Vienna – Vegan Heaven!
If everybody could just stop what they’re doing and book a trip to Vienna right now, I can guarantee you’ll be thanking me shortly.
Full of the coolest buildings you’ll ever see, dogs chillin’ in department stores an of course an epic selection of vegan food. I’m not kidding, I hardly had to check Happy Cow or my notes because vegan places just kept popping up before my very eyes!
Our first night in Vienna we wanted something quick and tasty so we walked the 10 minutes from our hotel to Pizza Pinocchio. I was thinking that for 7€ the pizzas must be kinda small, so we ordered two. No. That was a stupid thing to do because they were massive! One pizza could easy sort out two regular people for dinner but it was still nice that we got to try two: the Provinciale and the Salami. The salami was what you would expect and tasted absolutely sensational, while the Provinciale was a little different, covered in mock meat, green chillis and corn.
A rainy first day in Vienna called for some shopping at Wien Mitte – The Mall. I wasn’t that confident that I would find something suitable for lunch but Vienna put its thing down, flipped it and reversed it and we came across Ra’Mien Go – an Asian restaurant in the food court with vegan options clearly marked on the menu. Now I can’t remember how much it cost but it was quite inexpensive for the amount of food we got which was a miso soup, 10 gyoza and a bowl of chilli eggplant stirfry with rice (which then also came with a little bean shoot salad and melon). An awesome and tasty little gem in the most unexpected of places!
The night after EUROVISION (yep, I went and it was so excellent. 12 points to Eurovision). We were pretty exhausted so the first meal I ate for the day was ice cream at Veganista. If you want a straight up fact, here it is: this is the best ice cream you’ll have in your entire life and that is both amazing and terrifying because it’s SO FAR FROM HOME. I had the peanut butter ice cream which was a special and the cookies flavour, both were so delicious that I returned again a few days later and couldn’t bare not to have them again. Oh, and it’s like 2,50€ for two massive scoops so this is the world we are now living in.
After a light lunch (haha) we decided on a more substantial dinner and went to Xu’s Cooking for an epic Asian mock-meaty feast. For 14,90€ we each had the Menu for One which includes a soup (I chose miso), mini spring rolld, crispy “chicken” with vegetables, chicken sweet and sour with garlic, rice and dessert. What the actual heck. This meal was HUGE, I barely made a dent and had to explain to the lovely waitress that it was amazing but that I was way too full to finish it. The dessert wasn’t that great but to be honest I could barely touch it anyway.
Whilst checking out the museums, we stumbled across Yamm, a pay by weight vegetarian buffet with plenty of clearly labelled vegan options. It was a great opportunity to sample lots of bits and pieces and the below plate cost around 9€. I opted for a very salad/veg heavy platter as I felt like I needed it and everything was very fresh and pretty tasty. Because I was quite modest with my lunch I decided to go for the hazelnut cake which was freakin’ amazing and full of creamth.
Just across from our hotel we spotted Nice Rice, a cute little vegetarian place of the main shopping strip Mariahilferstrasse. The waitress was very helpful with letting me know what was vegan and I went with the samosa which came with yellow rice and a soy yoghurt topping. It was a super hearty, comforting meal which I needed as it had been raining for most of our stay!
For our final night in Vienna (boo-urns) we headed to Rupp’s, a vegetarian Irish style pub a little further out from where we stayed. With a very extensive menu, most options were vegan and I went with the wienerschnitzel burger plus some potato cakes. It wasn’t the best burger I’ve ever had but it most definitely wasn’t the worst, perhaps I should have been a little more adventurous with my ordering? There was a hella cute dog sitting next to me the whole time though and that was just amazing.
Here’s my Vienna breakdown for ya:
Where to Stay
We stayed at the NH Wien City which had a super reasonable rate and the room was HUGE. I’m talking a massive lounge room, spacious bedroom, plenty of storage space and a bath. The location was premo, located on Mariahilferstrasse and within walking distance to the Museums Quartier and a bunch of other attractions plus it was just next door to a Denn’s Bio Markt where I basically had a pastry and soy yoghurt for breakfast everyday.
Getting Around
Vienna is probably the most walkable city I’ve ever been, with exciting stuff to see just about everywhere. There are also a lot of trams and trains if you want to get public transport, plus whenever I used Uber it was hella cheap.
Best Eats
I want to cry because I want to eat Veganista everyday for the rest of my life! Xu’s is going to be a place I wish we had in Newcastle for all eternity plus that pizza from Pinocchio has stuck in my mind (and tastebuds) too.
What to Do
Everything! There are SO many museums to check out that you could never really be bored. Like in Berlin, we hopped on a hop on/hop off tour to check out the main sites and then built our activities from there. The Prater is super cool for kids and also adults with loads of rides and attractions and shopping along Mariahilferstrasse is an excellent way to blow some euros.
Next time you hear from me, I’ll be hollerin’ atcha from London. I’m only there for a few days though so it’ll be a teensy post!