Vienna, Austria Sweet Vienna Tour: Home of Cakes and Cafe Culture

Our tour started with 24 of my co-workers (from all over the globe, most whom I’ve never met) and myself receiving a quick talk from our tour guide (and I cannot believe I cannot remember her name, but she was informative and quirky – a perfect tour guide) and then a walk to our first stop.

When I walked in, I kind of felt like I was in my grandmother’s parlor. The cafe has exposed brick with pictures and trinkets added by the Omas. The glass wear was random and mismatched, giving it an authentic feel. There are a few nooks for socializing, as well as a few tables in case you want to bring your laptop and get some work done.

We walked a few blocks to Naschmarkt (which literally translates to food market) and headed into a small candy, chocolate, and sweet shop called Schoko Company. The walls of Schoko Company were adorned with bars of chocolate, every flavor and kind you can imagine. At the counter were pastries and other goodies, and on the wall many types of liqueurs.

We sampled the poppy seed pastry roll, which is essentially a poppy seed paste in a doughy roll. It was quite good. My co-worker described it as similar to a fig tasting filling, which I thought was a close description.

We also ate cocoa beans and tried some type of a liqueur.

We crossed the street and popped into Witte’s Schoko & Co. It’s a quaint chocolate shop that provides many options of chocolates, both traditional Austrian and beyond.

We tried two very popular Viennese chocolate candies: Ildelfonso and Pischinger Eckerl. The Eckerl is a chocolate covered hazelnutty brittle and is quite delicious. And I found out the Pischinger company was started in 1849 and they have been creating amazing chocolates and wafers ever since.

The Ildelfonso wrapper is quite unique in the outside wrapper wraps around the entire candy, and upon unwrapping, you’ll find a quote in German (mine was a Shakespeare quote). As you can see below, the candy has layers of light and dark nougat and tastes sort of like milk chocolate meets hazelnut.

Since these candies are very popular, you can purchase them in almost any grocery store for about half the price of the chocolate stores.

Kurkonditorei Oberlaa

Oberlaa is a pasty shop with a few locations in Vienna, and this one at Naschmarkt is one of the smaller locations.

At this location we sampled a macaroon, and I chose the red currant flavor. While macaroons are traditionally French, they can be found in most pastry shops in Vienna. And I can confirm that Vienna knows how to make a macaroon.

Café Sperl

Our last stop was Café Sperl, founded in 1880, just a few blocks away in the sixth district. We actually sat outside in the courtyard, but inside the cafe there is ample seating space, reading materials, and even pool tables. You can tell this is a very popular cafe spot.

This was the conclusion of our tour. So what was my favorite dessert? I would have to say the apfelstrudel from Vollpension.

Besides tasting, our tour guide told us a lot about the local cafe culture in Vienna. For example, cafes will never ask you to leave. You can purchase one cup of coffee and stay all day to work, chat, whatever. Cafes are where friends gather, meet, or locals just hang out, because, why not.

Some other cafes in the area I would have liked to visit but didn’t get a chance are Cafe Central, Cafe Weimar, and Cafe Hawelka.

Besides cafes and chocolate shops, our tour guide would point out landmarks as we passed and tell us stories. It was especially interesting to pass buildings that suffered damage from World War II (especially buildings peppered with bullet holes).

I’m not usually one for tours, but this tour was pretty interesting and helped us find our bearings in the city. At 25 people it was small enough to still remain somewhat intimate. Also, at around $25 Euro, the tour isn’t that expensive. I can’t seem to find where you can book a single ticket, but you can book group tickets here (and possibly write them to inquire about single tickets).

Have a favorite Viennese cafe or dessert? Let me know in the comments below, send me a Tweet, or comment on Facebook.