Cafe Sacher

Of course, I can’t decide whether you should visit Cafe Sacher, Vienna’s main tourist destination known for its namesake chocolate sponge cake layered with apricot jam, but I can lay out the facts. The story is well-known: pastry maker Franz Sacher invented the recipe for the Habsburg's all-powerful chancellor, Prince Metternich, in 1832. Later, Franz's commercially-savvy son, Eduard, opened the Hotel Sacher and cashed in on the name.

Most days, you’ll need to wait in line between half-hour to an hour to enter the premises: Two small but elaborate neo-Baroque halls located on the ground floor of the five-star Hotel Sacher behind the Opera House. The Sacher torte is indeed delicious – rich but feather-light. The customers are strictly tourists; local people don’t go near here since similarly good Sacher torte can be had elsewhere for lower prices (for example at Cafe Tirolerhof around the corner).

This isn’t to say that Cafe Sacher is your typical tourist trap; it's simply a soulless commercial operation. A cash cow. More so than Demel, its historical archrival a few blocks away.