5 Best Restaurants in Vienna, Austria

A few doors down from the Hofburg Palace, Julius Meinl am Graben opened as a caterer to the Habsburgs in 1862 and has remained Vienna's most posh grocery store. On the first floor up is a cozy salon, all dark wood and deep-orange banquettes. The window tables have stunning views over the Kohlmarkt. Allow the excellent staff to guide you through the daily changing menu with their expertise and charm. Note: after 7 pm you enter via an outdoor elevator on Naglergasse.

Even though night owls flock to the bar at Motto am Fluss until the wee hours, this sleek eatery serves an inspired selection of dishes when the sun is up, too, like tuna steak with creamy avocado sauce. The building overlooks the Danube and resembles an ocean liner, with a retro 1950s interior of checkerboard floors below and gigantic, globe-mirrored lamps above. Chairs and tables are of a heavy, varnished, dark timber. The dining room is sprawling and has huge windows through which you can watch the city's twinkling lights.

Set within the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), this warm and stylish restaurant offers fresh, locally grown fare under high, coffered ceilings and with furnishings and flatware to feed appetites for design. Everything is either made on-site or commissioned from independent local enterprises. Dishes might include tasty European char tartare with red-cabbage mayo and miso, or octopus stew with broad beans and chorizo.

Attached to the Burgtheater, this was once the carriage vestibule of the emperor's court theater. Today, the dining room is full of splendor and a menu that changes frequently, but diners can expect the best from one of Austria's most celebrated chefs. Dishes often include their famous Hummerkrautfleisch, a Viennese creamy cabbage dish, with the addition of lobster, a house specialty (which you can order in three sizes---a taster, an entree, or a main clourse).