Image by Wolfgang Körbitz

For the ones who appreciate healthy food I suggest a bio restaurant located on a side street just a minute away from the Votiv church.

They offer a wide selection of dishes for a healthy lifestyle as well also 2 daily menus (a fish/meat and a vegetarian). Menus include also a base soup and a delicious salad from the buffet (beetroot, chickpeas, lentils or even millet are some of the many salad ingredients)! There is also a student menu version- a little smaller and cheaper. You can also taste there yummy home-made desserts! Menus are just in German language but friendly staff will help you out! The food there is really tasty. I love the vegetarian and vegan dishes. The food is fresh … no frozen stuff or microwaves

To complete this home flavour, the interior is very cosy. It’s a small place in the “basement” of a house – its windows are tiny, wooden furniture in old style gives a character to the place! There isn’t one eating room but a divided space in 2 levels! It’s a calm and relaxed place where besides eating you can also find some books on a shelf and read just like in your living room!

In the same street a few meters away there is a shop from the same owner selling ayurvedish and bio products. You find there from food stuff to hygienic products (also cosmetics). And also a bar with some food and snacks!

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Regenbogen Stube | Shopping, Restaurants (Vegetarian) | Menu € 7.80
Schwarzspanierstraße 18 | Inner districts | +439617168
Mon – Fri 10:00 – 21:00

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Image by Diana Pereira

Located in the inner districts, it can be a good choice if you don’t want to meet (other) tourists on the neighbor table. Wratschko is a local old style pub/restaurant where you can have a plate of good tasty food.

It is quite traditional and probably not appealing if you look for something hip or trendy! The inside is rather simple but very nice and cozy. The worn wooden tables, the low ceilings, the lamps, the white translucent glass panels and the simple decoration makes you believe that you are in the countryside in the 50′s! Menus are written by hand which I think is also pretty charming and fits the picture of being a traditional and a unique place.

The dishes are of course also traditional. They are cooked with local and fresh bio products. It can take a little longer to be served but you can be sure it is all carefully prepared. The Wratschko is a proper Wiener pub, the way you can imagine it!

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Clemens Wratschko | Bars, Snacks, Restaurants (Austrian)
Neustiftgasse 51 | Inner districts | +4315237161
Mon – Fri 17:00 – 01:00

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Image by Nil Vienna (by: Diana Pereira)

In the heart of the 7th district there is the Nil, an Oriental cafe. It’s a pretty nice place though it is located on a busy street with a tram line! The big window glass panels on the street façade reduce the distance between interior and exterior. Plenty of light gets in as well as the liveliness of the street.

I usually go there to enjoy myself with the fantastic Arab cuisine – falafel and hummus are delicious and the salads are always fresh. Like the food, the mint tea is also amazing which is done with fresh mint like the original one from North Africa! The waitresses are relaxed too, which sometimes can lead to longer waiting times as a consequence. In those situations I end up reading one of the newspapers or a magazines that they have there!

The decoration is somehow minimalistic: simple small wooden tables in an old and clean design, and several lamps well organized all over the place. I like it!

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Nil | Coffee & tea, Restaurants (Oriental)
Siebensterngasse 39 | Inner districts
10:00 – 00:00 daily

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Image by Diana Pereira

The name says it all, experience a bit of the French flair in Vienna. In fact the concept and inspiration were based on a small cafe from Toulouse. After years of living in France the owner returned to Austria and took his favorite place with him to Vienna!

The main dish in Cafe der Provinz is undoubtedly crepes. Unlike the traditional French recipe, in this cafe the crepes are made of a mixture of 2 different flours (Spelt and Buckwheat) which makes a darker and healthier version as it contains higher protein and nutrition substances. The same dough is used for the sweet and the savory crepes! So it is the filling what gives the sweet or savory “character” to them!

Saturdays and Sundays there is a brunch where you can eat as much as you want while you watch your crepes being prepared. The down side of it is that the place gets crowded quickly. I advise you to reserve a table as the place is quite small. Otherwise you might be waiting a long time!

Most of the time, outside of the weekends busy brunch hours, you can sit there enjoying a book. In the summer they also have outside seats which are very nice as it is a quiet area. In the back of the store books, teas and other small products can be found for sale.

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Cafe der Provinz | Bars, Coffee & tea, Restaurants (French) | Brunch € 11.50
Maria-Treu-Gasse 3 | Inner districts | +4319442272
08:00 – 23:00 daily

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Image by Sabrina Grohsebner

Here’s your chance to discover a brand spanking new Bistro right in the middle of Vienna’s university area: Nascha’s.

Nascha’s philosophy is simple: high quality food, student suitable prices, love for the extraordinary.

Being around university campus a lot of time I’m happy to have known this place right from the beginning and I can say: I am hooked.

When you enter the place you’ll first notice the spot’s sweet and enchanting style, beginning with the American diner alike wall paper and the colorful balloons hanging from the ceiling up to the original English school tables from the 60′s, 50 year old chewing gum beneath the table boards included.

Talking to the very welcoming shop owners I found out about the name’s meaning(s): Firstly it refers to the German expression “Naschen” which means “to nibble”, secondly it hints at the Russian expression for “Ours”. (Psst!..there actually is a 3rd meaning that the lovely staff will be happy to share with you if you ask them.)

And what’s most important, the food. There’s a regularly changing variety of luscious organic soups, bagels and quiches. I tried their soups a couple of times, so believe me when I say: they’re a real treat! Plus they have wide a range of sweet delights such as Fudge in a Cup, Ice cream filled fruits and a lot more of lovingly chosen appetizers.

