Café Prückel

Even in a city known for its spacious cafés, Prückel wins the number one prize. Fitted with floor-to-ceiling windows and giant mirror panels, this enormous venue along the Ringstrasse 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.

Being in the well-off city center, District 1, means customers are upscale and elegant, but tourists also venture here, as do stylish students from the University of Applied Arts across the street (inside of which is one of the best museums of Vienna, the MAK). The food is solid and includes both breakfast dishes and savory Austrian classics; yes, schnitzels, too. The newspaper selections, laid out on a stick in typical Viennese fashion, include everything from local dailies to the New York Times. A true-to-Vienna cafe experience.