Where to Eat in Vienna on a Budget: 5 Tested Spots

After living in Vienna for three years, from 2022 to 2025, the first thing I learnt is that it isn’t a city where you eat well everywhere, sadly. Local cuisine is also about 90% meat and I, as you know, have never eaten it. The centre is full of places that survive on passing trade, and for an Italian, finding something decent at an honest price isn’t exactly straightforward.

 

Over those years, though, I found a few addresses that ended up on my list of favourites for breakfast, lunch, coffee, aperitivo and dinner! All tried personally, of course, so below you’ll also find the address, opening hours and how much each stop costs.

In short

Five places I’ve tried myself for a full day in Vienna without tourist-trap prices: the Sachertorte at Konditorei Oberlaa on Neuer Markt, the Henry buffet inside Billa Corso where you pay by weight, coffee at Caffè vom See behind the Naschmarkt, aperitivo at Spear on Neubaugasse and a Nepalese dinner at The Everest. One important thing, though: Spear and The Everest are closed on Mondays and Caffè vom See doesn’t open on Sundays, so this route works from Tuesday to Saturday.

Breakfast: Sachertorte at Oberlaa

Breakfast in Vienna can turn into a small fortune if you sit down in one of the historic cafés in the centre, so I’m taking you to Oberlaa, a very well-known Viennese patisserie but with far more reasonable prices. Their Sachertorte is, in my opinion, the best in the city: the sponge is moist, the glaze isn’t sickly sweet and you can actually taste the apricot jam, which isn’t always the case elsewhere.

 

A slice costs around €5. In the historic cafés you can easily pay double, and at Café Sacher you’re over €10 with cream. Not everywhere, mind you — at Prückel, for example, you stay under €6 — but across a whole day the difference does add up.

 

Address: Neuer Markt 16, 1010 Vienna — metro U1/U3 Stephansplatz or U1/U2/U4 Karlsplatz.
Opening hours: daily, 8:00–20:00.

Lunch: the Henry buffet inside Billa Corso

For lunch you don’t even need to leave the square, because at number 17 on the same Neuer Markt there’s Billa Corso, and on the ground floor you’ll find Henry, the buffet run by DO & CO. I know perfectly well that recommending lunch inside a supermarket doesn’t sound great, but this has nothing to do with the supermarket deli counter you’re picturing: the dishes are prepared fresh each day and the selection changes daily.

 

It works by weight, so you build your plate however you like from the hot buffet, salads, soups and sides, and you pay €2.59 per 100 grams. We usually went for basmati rice, vegetables and a curry, and a normal portion comes to around €8 per person. You can eat at the tables inside or out, or do what we used to do: take everything away and picnic in one of the nearby parks, because at midday the place gets very busy.

 

Address: Neuer Markt 17, 1010 Vienna, thirty metres from Oberlaa.
Opening hours: Monday–Saturday 8:00–20:00, Sunday and public holidays 10:00–20:00.

Afternoon coffee: Caffè vom See

Coffee in Vienna is expensive, especially if you sit down, and in the touristy places it often isn’t even worth what you pay. Caffè vom See is a tiny coffee bar on a side street behind the Naschmarkt and it has nothing of the historic Viennese café about it, I’ll say that straight away: it’s a small space, you’re practically standing, but the coffee is roasted at Lake Millstatt in Carinthia (that’s where the name comes from, there’s no lake anywhere nearby) and it’s made Italian style.

 

An espresso is around €1.50 and a cappuccino about €3, with a few sweet things to go alongside. For us Italians, used to better, it’s one of the few coffee breaks in Vienna where you don’t find yourself missing home.

 

Address: Kettenbrückengasse 17, 1050 Vienna — metro U4 Kettenbrückengasse.
Opening hours: Monday–Friday 9:00–17:00, Saturday 10:00–16:00, closed Sunday. If you’re going on a Saturday afternoon, aim to be there by 15:30, because they close early.

Aperitivo: Spear on Neubaugasse

From here you head back up towards the seventh district, which is where things actually happen in the evening. Spear is a burger and gin and tonic place, so don’t expect traditional Viennese atmosphere because that isn’t what it is: I’m flagging it because it has a genuinely wide gin selection, tables outside on Neubaugasse and honest prices for the area. A Negroni and a glass of white come to around €13 for two.

 

Address: Neubaugasse 15, 1070 Vienna — metro U3 Neubaugasse.
Opening hours: closed on Mondays. For Sundays the information online doesn’t match up between their website and their Facebook page, so if you’re planning to go on a Sunday, ring ahead.

Dinner: The Everest

For dinner you head down towards the central station, to a quiet side street where you’ll find this Nepalese and Indian restaurant that was one of our regular spots for years. We had two vegetarian samosas at €6.90, a glass of white at €4.20 and a plate of twelve vegetarian momos each at €11.90: the momos are the best thing on the menu, steamed dumplings served with a peanut and tomato sauce.

 

Something worth knowing: from Tuesday to Friday at lunchtime they do a set menu with soup, main course and dessert for €10 or €12.90 depending on what you choose. If you’re counting your euros, coming here at midday costs you less than dinner and gets you three courses.

 

Address: Johann-Strauß-Gasse 42, 1040 Vienna — metro U1 Südtiroler Platz-Hauptbahnhof.
Opening hours: Tuesday–Sunday 11:30–14:30 and 18:00–22:30, closed Monday. Bear in mind that in the evening dinner doesn’t start before 18:00.

How the Viennese spend less

Beyond the individual addresses there’s one mechanism worth knowing about, and it completely changes what a day costs: the Mittagsmenü, the set lunch menu. Loads of places do it, from traditional Beisl to ethnic restaurants, usually Monday to Friday, and it nearly always includes soup and sometimes dessert too, for somewhere between €10 and €15. The same dish à la carte in the evening can cost you twice as much. If you want to try Viennese cuisine without spending a fortune, my advice is simple: do it at lunchtime, not at dinner.

 

Two other practical things. Vienna’s tap water comes from the Alps and it’s excellent, but in restaurants it isn’t automatic that they’ll bring it to you free: ask for Leitungswasser and be prepared for some places to charge you for it anyway. And always keep a few euros in cash, because in smaller places and historic cafés, cards aren’t as much of a given as they are back home.

Final thoughts

These five addresses aren’t a ranking of Vienna’s best restaurants, they’re the places I went back to again and again during the three years I lived there, because they sorted out my day without costing me too much. If you’re going to Vienna for just a few days, the most useful advice I can give you is still the one about the Mittagsmenü: it makes far more difference to what you spend than any address I could point you to.

 

Prices recorded during my years in Vienna, from 2022 to 2025, and checked in August 2026. They may have changed since: if you find any differences, let me know in the comments and I’ll update the article.

On Neuer Markt, a few minutes’ walk from the cathedral, you’ll find both Konditorei Oberlaa and the Henry buffet inside Billa Corso, where you pay by weight and around €8 gets you lunch. They’re the two cheapest options in the whole central area.

It depends a lot on where you eat it. At Oberlaa you’re around €5, in the historic cafés it ranges from €6 to €10 and above, with cream charged separately.

At Billa Corso, yes. The Henry buffet is run by DO & CO, the dishes are prepared fresh daily, and it has nothing in common with what we’d normally think of as supermarket food.

By going at lunchtime rather than in the evening. A great many places offer the Mittagsmenü, the set lunch menu, usually Monday to Friday, with soup and sometimes dessert included, for between €10 and €15. À la carte in the evening, the same dish can cost twice as much.

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