The Best Places in Austria

Floor-to-ceiling Alpine views and natural wood on every surface set the tone at this 33-room resort in the Zillertal Valley, which sits directly alongside a championship golf course and doubles as a ski base in winter. The small room count keeps it feeling like a house rather than a hotel, which is a trick more places should figure out. It holds a Michelin Key.

A dual-level infinity pool perched above Zillergrund Nature Park is a strong opening argument for this alpine resort outside Mayrhofen. Rooms lean into the mountain-lodge aesthetic without tipping into kitsch, with platform beds and furnished balconies that face the kind of scenery people move here for. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key. Five generations of the same family have kept the place running, which tends to show in the details.

The family who built this resort also owns the vineyard next door, which tells you something about how seriously they take the surroundings. Cantilevered and contemporary, the resort sits amid eastern Austria's flat lake-and-windmill landscape, and every room has a balcony pointed straight at it. Low-slung furniture, pendant lighting, and trails through the estate round things out. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Key.

The glass-bottomed sky pool, hanging above the garden with underwater views down to the lawn, tells you everything about Hotel FREIGOLD's ambitions. This sleek boutique hotel in quiet Freistadt goes hard on contemporary design, warm wood rooms, metal-framed furniture, and a wellness area with a noticeably athletic edge. It holds a Michelin Key. Not the obvious choice for the region, which seems to be rather the point.

A century-old hotel on the Mur that somehow sidesteps the dusty grandeur you'd expect from its address in a Baroque city. The building has real bones, and the team leans into the history while dropping in sharp, graphic-modern touches that feel more Berlin than Old Vienna. Salon Marie runs from breakfast through cocktails without breaking a sweat. The Michelin Guide has it among its selected hotels, which tracks.

A full-service florist in the lobby supplies the hotel with fresh flowers, which sets the tone for Das Weitzer: old-school grand hotel bones, younger sensibility throughout. Parquet floors and ornate mirror frames coexist with modern furniture and spare, graphic design. Rooms facing the Schloßberg get some of Graz's better views. The restaurant leans into Styrian regional cooking, and the in-house café is the real Austrian article, not just a coffee counter.

Original art covers nearly every wall of this hotel at the foot of Schloßberg, and the team actively commissions new work on the premises. The 49 rooms mix antique furnishings and period fixtures with parquet floors and vibrant textiles, while a clutch of futuristic apartments go full floor-to-ceiling glass. Breakfast on the rooftop terrace, with ivy and rust-colored rooftops spreading below, is a reasonable argument for staying put all morning.

A Neapolitan pizza spot in Vienna's eighth district where the dough is made with three types of flour and each pie comes with a staff recommendation for which wine to drink alongside it. Italian ingredients arrive on a regular schedule, and the room fills early enough that there's a queue on a Tuesday. Ranked in the top 20 on 50 Top Pizza World, which in this particular niche carries some weight.

Rental Vespas parked out front set the tone for this budget design hotel steps from the Graz train station. Berlin's Studio Aisslinger fitted it out in cheerfully utopian style, and the compact rooms come with balconies, half of them painted in Easter-egg colors. A 24-hour espresso and tapas bar keeps things civilized at any hour. The Kunsthaus and the old town are a short walk away, which is fortunate because the Vespas only go so far.

Named for Ullr, the Norse god of snow, this boutique hotel in St. Anton am Arlberg leans into its mythology with an Alpine-Nordic-Japanese aesthetic, all warm textures and deliberate calm. Rooms run from well-equipped doubles to family suites, with a Grand Suite that includes a private sauna. The spa adds more saunas and a 17-meter indoor pool. Come summer, hikers replace skiers outside, and the hotel holds up either way.

A boutique hotel on Innsbruck's main old-town drag, Weißes Kreuz occupies a building that has been around forever, most famously hosting a young Mozart on his travels. The interiors lean into a kind of arch, theatrical whimsy, high-backed suede chairs and globe lamps arranged as though someone stylish had a point to prove. The rooftop bar, all dramatic skylights and candelabras, is a good reason not to leave for the evening.

The name is an ancient word for Ischgl, which sets the tone: this is a chalet-style boutique hotel where the kitchen is the main character. The 32 rooms split the difference between earthy alpine and sleek modernism, with contemporary street art thrown in. The whole Parth family runs the place, and the wine cellar holds north of 10,000 bottles, so you won't be short of ways to extend dinner.

The view of the glacier that names this hotel is right there from the garden terrace, which connects to a spa for when your legs have had enough of the slopes or the trails. A family-run Alpine hotel in the heart of St. Anton, it sits close to the pedestrian zone and works equally well for a ski week or a slow summer. Rooms go light and clean, with natural wood, stone, and grayscale textiles keeping things calm.

