Two staples of Europe, Prague and Vienna are full of history, culture, and of course good food. A roughly 4 hour train will take you from one city to the next, with quite different atmospheres. Vienna is clean and sophisticated, while Prague felt like the younger, grungier side (with some incredible Asian food). Our take? Best vars in Vienna, best food in Prague.
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Top Restaurants
Overall: 100% Recommend
Service: 8/10 Atmosphere: 9.5/10 Food: 8/10 (cheese is 10/10) Beverage Program: 9/10
In 2025, Steirereck jumped from a 2 to a 3 Michelin star, and they deserve it. This modern, ‘French with Austrian influences’ focuses on local ingredients and quality. There is not a bad seat in the house. And they do book fast, so make a reservation online as soon as you can. We suggest lunch. The restaurant is located in a stunning park, and on a nice day, they open the full length glass doors to let in the natural breeze. The wine pairing is good, but a bit on the small side for such a long meal. Whatever you do, save room for the cheese cart and listen to the cheesemonger. This is (potentially and probably) the best cheese cart in the world. Certainly the best we’ve ever experienced.
Overall: 100% Recommend
Service: 9/10 Atmosphere: 7.5/10 Food: 9.5/10 Wine: 8.5/10
This river-side restaurant borders the Charles Bridge, on the opposite side of the river from many popular hotels (such as the Four Seasons). They have both indoor seating and outdoor seating, directly on the river, and this is a great waterfront lunch in general- for Prague it is awesome. The food went above our expectations. Do not leave without trying the truffle pasta.
Overall: Certainly Recommend
Service: 8/10 Atmosphere: 7/10 Food: 8/10 Beverage: 6.5/10
QQ is on pretty much every ‘must go’ list for Prague, and with a good reason. This Balinese-Chinese restaurant has intense flavors, a friendly chef, and a casual vibe that would please most visitors. The service was very good for Prague- which is not necessarily known for its service. And some of the dishes went beyond an 8 rating and were closer to a 10 (beef rendang!). The dishes are on the smaller side. Here’s what we recommend:
Starters- Beef tartare and chicken sate (the 5 spice bbq pork ribs were also good… however, skip the tuna tataki)
Entree- Beef rendang (100% a must), side of sauteed veggies, side of marinated cucumbers (also outstanding)
Overall: Recommend
Service: 7.5/10 Atmosphere: 8/10 Food: 8/10 Beverage: 5/10
Taro was a newer restaurant when we visited, but it is the exact type of restaurant that we like. Modern, clean, open kitchen with counter seating only. They give very modern-Michelin vibes, with well thought out and tasty Vietnamese dishes based on the chef’s family and childhood. The food scoring of 8/10 is really just an average, there were quite a few that were solid 10’s. The weak point is the wine list, which is mostly natural wines, but it is really hard to find a good wine list in Prague due to the importing structure (and the sommelier was incredibly nice and tried very hard, so if any restaurant can improve their list in the future, it could very well be Taro).
Overall: Highly Consider
Service: 5/10 Atmosphere: 5/10 Food: 10/10 Beverage: 5/10
Okay, normally restaurants with ratings like this do not make our “top restaurants” category… however, take a double glance at the food rating and you will see why. We are warning you with the rating… this is a very casual place, and the service is comical at times. Also, importantly- Hanil offers both Japanese and Korean food, but we only tried the Korean food, so this rating specifically applies to that. But man. If/when we go back to Prague, this will be our first stop. Go for a very casual lunch, and literally just copy our order: Bibimbap, kimchi, japchae. (Plus Kirin beer, and if you’re having a ‘fun lunch’, add soju and make your own ‘soju spritz’ with a glass of ice, soju, and sprite.) If we could pick a restaurant to have near our house, this might just be it.
Top Bars
Overall: Highly Recommend
Service: 9/10 Atmosphere: 8/10 Bar Program: 9/10
This dimly lit, swanky bar ended up being our favorite bar in Vienna, largely due to (of course) finding a favorite bartender (ask for Eddie). Aside from that, this place really is great. There is something in the beverage program for any taste, and their selection of gins was giant. The atmosphere is comfortable, there are plenty of bar seats, and you can make a reservation online for weekend nights when it gets busier. (As for the food, skip the hot dog).
