The Best Bars in Vienna Right Now

Adolf Loos designed this bar in 1908 and it has been running continuously ever since. The room holds 20 people. The ceiling is mirrored to create the impression of depth. The cocktails are not the point, though they are competently made. The point is standing inside one of the most perfectly conceived drinking rooms in the world and understanding that nothing about the design has dated by a single year. Order something simple and pay attention to the space.

Order: Dry Martini, chilled, with lemon twist. Simple is correct here.

A contemporary cocktail bar on Zollergasse that has built its identity around Austrian herbs, alpine botanicals, and a seasonally changing menu that takes the local ingredient brief more seriously than most. The bar team forages from the Vienna Woods and the Marchfeld flatlands, which sounds like marketing copy until you taste a cocktail that includes fresh meadowsweet and realise it is not. The non-alcoholic menu is among the best in the city.

Order: The current seasonal special. It changes with the harvest and it is always the most interesting thing on the list.

The most consistently excellent everyday bar in Vienna. Kleinod operates as a cafe in the mornings, transitions to a wine and cocktail bar in the afternoons, and runs a full cocktail program from 6pm until 2am. The drinks list is short and executed well, the room is warm without being precious, and the wine selection covers Austrian natural and conventional producers with equal confidence. This is the bar you go to when you want to drink well without making an occasion of it.

Order: A glass of Gruner Veltliner, or the house Spritz made with Austrian vermouth

A narrow natural wine bar on Windmuhlgasse that serves an Austrian-focused list by the glass and bottle until 2am on weekends. The room holds 35 people comfortably and 50 if the occasion demands it. The wine knowledge here is practical rather than performative: the staff know what they have, why they have it, and who made it. The antipasti plate is built for sharing and changes weekly based on what came in from the market.

Order: A Burgenland red by the glass. The staff will have a current recommendation.

The bar at the Schick Hotels property on Schubertring is the best hotel bar in Vienna and one of the best in Central Europe. The cocktail program runs to 60 drinks with a Vienna-specific historical section that covers drinks associated with the city's belle epoque cafe culture and a contemporary section that uses the same rigour. The terrace overlooking the Stadtpark is the finest place in Vienna to drink a negroni in the early evening.

Order: The Vienna Sling, a house riff on the classic with Austrian apricot liqueur

A bar and club at Praterstern that runs until 6am on weekends and represents the less curated end of Vienna's nightlife with commendable honesty. The drinks are simple and cheap, the music programming is serious, and the crowd is the most genuinely diverse in the city. This is not the bar for people who care about cocktails. It is the bar for people who want to be somewhere that feels alive at 3am without paying Innere Stadt prices.

Order: Beer from the tap. The cocktail list is not the reason you are here.

The bar section of the Rathauskeller, built beneath the Vienna City Hall in 1872, is one of the most atmospheric rooms in Europe for a glass of Austrian wine. The Gothic vaulting is intact, the candlelight is deliberate rather than atmospheric by accident, and the wine list covers every significant Austrian appellation with a depth that the room's tourist-adjacent location does not suggest. Best visited on a weeknight when the dining rooms are quiet.

Order: A Wachau Riesling, served with the correct temperature and the correct glass

A cocktail bar on Kirchengasse that opened in 2021 and quickly established itself as the best entry-level serious cocktail bar in Vienna. The menu is accessible without being dumbed down, the prices are fair by European standards, and the bar team handles the full range of customer types from confirmed enthusiasts to curious first-timers with equal competence. The low ceiling and candlelit tables make it one of the more genuinely romantic bars in the city.

Order: The house Spritz, made with house-produced vermouth and Austrian prosecco

The finest heurige in Vienna and the best argument for why the wine tavern tradition deserves to be taken as seriously as any cocktail bar. Beethoven lived in this building twice. The wine comes from the estate's own vines on the Kahlenberg and Nussberg hills above the city. The cold buffet is the real food in Vienna: pork belly, liver sausage, Liptauer cheese, and bread that was made that morning. The garden seats 200 in summer. Come before 7pm or expect to wait.

Order: A Gruner Veltliner from the estate. Ask for the current vintage recommendation.

Directly across from the Vienna State Opera on Weihburggasse, Vis-a-Vis fills every night after the curtain falls with opera-goers who want to continue the evening. The wine list runs to 400 bottles with a bias toward Burgundy and Austria. The by-the-glass program covers 40 options and changes weekly. Late on a Tuesday after a sold-out Wagner, this bar has the best atmosphere of any room in Vienna: serious people who have been moved by something and want to sit with a good glass and talk about it.

Order: Ask for the sommelier's glass of the week. It is always something worth trying.