Cafe Sacher

I can’t decide for you 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 Austria's all-powerful minister, 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 Baroque-Revival rooms on the ground floor of the five-star Hotel Sacher, located 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 Tirolerhor 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.