Café Prückel

An iconic coffeehouse, Cafe Prückel features a vast interior fitted with floor-to-ceiling windows and giant mirror panels that overlook the Ringstraße. Being in the well-off city center means customers are upscale and elegant, but tourists also venture here, as do stylish students from the University of Applied Arts across the street (also with an excellent museum, the MAK).

Prückel owes its inviting midcentury interior to a 1955 refurbishment by architect Oswald Haerdtl (the back section has regained its original Art Nouveau details, but the front is where the action is). The food includes solid breakfasts, Viennese classics such as schnitzel and goulash, and lots of pastries. The newspaper selections, laid out on a stick in typical Viennese fashion, range from local dailies to the New York Times. A true-to-Vienna cafe experience.