vienna's most famous Schnitzel on Wollzeile since 1905, a plate-overhanging pork cutlet fried in three fats and served with potato-cucumber salad in a 1010-postcode dining room.
Signature: Wiener Schnitzel vom Schwein, Kaiserschmarrn
Order: The Original Figlmueller Schnitzel; one is plenty for two appetites.
Tip: Book ahead; the room runs at capacity from 11:00 every day, kitchen closes at 21:30.
Lugeck on Lugeck square in Vienna's first district is the Figlmueller family's wider-menu room: the original veal Schnitzel, Tafelspitz, Backhendl and steaks inside a 14th-century building rebuilt in 1897.
Signature: Wiener Schnitzel vom Kalb, Tafelspitz
Order: Wiener Schnitzel vom Kalb; the veal version is what the dish was originally meant to be.
Tip: Less of a crush than the two pork outlets around the corner; book the Schnitzel Academy upstairs to learn the technique.
Skopik & Lohn on Leopoldsgasse in Vienna's Leopoldstadt cooks modern Viennese classics under Otto Zitko's hand-painted ceiling, the 2nd district's most-recommended room.
Signature: Wiener Schnitzel, Backhendlsalat
Order: Wiener Schnitzel with potato salad and lingonberries; the canonical version of the dish.
Tip: Open Monday to Saturday from 18:00 to 01:00; the bar at the front runs later than the kitchen behind.
Meissl & Schadn on Schubertring in Vienna revived a pre-war Ringstrasse name in 2017, the Schnitzel pounded behind an open glass kitchen and served with a tableside lard pour.
Signature: Wiener Schnitzel vom Kalb, Boiled beef
Order: Wiener Schnitzel vom Kalb in butterschmalz, the kitchen's signature.
Tip: Open daily 12:00 to 23:30, warm kitchen to 22:00; book a ringside table to watch the schnitzel pounder.
Zum Schwarzen Kameel on Bognergasse in Vienna has stood since 1618, the 1901 Jugendstil dining room and front-of-house Stehplatz for canapés a single Gesamtkunstwerk in the heart of the first district.
Signature: Open-faced sandwiches, Tafelspitz
Order: Two or three of the open-faced canapés from the front-counter glass; eat them standing with a glass of Gruener Veltliner.
Tip: The standing-bar at the front is the quick-lunch entry; the dining room behind takes serious bookings.