Dark-toned interiors and Alpine lodge bones make for an unlikely but comfortable truce at this boutique hotel in the middle of Kitzbühel village. The lobby gets the dramatic redesign; the rooms stay closer to cozy lodge than design statement, which suits most guests just fine. It leans toward nightlife over wellness, and the crowd reflects that. Both Kitzbühler Horn and Hahnenkamm are right there when morning arrives.

A boutique hotel inside a historic building right on Innsbruck's old town square, Stage 12 brings parquet floors and mid-century design to a city that somehow fits opera, Habsburg architecture, and serious alpine terrain into one compact package. Rooms run quieter than the address suggests, and the balcony rooms face the mountains, which makes waking up feel a little unfair to everyone staying elsewhere.

Rooms face the Hahnenkamm, the slope that hosts the most feared downhill race on the World Cup circuit, so even the view comes with a backstory. This alpine hotel runs 115 rooms and 36 suites, most with mountain sightlines, and the suites lean large enough for a small family reunion. When the snow melts, the adjacent golf club is right there to fill the void.

Antique wardrobes and headboards painted with pastel Alpine scenery fill the guest rooms at this family-owned Tyrolean boutique hotel, and the effect lands closer to heirloom than to kitsch. Part upscale ski lodge, part wellness retreat, it sits a short walk from the Kitzbüheler slopes with a wine cellar stocked for après-ski purposes. The candlelit restaurant and terrace do their part to ensure no one here is pretending to roughing it.

Gothic beamed ceilings sit alongside bespoke furniture made from the building's own reclaimed wooden slats at this eight-room hotel, a former trading house at the foot of Hall in Tirol's Old Town. The town was named for salt, and much of that trade passed through this building, which has been quietly updated with contemporary greys while keeping its Baroque moldings and centuries-old stone walls intact. Breakfast is served in the original hall beneath an 18th-century stucco ceiling.

A 2,200-square-meter rooftop spa with an outdoor whirlpool tends to reframe what you thought a ski-town hotel could be. This design hotel in Sölden sits deep in the Ötztal valley with slopes right outside and panoramic mountain views from nearly every angle. Inside, the rooms run minimalist but warm, with wool blankets and deep soaking tubs softening the clean lines. Après-ski here skews toward a Finnish sauna rather than a crowded bar, which suits some people very well.

The saltwater pool stretches longer than most hotel lobbies, and it's been heated since before "eco-resort" was a marketing category. This Alpine chalet hotel runs on hydropower, mills its own ingredients on a working farm, and still manages to feel like old European money on a skiing weekend rather than a wellness lecture. Stone pine lines the walls and ceilings, balconies face the Wilder Kaiser peaks, and the sauna complex is its own destination.

The slate-gray façade stands out against the Ötztal Alps like a modernist dare, and the interior follows through with clean lines and zero cuckoo clocks. This lifestyle hotel leans hard into four-season mountain adventure, so the crowd skews younger and arrives with actual plans. The rooftop Sky Spa stacks multiple saunas against an outdoor infinity pool aimed straight at the peaks, which is a reasonable way to end a day on the mountain.

Ski-in/ski-out at nearly 2,000 meters in the Ötztal Alps, at the very end of the valley road where the tarmac simply gives up. This alpine hotel takes its food seriously enough that the restaurant holds a Michelin star, and the sommelier's wine list keeps pace. Rooms run to pine and white, clean and unfussy. The kind of place where the mountain does the decorating and the kitchen handles the rest.

Obergurgl sits high enough that snow is rarely a question, and this hotel lets you ski straight off the property without negotiating a shuttle or a car park. Rooms run to pale timber and mountain stone, the panorama whirlpool does exactly what it sounds like after a long day on the pistes, and the terrace restaurant circles the view while the menu moves between Austrian classics and broader European cooking.

Halfway up the mountain from Kirchberg, this classic Alpine lodge and chalet property sits in the middle of the Kitzbühel ski area, which means you can be on the slopes before most people have found their ski boots. Traditional Tyrolean style runs through the inn rooms and the larger chalets, which sleep up to eight. The wellness center with its pool, sauna, and Turkish bath earns its keep in both ski season and the surprisingly lovely Tyrolean summer.

Eight rooms on the shore of Lake Mondsee, each with floor-to-ceiling windows aimed directly at the Alps. This small boutique hotel keeps things pleasantly low-key: shiplap walls, mid-century furnishings, and a quietly nautical feel that stops well short of rope coils and anchors. Guests get direct lakeshore access and an infinity pool that makes the Salzkammergut look like it was arranged for their benefit, which, effectively, it was.

