A whole apricot wrapped in a soft potato or quark dough, boiled, then rolled in golden butter-toasted breadcrumbs and dusted with icing sugar. Served warm with vanilla sauce as the canonical July Mehlspeise on the Beisl carte.
Where to eat it: 4 restaurants across 1 city.
Marillenknoedel are a Bohemian-Viennese tradition tied to the Wachau valley's apricot season in July. The dish travels onto every Wiener Beisl carte during the summer apricot weeks. Vollpension on Schleifmuehlgasse runs the canonical home-cook version with quark dough; Steirereck's tasting menu has lifted the dish into a fine-dining course in season.
Common allergens: Gluten, Egg, Dairy
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.
Cafe Landtmann on Universitaetsring in Vienna has poured at the Burgtheater corner since 1873, Sigmund Freud's preferred coffeehouse with a long carte of cakes and a serious lunchtime kitchen.
Signature drink: Grosser Brauner
Tip: Open daily 07:30 to midnight; the front-room bench seats face the Burgtheater across the Ring.
Gasthaus Poeschl on Weihburggasse in Vienna's first district is a Hermann Czech-renovated Beisl turning out the canonical Viennese carte, the quiet centre's most reliable mid-priced Wiener Schnitzel.
Signature: Wiener Schnitzel, Backhendlsalat
Order: Wiener Schnitzel; the Backhendlsalat is the lunch alternative.
Tip: Open Monday to Saturday 12:00 to 23:00, kitchen to 22:00; book the back room for a quieter table.
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.
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