More Restaurants & Bars...
Overall: Sure
Service: 7.5/10 Atmosphere: 7/10 Food: 7/10 Beverage: 7/10
A good spot for a cocktail, with hits and misses overall. However, we were there every night (it was at our hotel), plus they did let us eat take-out shawarma at the bar… so we like them.
Overall: Worth a Stop
Service: 7/10 Atmosphere: 7/10 Food: 7/10 Beverage: 7.5/10
This is a chill hipster bar that is designed to look light and airy, and it is a pretty comfortable stop. They do put some sort of fragrance in the air, but besides that, the atmosphere was easy. The jalapeño grilled cheese snack was excellent.
Overall: Worth a Stop
Service: 7/10 Atmosphere: 6/10 Food: 7/10 Beverage: 7/10
This tiny hotel bar will let you eat at one of their 5ish bar seats if you ask nicely, otherwise they have small, comfortable tables. Glasswing Bar is the ‘little sister’ of the namesake restaurant next door (we haven’t tried), but it may explain why we loved snacking here so much. And, truly, there is a good reason to go here- they have the best goulash we have ever had (wild sentence we never expected to say, but we did go back for it twice). They also have a nice local dry riesling by the glass that was a favorite during our stay in Vienna. Beware of a random karaoke singer.
Overall: Recommend
Service: 7.5/10 Atmosphere: 7.5/10 Beverage: 7.5/10
This probably would have gone in our favorite bar list, but we are stubborn, and the second time we went we got kicked out because Gio was wearing shorts on a boiling hot day (so don’t wear shorts!) It should be mentioned that this was after we went the first time, and made friends with the bartenders, who were sad to see us leave, but… alas, dress codes are weird. Anyways, this bar is still great. Bartenders are fun. We still like it. Make sure to book a reservation.
Overall: Eh…
Service: 6/10 Atmosphere: 6/10 Food: 6/10 Beverage: 6.5/10
Kornut claims to be the best, freshest seafood restaurant in Vienna. To us, it came off like they were trying to be Milo’s but didn’t have the quality to match. It’s also just not that nice. However, there is no Milo’s in Vienna, so for Vienna seafood restaurants, it might be pretty good. It was just okay for us. It would probably be better for lunch than dinner (our first mistake). They do try to sell you aggressively on ordering a whole fish- that was our second mistake (again, good at other places, not so good here). If you do go, we recommend sticking to entrees instead, and the octopus starter was specifically good.
Overall: Skip
Service: 6/10 Atmosphere: 5/10 Food: 5/10 Beverage: 3/10
Everyone tells you to go to Mochi in Vienna. Everyone. And it is by far the hardest online reservation to secure (even harder to get into than the 3 Michelin starred spots). But this sushi/asian place is super busy, wildly uncomfortable, and the wooden, 90-degree-angled seats are packed together so tightly we saw multiple dishes shatter as people tried to stand up. However, there was one amazing item on the menu: Tan Tan Salad. It is bolognese sauce on a salad. It sounds gross, but it was surprisingly delicious. The actual sushi, however, was too sweet and pretty hard to eat (and that’s compared to a bolognese salad). So, lesson: if you can’t get a reservation, you’re not missing out.
Overall: Certainly Recommend
Service: 7/10 Atmosphere: 6.5/10 Food: 7.5/10 Beverage: It’s beer!
This tourist area Czech brewery has good food, making it a nice spot for sampling local dishes or trying a beer flight outside if the weather is nice (but very close to tourist walking path). There is also ample space inside. We had the sausage plus the beer tasting, and was pleasantly surprised with the food quality. If we stayed longer we would have tried the duck prosciutto (tell us how it is!)
