Austria: Hotel Sacher Wien
Opened in 1876, the Hotel Sacher Wien is echt Old Vienna. But thanks to an ambitious renovation, the rooms in this stately hotel are light and airy. The Hotel Sacher offers enticing food as well, from the celebrated Restaurant Anna Sacher to the original sachertorte to one of the most expansive breakfast buffets in Vienna.
Credit: Hotel Sacher Wien
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Don't Miss
Staggering buffet-style breakfast
The original sachertorte, made according to a secret family recipe.
Restaurant Anna Sacher's Gault-Millau 2-toque-rated modern cuisine
Amenities
- 149 rooms and suites
- 24-hour in room dining
- Dogs are welcome, for an additional fee
- Free use of the fitness facilities & Sacher Spa
That combination characterizes the Sacher's food, too. You can find ebullient expressions of traditional Wiener schnitzel and tafelspitz in the Rote Bar. And at the jewel-box of a kaffehaus, Café Sacher, there is of course the hotel's signature sachertorte: Rich chocolate cake laced with apricot jam, dolloped with whipped cream. (Tip: While that torte is very, very good, the apple strudel is even better.) The feistier action is at the many-splendored Restaurant Anna Sacher, serving modern riffs on classic Viennese cuisine, running the gamut from marinated venison with dried pears and lardo to turbot with nutmeg pumpkin and fig-coffee gravy to yellowtail confit with beets and chanterelles. And then there's the hotel's buffet-style breakfast, served in the hotel's marble hall, which is so beguilingly extensive that you need a good week's worth of two-hour morning feasts to sample all it offers. Exquisite butters and preserves surround mountains of delicate croissants (you do know, don't you, that the croissant originates in Austria and not France?). Then, pastries, next to a table covered with various cakes and tortes. Platters of smoked and cured fishes and meats. Breads from hard ryes to pain de mie to sourdoughs. Smoothies. Myriad Northern European cereals and muesli. Fruits, olives, vegetables pickled and fresh. So many yogurts! That's all at the elegant buffet; there's also a station for infinite egg orders, and then there's a full menu though I never dared. It's breakfast as Wagnerian Gesamtkunstwerk: synthesizing, comprehensive, unifying. In this century that remains afflicted by tensions between old and new, Hotel Sacher's graceful resolution of them is instructive, and delicious. —Joe Appel
In the Area
- Café Central: Once a meeting place for such intellectuals and literary types as poet Rainer Maria Rilke, playwright Arthur Schnitzlerm and one Lev Bronstein (better known as Leon Trotsky), this majestic café is popular with locals and tourists alike. Order one of the many Viennese-style coffees like a mélange (coffee with hot milk) and a slice of strudel or a pastry, and sit back and watch the waiters whip sternly but expertly around the room, balancing multiple trays. Herrengasse 14; tel: 43/1/533-37-64-24
- Demel: As the former confectionary to the emperor's court, this 225-year old ornate kaffeehaus and sweets shop is a must for any visitor. Located in the city's Kohlmarkt, a pedestrian street lined with luxury shops just steps from the imperial Hofburg palace, the confections on offer in the bakery's rococo-style main room include ethereal mohnstrudel, a pastry rich with poppy seeds, and a meticulously constructed frou-frou, an egg-shaped cake with chestnut cream swaddled in chocolate ribbons and sprinkled with pistachio dust. Demel's sugary history is on display in a museum in the cellar. Kohlmarkt 14; tel: 43/1/535-17-17; demel.at
- Plachutta Wollzeile: One of the best places to eat tafelspitz (literally, "top of the table"), Vienna's iconic multi-course meal of boiled beef, fried grated potatoes, creamed spinach, sautéed potatoes, and beef broth. 1010 Wien, Wollzeile 38; tel: 43/1/512-15-77; plachutta.at
- Steirereck:: One of Austria's most acclaimed restaurants, set in a Jugendstil-era former drinking hall, turns out top-notch strudel on the hour all afternoon in its first-floor café and cheese shop. Apple emerges first, then cheese, followed by a seasonal speclialty or two. All usually sell out within ten minutes. Am Heumarkt 2A; tel: 43/1/713-31-68; steirereck.at/en
- Weibel's Wirsthaus: Housed in a 15th-century building, this restaurant serves excellent traditional Viennese fare, such as weiner schnitzel and goulash with dumplings, along with many daily specials. The wine list, compiled and maintained by owner Hans Weibel, is particularly good. Kumpfgasse 2; tel: 43/1/512-39-86; weibel.at
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