The 3 best Vegetarian Restaurants in Vienna
Vegetarian restaurants are popping out like mushrooms, and well-known restaurants are now also providing their customers with vegetarian dishes along their specialties. Let’s check out the 3 best vegetarian restaurants in Vienna.
And we are more than happy to see this trend becoming a standard! Not that we don´t like fish and meat, do not get us wrong. But meat, for example, comes at a way higher price for the environment than other products and a boost in the sustainable cuisine is definitely good news. Just to throw some numbers: 1 pound of beef meat on our plate has the same impact on the environment of 40km with a normal car, and 3 medicaments out of 4, in Germany, are consumed by animals, not humans.
Of course, these are just numbers. It does not mean that the meat we have been eating is all like that, it´s just the average. More and more people have started purchasing from local farmers and producers, which, besides supporting local economy, means that mass-production techniques and environmental impact significantly decrease.
Anyway, enough with statistics and economics – we want to hear about foooood!
Over the last month, we have tried to pin down the three best vegetarian restaurants in the Austrian capital city, and after having visited some of them, we can say we have found our top 3! Here we go:
Tian Restaurant
For the food aficionados, this is no new name – one of the four Michelin vegetarian restaurants in the world, only 2 of them in Europe.
This is no normal restaurant, forget to think about Tian as the place to hang out with friends for an hour or so and then change locations for drinks, for example. THIS is your entire evening. It´s an experience that can last 3 hours, with artistic and explosive dishes, jaw-dropping wines and very prepared staff.
I could keep writing for two more pages…actually I did it already here, so check the entire review of Tian to know more!
“The 3 best Vegetarian Restaurants in Vienna”
Wrenkh
Vienna, city center. Restaurants are elegant, calm, with candles and piano music in the background. Then you find Wrenkh, a Milanese oasis in the middle of the city, with Campari bottles hanging on the walls, pieces of modern art, small and close tables, energizing music, and Leo, the owner-boss-waiter-partly cook. He´s a real bomb, always smiling and helping customers decide what to eat, bringing wine on one hand and grilled asparagus on the other.
After bringing us the best white wine, an organic Rielsing Strass Kamptal, Leo introduced us to our dishes: the “lucky salad”, a mixed green salad mix with roasted smoked tofu, goat cheese and crispy buckwheat; then girilled poricini mushrooms and asparagus; blue potatoes (!), buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes and asparagus. So savory, tastes are so intense and yet natural. All the ingredients come from local farmers and producers, that Leo visit himself, like the wineries, to have a personal relationship and see where the goods he buys are produced and come from. “Plain and local ingredients, that´s our philosophy”, said Leo. And you can see that in his menu, a reinvented Austrian cuisine that gets regional products to express the county at its best.
Wrenkh is a very authentic place, that fully represents its owner´s spirit and energy. Although it is located in the middle of the city, the prices are very inviting too!
So Wrenkh is hands down our second best pick.
Check out its website and don´t forget to have a chat with Leo.
“The 3 best Vegetarian Restaurants in Vienna”
Hollerei
For the third step of podium, we selected Hollerei, a sweet and artistic place located 10 minutes outside the city center. Think of Wrenkh, now think of the opposite with the same food-awesomeness: that´s Hollerei.
Not very far away from the Sissi castle, Margit´s restaurant is easy yet has a refined flair, an artistic atmosphere. One of the first thing you´ll notice is the painting gallery in front of the restaurant: there Margit and her staff organize exhibitions where local painters can show their masterpieces, while customers taste wines, and entertain the audience with philosophical talks about the role of arts, but also food as gustative and visual art.
Margi knows stuff. She is very conscious about what she is doing, and knows how to connect different artistic experiences, from paintings to wine tasting to vegetarian specialties.
After checking out the restaurant with a nice glass of wine, we started off with a red Thai Curry, with sweet potatoes, carrots, yellow turnips, ginger, tofu, spinach and rice – Insanely good, and a asparagus lasagna with cherry tomatoes and a green peas cream on top – more than amazing. Their menu is fully vegetarian, from soups to small dishes to desserts.
They also offer cooking classes (also for kids) as well as catering, should you be interested!
So third place for Hollerei, a perfect spot to enjoy vegetarian specialties, have philosophical talks, while being surrounded by art.
Also, if it´s not crowded, ask Margit for a glass of wine – I can swear she will tell you lots of interesting and inspiring things!
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