Or to put it in the words of Theodor Fontane: “The magic lies within the detail.”

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Nascha’s | Coffee & tea, Snacks, Restaurants (Intern.) | Bowl of Soup € 3.90
Garnisongasse 7 | Inner districts | +4319255636
Mon – Fri 08:00 – 19:00

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Image by Linda Nepicks

..and an even greater area for sitting outside when it’s the time to enjoy warm evenings outside on the Radetzkyplatz, surrounded by flowers and plants in the so-called “Shani-Garten” (the Austrian word for outdoor dining area). But alas- this is only for summer time.

But in winter time you can enjoy the interior of this traditional Austrian tavern, with simple but cosy furnishing. Wild provides very good Austrian cuisine mixed with some modern culinary ideas. The prices are a bit high, but the atmosphere – indoor and outdoor – is quite special. The food is very tasty, there is a selection of very good wines!

At Wild you get an idea of Austrian “tavern-culture” without ending up in a gloomy smoky Inn where vegetarians are seen as people from outer space.

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Wild | Bars, Snacks, Restaurants (Austrian)
Radetzkyplatz 1 | Inner districts | +4319209477
10:00 – 01:00 daily

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Image by Linda Nepicks

A place to chat, for people from different countries. A colourful street market with fruits, vegetables, meat, cheese. A long alley with plenty of stalls with cheap clothes, shoes and fabrics. A stuffed alley with loads of groceries, turkish restaurants, shops, bakeries etc. An alley ending in a big market square, used both by bohemian society and local residents. A market with a shop for the best jam in the world (apart from home-made one) called Staud’s. A market square with cafe’s, restaurants and bars or just benches to sit and relax.

Check it out, I think it’s a very different part from Vienna, which most tourists will not see (who just know the Naschmarkt). And worth to see! Not to forget that fruits and veggies are way cheaper than on any other market in Vienna…

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Brunnenmarkt Yppenplatz | Bars, Coffee & tea, Relaxing, Shopping, Snacks, Restaurants
Yppenplatz | Inner districts
Mon – Sat til 18:00

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Image by Linda Nepicks

Imagine you are a bon vivant, imagine you adore good food, imagine you win 1.000 EUR in a lottery, imagine you would like to spend this on the most gorgeous selection of fruits, wine, fish, antipasti, cheese, spices, bread and whatever else you can think of (when thinking about food…). If this thing might happen to me one day and I end up with lots of cash in my bag, I will take the next subway bringing me straight to this market!

Naschmarkt probably is one of the best known markets and it’s worth its fame. It all started about 200 years ago with a small market, mainly for dairy products – nowadays there are roughly about 150 vendors, most of them in fixed food stalls and stores.

You will notice that one line of shops is focused on selling fruits, vegetables and so on. Here you find mangoes, you have last seen on a market in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur (though the prices differ…) and the fruits of the Tamarind tree you remember from Tanzania. Let alone Sicilian octopus, Norwegian cheese or Indian spices.

The other row of shops is focused on preparing food – so sit down in one of the Austrian, Vietnamese or Israeli small restaurants. On a Saturday you can spend the rest of your money on a flea market at the very end of both rows.

What a heaven for bon vivants!

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Naschmarkt | Bars, Shopping, Snacks, Restaurants (Intern.)
Kettenbrückengasse | Inner districts
Mon – Sat 06:00 -Food stalls Mon – Sat 06:00 – 19:30 | Bars/restaurants till 23:0019:30 (food stalls; the bars/restaurants are open till around 23:00)

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Image by Julia Heiligenbrunner

True, this dining corner first and foremost is for students yet all kinds of people are having their lunch at the AAi cafeteria. Food served here is halal and one of the three meals to choose from always is a vegetarian one.

Once you are standing right underneath the blue aai-cube enter the courtyard and follow it to the back, the last door on the left is where you want to go. In case you went to café afro, you must go to the back room in order to get to the cafeteria.

The cheaper menu includes soup, main dish as well as salad with bread or dessert, for an additional 50cents you get the whole package. The weekly menus can be found on their homepage – in German language only.

The AAi cafeteria is one block or two corners away from either Sigmund Freud Museum or the very popular Weltcafé (check out the Weltcafé article!).

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AAi | Coffee & tea, Restaurants (Oriental + Austrian) | Menu from € 4.70
Türkenstraße 3 | Inner districts | +4369918175144
Mon – Fri 11:30 – 15:30

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Vienna

Image by Julia Heiligenbrunner

This really is an awesome place for lunch! Recently I had decided not to eat out all along but Tongues made me change my mind.

Interesting concept: kitchen located right behind the turntables, vinyl records decorating the wall on the right, where you can look through discs you might want to buy after lunch. On the left there are plenty of organic vegetables, herbs, teas, … in case you’re not as short of time as I am & actually cooking in your own kitchen.

Only in the morning that the spontaneous team there chooses the menu for the day. You can then check it on their homepage or on FB, though most customers know what to expect: absolutely delicious & varied food. So many simply grab the daily delights for take-away which could be because the place to sit and enjoy your meal is very limited.

In case you feel like reading a book while having some coffee afterwards, walk down the street to Phil (check out the Phil article!) which is just around the corner.

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Tongues | Coffee & tea, Music, Shopping, Restaurants (Healthy) | Main dish € 3.10
Theobaldgasse 16 | Inner districts | +4312369291
Mon – Fri 11:00 – 21:00, Sat 11:00 – 18:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Vienna