A heated infinity pool hanging over the Tyrolean Alps sets the tone at this alpine boutique hotel in the village of See. Suites and chalets come with living areas, kitchenettes, furnished balconies, and private saunas, so it skews closer to a mountain apartment than a hotel room. The wooden architecture keeps it rooted in the landscape while the interiors lean sleek and contemporary, which is a tension that mostly works in everyone's favor.

Steven Holl's crumpled aluminum cube rises over Kamptal Valley vineyards like something that landed there by accident, which is a fine way to arrive at a wine-and-spa resort. Rooms come in unexpected geometries that feel nothing like the spa-hotel template, and the Aveda Wine Spa runs to a thousand square meters with a heated outdoor pool. The nine-centuries-old cellars sit directly beneath it all, which the 21st-century architecture is polite enough not to mention.

Perched at 2,200 meters in the Ötztal Alps, this ski-in, ski-out hotel is the kind of place where the mountain view comes with every room, thanks to floor-to-ceiling windows framing the peaks. Rooms blend contemporary lines with blonde alpine wood, the spa adds two heated outdoor pools and saunas, and there's an indoor golf facility of genuinely absurd scale. The bars serve homemade stone pine schnapps, which feels like the correct ending to any day up here.

Lake suites with private footbridge access set the tone at this sleek alpine lodge in Scheffau, the prettiest of the four villages clustered at the foot of the Wilder Kaiser. The place was designed so you'd never have to leave, which turns out not to be a hardship: rooftop pool, natural swimming pond, a spa, a kids' club with its own cinema, and a bar that serves brunch late. Hiking trails run directly from the front door.

A cluster of chalets on a hillside above Scheffau, with the Wilder Kaiser peaks as a permanent backdrop, Leitenhof reads more like a small alpine hamlet than a hotel. Aged timber, stone fireplaces, and fur throws set the tone inside; the larger chalets run to private saunas. The kitchen pulls herbs from its own garden, and the wine list, poured into hand-blown Riedel glass from nearby Kufstein, runs deep.

A natural swimming pond anchors the garden of this five-star family-run hotel in Zell am See, which tells you something about its priorities. Alpine wood, open fireplaces, and classically furnished rooms set a quietly unhurried tone, while a vast spa gives you somewhere to disappear. Austrian cuisine is served in richly appointed salons, and the lake is a short walk away for when you eventually feel like leaving.

Floor-to-ceiling windows look straight out over the Weissensee, and the knotted pine walls keep things grounded while the furniture stays firmly modern. This lakeside Alpine hotel has a private beach, a Finnish sauna, a salt-brine steam room, and enough water sports and mountain access to exhaust even the most ambitious guest. Dinner runs from a hearty inn kitchen to an Italian boathouse to a Michelin-starred fine dining room, which is an unusual spread for one address.

A ski slope ends right at the front door in winter, and in summer the same terrain fills with hikers and mountain bikers. This alpine luxury hotel in Hinterglemm is built on old manor grounds, its wood-heavy, open-plan interiors framed by floor-to-ceiling windows that make the Salzburg mountains feel like wallpaper. The kitchen leans on the hotel's own farm for meat, dairy, and eggs, and the infinity pool overlooks the range.

A family-run hotel on a slender peninsula poking into Lake Traunsee, where some rooms let you step directly into the alpine water, which is either your idea of heaven or a very cold mistake. The Bootshaus restaurant handles Upper Austrian cuisine with floor-to-ceiling lake views doing most of the decorating. A panorama sauna overlooks the same water, and private lake access runs around the clock for those who treat swimming as a lifestyle.

The heated infinity pool hangs over the Grossarl valley like a dare, and it sets the tone for this alpine spa hotel. An indoor pool connects to an outdoor one, a natural swimming pond sits alongside the saunas and steam baths, and there's an open-air garden bar for post-spa drinks. Rooms come with native wood and mountain balconies; suites add fireplaces and hot tubs. Yoga and guided hikes are included, and a ski lift is right across the road.

A golf resort beside the Drava River, with the forested Tyrolean Dolomites as the backdrop and a 36-hole course starting more or less at the front door. The suites come with Italian furnishings and private balconies, and the spa has a heated outdoor pool and a panoramic terrace for when you're done pretending the back nine wasn't a disaster. Selected by the Michelin Guide.

The Zugspitze lifts are essentially at the door, which tells you everything about why people come to this grand Tyrolean chalet in Berwang. A Relais & Châteaux property run by the same family for generations, it has the feel of a place that's been carefully added to over time rather than built all at once. Rooms lean into classic wood and textiles, many with a private balcony, and the wellness area runs to multiple pools and saunas with landscaped gardens around them.

