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 Linda Nepicks

A spot of the superlatives: 60.000 m² (!) for art, architecture, design, dance, theatre, fashion, restaurants, café’s and space for relaxation. It’s a world in a world and if you are into art, it’s not difficult to spend a whole day in this impressive area.

A combination of old buildings (once the royal stables from the 18th century) and gorgeous modern architecture – like the MUMOK museum – sheltering a huge square.

In summer time you can enjoy the colored “Enzos”, huge kind of plastic sofas for hanging around. They former Enzis used to change their color every year, the result of an annual Internet-Voting. Many events take place here, like the famous Wiener Festwochen. It’s getting cold: so check out “Winter im MQ” and be surprised!

My favourite spots in this area are definitely the MUMOK, here you find great exhibitions of modern art, the book store Walther König and the “Kantine” in Quartier 21. And maybe you wanna check out the store “Musiktank” – the first On Demand Music Store for any kind of Austrian music.

By the way, if you are younger than 19 or a student under 27 there is free entrance for example in MUMOK. There are combination tickets if you want to visit more than one museum. The website is worth checking out, they provide all information – in seven languages! You see, it’s not a hidden spot, but one place a lot of Viennese love to go to, just like the tourists.

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Museumsquartier | Art & culture, Bars, Music, Shopping, Theaters
Museumsplatz 1-5 | Inner districts | +4315235881
Daily

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Image by Linda Nepicks

When I first came along this square, I really was surprised. Somehow I did not expect such a cosy and neat little square in a big city like Vienna.

Servitenplatz resembles the centre of a small Austrian village. So what do you need for such a square? An old church, some benches, huge trees which give shade, a café, a pub, nice stores in the surrounding streets and local people who enjoy it- both old and young. This is what you get here! And that’s why I like this spot.

There is the Servite church from 1677, there is a coffeeshop without a name (where you get homemade ice in summer!), there is a pub besides a hairdresser, and there are these nice simple benches where you can watch couples, the old folk chatting or children playing football.

In winter time it’s quiet here, but in summer it’s pretty much the center of that quarter. I think every time of the year it’s worth a visit. The sad history of the Servitengasse, leading to the square, is quite touching. Decades ago it used to be a street where many Jews were living (half of the population of the ninth district in 1938 were Jews, like Sigmund Freud who lived pretty much around the corner), but with the Nazi regime they had to leave their flats and homes. A little memorial with all symbolic keys shows the names of the displaced persons. Some sad history for a neat little square.

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Servitenplatz | Coffee & tea, Relaxing, Shopping | Free
Servitengasse | Inner districts
24 hours 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

“In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play” (Friedrich Nietzsche)! That’s what comes across the mind when passing by the huge window, giving sight to a magical chocolate kitchen. And this saying does not count for men alone, you will note that women stop at the window too! You see them wondering if they can play as well, if they can take part in producing some of these little dreams, made of chocolate.

Yes, you can take part! Learn how to do chocolate desserts, produce your own fruit chocolate with the help of the confectioner or proudly put your self-made finest pralinés in a box after a workshop of around 4 hours.

Check out the website as these workshops are done regularly but often booked out in advance. Otherwise just have a look and a taste in the shop – and watch the confectioner play magic by producing those eatable goodies we have loved since our childhood days…

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Xocolat Manufactory | Shopping, Snacks | Workshop € 95.00
Servitengasse 5 | Inner districts | +4313100020
Mon – Fri 10:00 – 18:00, Sat 10:00 – 17:00

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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)

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Vienna

Image by Linda Nepicks

We all know about draught beer, we have tasted wine from the barrel, we may even have drunk lots of whiskey in the jar on our last trip to Scotland …But have you ever seen green, red, white liquor in big round glass barrels, olive oil in a ton or vinegar being tapped in beautiful glass bottles and decanters?!

In this small shop you can choose between all sorts of oil, vinegar or liquor. You choose what you want, how much you want and in what kind of glass bottle. You ask yourself how you gonna get this perfect present back at home?

No worries, the committed assistants in the shop will help you to pack it so safe and sound that (hopefully) nothing will break on your way back home. And be sure – your friends or family (or the Viennese hosts you’re staying with) will love you if you bring them such a present!

Need ideas? What about Italian Limoncino or strawberry lime? Too ordinary? Ok, then try out passion fruit-habanero pepper liquor! Or you just thought about sesame oil Sicilian olive oil? Why not porcino oil!? And instead of some well known apple vinegar you can find in any household rather date or even pomegranate vinegar on your salad!

Come and see, try out and savour – that’s the motto of the shop “Vom Fass”, which literally means “from the barrel” and this is literally done and practised here by many customers.

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Vom Fass | Shopping
Siebensterngasse 46 | Inner districts | +4315269400
Mon – Fri 10:00 – 17:30, Sat 10:00 – 17:00

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Image by Linda Nepicks

Sometimes toothache can be a good thing! One day I was on my way to my dentist – and somehow I stumbled over this little shop. And forgot about the toothache!

What a surprise to find such great fashion in a district which is neither known as the Paris or Milano of Vienna! You will enter a nice and somehow cosy store situated close to a neat square in the 5th district. White painted wooden floor, a stair leading to a second level, all filled with great clothes for women!

It’s not only French fashion like clothes from Goodvibes but also from German Blutsgeschwister or great scandinavian fashion from st-martins. And one of the few Viennese shops with really customer- and working-class-hero-friendly opening times!! So bring some cash (no cards accepted but there is a teller machine close by) as I am sure you can’t help yourself but going into serious shopping!

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Le Miroir | Shopping
Am Margaretenplatz/Strobachgasse 2 | Inner districts | +436509413471
Tue – Wed & Fri 12:00 – 19:00, Thu 12:00 – 20:00, Sat 10:00 – 18:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Vienna

Image by Wolfgang Körbitz

When visiting a foreign country I always like to inspect a supermarket to check out their range of products in the hope to discover one or another appealing product which is not available in my home country. Beside all the Billas which you can find at every corner, a good place to get an overview of the Austrian food market is the huge Merkur Markt on the Mariahilferstraße.

While walking through the allies of cheese and bread you should pay particular attention to the following products. “Kernöl” is deep green oil made out of pumpkin seeds and is mainly used to season the salad but some fellow Austrians even season their vanilla ice cream with it (surprisingly it does taste pretty good). Another curiosity for a lot of non natives is a “Weisser Spritzer”which basically is white wine mixed with soda.

“Weisser Spritzer” is a quite popular drink especially during summer as it is at the same time refreshing and you do not get drunk so quickly. Meat lovers should have a closer look to the variety of sausages being offered. My personal favourites are as the picture shows “Hauswürste” which are spicy and can be eaten raw. They are similar to the Spanish chorizo.

Another supermarket worth being mentioned is Meindl in the 1st district on the end of the Graben. The products being offered are rather expensive exclusive food brands from all over the world (like mineral water from Fiji).

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Merkur | Shopping, Snacks
Mariahilfer Straße 42-48 | Inner districts
Mon – Wed 08:00 – 20:00, Thu – Fri : 08:00 – 21:00, Sat 08:00 – 18:00

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