The 15 Best Schnitzel & Traditional Restaurants In Vienna

Gasthaus Buchecker & Sohn is a traditional Viennese neighborhood restaurant, the kind where you won't find an open table most days. The family establishment is located in the old-money, upper-middle-class part of Vienna, behind the Karlskirche in District 4.

Don’t be deceived by the strangly puritan furnishings – a taxidermied cow’s head here, a Virgin Mary painting there – Gasthaus Wolf is a popular neighborhood restaurant in Vienna’s elegant inner-District 4. The dishes, which are meat-heavy, are consistently excellent. Spreadable pork fat with rye; roasted discs of blood sausage (blunzenradl) with bean salad; beef tartare; three kinds of schnitzels; knödels; slow-cooked duck layered with braised red cabbage. The wine list is local and well curated, featuring top producers such as Weninger and Uwe Schiefer. Mains are €17-23.

Zum Posthorn is a charming neighborhood restaurant not too far from Vienna's city center in District 3, run by the Winkler family (it's nice to see that Winkler junior, in his late twenties, is also involved). Some of the weathered furnishings go back to 1870, but my favorite design piece is the giant wooden cupboard behind the bar where they store wine and beer. At all times, especially in the evenings, the small tables are filled to the brim by local regulars that may include the Austrian President, Alexander Van der Bellen, so be sure to book in advance (by phone).

Located a bit away from the city center near Mariahilfer Straße in District 6, Steman is a classic beisl – local Austrian eatery – that looks and feels the part, too: wooden bar counter, unadorned white walls, creaking floors, increasing noise levels as the night progresses. Most Austrian classics are available and taste pretty good.

Gastwirtschaft Blauensteiner is a longstanding neighborhood restaurant in Vienna's District 8, where the historic Josefstädter Straße sets off (across from it, Cafe Eiles, is a comparably legendary establishment). As soon as you enter, you'll note the creaky wooden floors and the well-earned patina in both of the high-ceilinged halls. Most of the heavy wooden tables are taken up by regulars, judging by their rapport with the otherwise not especially accommodating waiter.

Globally known as the temple of fine schnitzels, Vienna’s Figlmüller needs little introduction. Starting in 1905 with a humble city center wine tavern, the restaurant has since ballooned into an empire with six locations, hundreds of employees, and an annual turnover in excess of €30 million. Today, Figlmüller is a restaurant for tourists – a big and successful commercial enterprise. Most of my Viennese friends have never been, preferring smaller family restaurants with comparable food.

If you’re like me and get a kick out of weathered, run-down neighborhood institutions with a beating heart to them, then be sure to mark up your map with Weinhaus Sittl. The patrons span Viennese young adults, senior citizens, and everyone in between. What draws them here? The friendly price points, surely, but also the surprisingly tasty dishes: cold cuts, schnitzel, meatballs, and even the Kaiserschmarrn can hold its own. And the server-proprietor sisters: Leila and Anna.

The beguiling aromas of bubbly hot butter fill the low-lit inside of Automat Welt, a casual neighborhood restaurant on the less trodden, working-class side of Vienna's Leopoldstadt (District 2). The restaurant is known for its schnitzels, made from pork and fried in clarified butter. The vibes are informal: part of the space is reserved for darts players and there's a corner with books and board games (the Czech author, Bohumil Hrabal, inspired the restaurant's moniker).