Vienna Coffee House Guide: Where to Go and What to Order
A Vienna coffee house guide: six classic Kaffeehäuser with hours from the tourist board, what a Melange and an Einspänner are, and how long you can sit.
The short answer. Go to Café Sperl or Café Hawelka for a coffee house that has barely changed, Café Landtmann or Café Schwarzenberg for a Ringstrasse one, and Café Jelinek for a small one off Mariahilfer Straße. Order a Melange, expect a glass of water with it, and stay as long as you like. Nobody’s going to hurry you.
Facts below come from the Vienna Tourist Board’s pages (the fun facts and the six traditional coffee houses), read on 12 November 2026, and from each café’s own site where noted. Opening hours change, so you’ll want to look at the café’s page on the day. The coffee houses are on the map, and the food guide covers the other kinds of place.
Why they matter
The tourist board says Viennese coffee house culture is on UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage list. Its description of the place is that guests consume time and space, but only the coffee appears on the bill. Bertolt Brecht’s remark on the same page is that Vienna is built around coffee houses where people sit and read papers. The Ringstrasse once had 27 legendary cafés, and Café Landtmann, which opened in 1873, the year of the World Expo, is one of the few left.
What to order
Melange. Vienna’s answer to the cappuccino. It’s made with diluted espresso, warm milk and a layer of milk foam, so it tastes milder.
Einspänner. Named after a single-horse carriage. The coffee was topped with whipped cream to keep it warm for the drivers.
The glass of water. It arrives with your coffee, and you don’t have to ask. The tourist board says it began as a place to rest the spoon, then became a sign of clean mountain spring water, and it’s still a mark of quality.
The page says cafés offer more than 40 types of coffee.
Six classics, with hours
These are the six the tourist board names, with the hours it prints.
| Café | Address | Hours as printed |
|---|---|---|
| Café Sperl | Gumpendorfer Straße 11, 1060 | Mon to Sat 7 am to 10 pm, Sun and holidays 10 am to 8 pm, closed Sundays in July and August |
| Café Hawelka | Dorotheergasse 6, 1010 | Mon to Thu 9 am to midnight, Fri and Sat to 1 am, Sun 10 am to 8 pm |
| Café Korb | Brandstätte 9, 1010 | Mon to Sat 8 am to midnight, holidays 10 am to 11 pm |
| Café Schwarzenberg | Kärntner Ring 17, 1010 | Mon to Fri 7:30 am to 11:30 pm, Sat and Sun 8:30 am to 11:30 pm |
| Café Jelinek | Otto-Bauer-Gasse 5, 1060 | Daily 9 am to 10 pm |
| Café Central | Herrengasse, Palais Ferstel, 1010 | Closed for renovation, see below |
Café Sperl. It’s been open since 1880, between Mariahilfer Straße and the Naschmarkt, and little has changed since. You can try the original Sperl Torte or play billiards, and there’s piano music on Sundays from 3:30 to 5:30 pm.
Café Hawelka. Near Stephansplatz and long a meeting place for artists. The tourist board names its Buchteln, the jam-filled yeast pastries.
Café Korb. It’s been open since 1904 near Stephansplatz and serves breakfast all day and has an Artlounge designed by several artists.
Café Schwarzenberg. The tourist board calls it Vienna’s oldest Ringstrasse café. It nearly became a car dealership in 1980 but was saved.
Café Jelinek. A small, slightly hidden café near Mariahilfer Straße with a wood-burning stove and free newspapers. The tip is the homemade guglhupf.
Café Central. Open since 1876 in the Palais Ferstel, with a Venetian-style courtyard and piano music. The tourist board says it closed on 16 March 2026 for renovation, until winter 2026. A pop-up called Decentral is open at Palais Harrach, Freyung 3, meanwhile. You’ll want to check the café’s own site before you plan around it.
More on the map
Café Landtmann is a Ringstrasse coffee house next to the Burgtheater. Café Prückel is on the Ringstrasse near the Stubentor. Café Savoy has been open since 1897 on the Linke Wienzeile and prints Sunday to Thursday and holidays 10 am to 1 am, Friday 10 am to 2 am. Café Westend is on Mariahilfer Straße near the Westbahnhof and prints daily 8 am to 11 pm. Café Weimar has been open since 1900 on Währinger Straße. Also see Café Eiles and Café Hummel in Josefstadt, Café Drechsler beside the Naschmarkt, Café Goldegg in Wieden and Café Dommayer in Hietzing.
Demel, the confectioner on Kohlmarkt, is the cake stop. The tourist board says its staff are all women, in a 200-year tradition, in black and white uniforms. Café Schopenhauer in the 18th district has a disco ball next to the bridge, Tarock and chess tables, per the same page.
Where to stay for coffee houses
Café Sperl and the Naschmarkt are in Mariahilf, and Hawelka, Korb and Landtmann are in the Innere Stadt. See where to stay in Vienna to choose between them, and Vienna travel tips for the tram you’ll use between them.
Places in this guide
Photos show the actual places, licensed under Creative Commons and credited to their photographers.
Café Hawelka Photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jancbeck/ / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0) 
Café Central Photo: Clayton Tang / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0) 
Café Landtmann Photo: Michael Coghlan 
Café Prückel Photo: Filippo Diotalevi 
Café Savoy Photo: Andreas Faessler / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) 
Café Westend Photo: Sandor Somkuti 
Café Weimar Photo: C.Stadler/Bwag / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) Find hotels in Vienna
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