Editorial
The best bars in Vienna are not where most visitors look for them. Vienna's reputation as a cafe city is earned and deserved, but it has obscured a bar scene that stretches from the cocktail-forward rooms of the 7th district to the heurigen wine taverns in the hills above the city that serve Austrian wine and cold cuts until midnight. We have covered both ends of that spectrum and everything in between. This is our current guide to the best bars in Vienna right now.
The 7th district (Neubau) and the 8th (Josefstadt) together form the most interesting bar neighbourhood in Vienna. The streets are walkable, the bars are designed for people who live nearby, and the quality-to-price ratio is as good as anywhere in Central Europe.
Vienna's best hidden bars and late-night options are concentrated in the 6th and 15th districts and along the Gurtel, the ring road that circles the inner city and hosts a cluster of bars built into the arches of the elevated railway. These 5 picks cover the most interesting options across those areas.
The best bars in Vienna cover a range of experiences that most European cities cannot match in a single visit. The Loos American Bar is mandatory. The heurigen in the hills above the city require a tram ride and repay it many times over. The 7th district cocktail rooms are where you spend the middle hours of the evening before you work out which direction the night is going. Build a visit around 3 bars in the same neighbourhood and add the Loos on the way through the Innere Stadt.
For a completely different register, Das Loft on the 18th floor of the Sofitel on Praterstrasse is Vienna's benchmark rooftop bar — Jean Nouvel's glass ceiling frames an unbroken view of the Ringstrasse and the Prater beyond it. The drinks list is serious and the bar team works to hotel-fine-dining standards. Reservations are essential at weekends.
Sofia has been visiting Vienna annually since 2014 and considers the heurigen tradition one of the great underrated pleasures of European bar culture. She wrote the guide on her most recent trip, which included 4 days of drinking across 18 different venues.
Five editor-curated guides, each ten bars, each tuned to a specific moment. The Vienna bars our editors send first dates to, and the ones we send proposals to, and everything between.
Last reviewed April 30, 2026 by the barsforKings editorial team