Overall: For Thursday Trivia Night
Not rating
This Aussie joint gets packed on Thursday nights for trivia. It is a great trivia night, and they have food + recommend a big bowl of popcorn. You need to email them [email protected] at least a week in advance to book a table (teams can be pretty much any size, but every table will be filled).
Overall: Recommend
Not rating
This is our favorite sausage stand in Vienna. Enjoy!
Hotels
We stayed at Four Seasons Prague, and really enjoyed ourselves. If/when we return, this will likely still be our first choice. The rooms are spacious, the concierges were helpful, and there is a bar that stays open late night. The gym is on the smaller side, but still has most of what you would want. The pool requires booking ahead of time. Location wise, it worked very well for us, with lots of walkable options around.
Hotel Imperial Vienna has many positive attributes, and a few things that we would change. The best part is the location, which is in a nice part of the city for walking around. And the concierges are great. They double upgraded us to the Imperial Suite, which is giant with high ceilings, has a comfortable bed, and is on the second floor, so we didn’t have to take the (very old) elevators. There is also a lot of history in this hotel. The downsides: We didn’t love the bar, we could not find the gym, and it at times it did feel a little dated. Because of the location, though, there is a good chance we would stay there again.
The rooms at Anantara were modern and nice, and the lobby bar was a comfortable place to grab a drink. The gym was also good. This is in a quieter part of town, but it is walkable to Dino’s Apothecary- one of our favorite bars in Vienna. Hotel wise, we had a bit of a hard time with check-in (they didn’t have our room ready, so upgraded us to a smaller room… which we then asked to change to our original room, which turned out to be overbooked. We ended up with a double upgrade but it did take a couple hours). But, worst of all, the laundry service left all of our clothes smelling so disgusting that we had to relaunder them at the next hotel, and even throw some items away (sad!) Anyways, it’s a fine hotel, if a little boring, but the rooms are nice- just avoid the laundry service.
Tourism & Travel Notes
20 minutes from downtown Vienna is a hilly region with wineries scattered throughout. Many of the wineries are only open on weekends, and this is a great activity for families (and dogs!) Basically all outdoors, there are very casual little wine shops where you order at the front, take your wine to a picnic bench or lounger, and relax. Many are cash only.
If you go, definitely Uber to the top of the hill, and walk down. We don’t recommend any of the wineries specifically, but here was our general route:
Uber to Mayer am Nussberg (20 min), Walk downhill to Weingut Wailand (7min) then Monte Nucum (15min). End with a 15 minute trek all the way downhill, and stop at Gasthof Zum Renner – a great beer patio with food and an outdoor seating area.
Notable Places Visited & Not Reviewed
Prague – Hemingway Bar: Potentially went a little downhill over the years, but it might be fun later at night. K Brothers Indian: Skip. Yamato: A lot of people mentioned that this is the best sushi in Prague, and while the sashimi was good, it left a bit to be desired. Skip the seaweed salad. Vienna – Billabong: #1 choice for watching F1, just go maybe 30 mins early, sit at the bar, be nice, and ask for the channel. Chuan: Good. Get all the dumplings, skip everything else. die Frankostrei Judenplaz: Bad attitudes, skip. Ella: Not recommended, but not terrible. Figmuller Backerstrabe: Reservations are essential (every reservation skips the line, so people will wait hours). That being said. It’s fine. Pretty good on the schnitzel front. It’s exactly what you would expect. Flannigans: Good for a pint of Guinness and fine bartenders. Not the best Irish pub in the world, not the worst. Jaritas Indian: Don’t go out of your way (if you do go, skip the apps). But the garlic naan and chicken tikka were good. Potions: Harry Potter themed bar, and you definitely need reservations. It’s fun but not a must-go, even for HP fans. Santos Mexican: Definitely skip. Shakespeare and co: Good English bookstore. The Bank: Absolutely skip. Tony’s Pizza: Just ok. Unger and Klein: A fine stop for some wine. Pickwick’s: A bookstore and Guinness pub combo. Service is iffy but the concept is great. Yori Korean: Sadly disappointing. Don’t go.
favorite moments