A tiled stove and dark wood panelling set the tone in this Austrian-international restaurant on the edge of Lake Attersee. The kitchen runs both à la carte and a set menu, and on Mondays serves a surprise tasting of three or five courses, which is either exciting or mildly terrifying depending on how you feel about suspense. The cooking leans into the region without getting stuck there, and the lakeside setting earns its postcard reputation without trying too hard.

A wine cellar with over 8,000 labels sets the tone for this chic mountain restaurant tucked inside a small chalet resort in Sölden. The kitchen leans on regional produce for a four or six course gourmet menu, while earlier in the evening the mood is more relaxed, with braised veal cheeks and beef tartare. The staff will walk you through both the food and the wine list without being asked twice, which, in the Alps, is rarer than it sounds.

A restored old town house at the edge of St. Pölten's pedestrian zone, with a modernised facade that gives little away before you're inside a warm, neutral-toned dining room. The kitchen runs lunch and dinner, leaning on regional produce for a contemporary menu that moves comfortably between catfish with blood sausage and a shredded curd pancake that earns its place on the bill. In summer, tables spill outside.

A modern restaurant inside a campus building that pulls off a convincing split personality: quick lunches for office workers by day, seasonal contemporary cooking by evening. The open kitchen is visible from the dining room, and the menu runs to combinations like zander fillet with beluga lentils and Brussels sprouts. The wine list leans Austrian but reaches into France, Italy, and Germany, with natural wines tucked in for good measure.

The atrium roof of this brasserie inside the Mandarin Oriental is the kind of architectural accident that makes a room feel like a destination on its own. Polished stone tables, no cloths, serious tableware, the contemporary French menu leaning heavily on fish and shellfish. Service is attentive in the way only a well-drilled hotel team can manage. Dress like you're staying upstairs.

A side-street address in central Villach where the chef cooks an ambitious four- or five-course menu in an open kitchen, then carries the plates to the table himself. This upscale modern restaurant seats a small room, and the co-owner runs front-of-house with the kind of warmth that makes it feel like a dinner party someone else is paying for. Austrian wines by the glass pair well with the creative, precisely composed dishes on offer.

Four tables in an 850-year-old vaulted cellar is a setting that does most of the heavy lifting before anyone lifts a fork. This intimate fine dining room inside the Mount Med Resort runs a surprise tasting menu, classic or vegetarian, so you're handing the kitchen the wheel entirely. The cooking is contemporary and precise, and the sauces are left on the table so you can finish them yourself, which is either very generous or a confession that they're too good to clear.

A terrace with a direct view of the Omeshorn at 2,557 metres sets the tone at this sleek alpine restaurant inside the Aurelio Hotel, perched just above Lech next to the Schlegelkopf piste. Lunch and dinner run à la carte, while Friday through Tuesday evenings the kitchen shifts into a pre-order fine dining set menu, with courses scaled from a light intro to a full grand progression. The place is winter-only, which feels appropriate for somewhere this dramatically located.

Old floorboards and plain wooden benches set the tone at this regional restaurant tucked inside a centuries-old inn in Völkermarkt. What began as a pop-up is now a fixture, with one half of the duo running the floor with easy charm and the other cooking a plant-forward tasting menu built around the family farm and neighboring producers. Austrian wines anchor the list, with Slovenia and Italy for company.

A regional restaurant on Hermagor's main square that lets you pick your own adventure: classic Austrian Wirtshaus dishes on one side of the menu, a creative multi-course tasting menu on the other, and the kitchen is happy to let you mix and match. The team will walk you through exactly where everything came from, which sounds like homework but lands more like a good story. Two dining rooms, one old-school and one modern, plus a terrace out front.

A country inn parked beside a small lake with a ruined castle in the background, which is either very romantic or very fairy-tale, depending on your mood. The kitchen leans Alpine-Adriatic, so expect oysters and whole fish alongside game and braised meat, the fish pulled from nearby Mondsee that morning. The wine list is international but tilts toward Austrian producers. Guestrooms are available if the drive back feels ambitious.

The curving Jugendstil interior on the first floor has been pulling Viennese lunchers and lingerers in since before anyone can remember. This is a traditional restaurant in the old mold, the kind where the service is polished but never stiff and the menu moves between Viennese classics and whatever the season is offering. The room is elegant without making you feel underdressed, which is a harder trick than it sounds.

A farmhouse-style restaurant inside the hotel of the same name, out in the Austrian countryside where the silence is almost theatrical. The kitchen runs a different gear depending on the hour, from hearty midday tavern cooking to more polished evening plates built around carefully sourced regional ingredients. The veal from the Mühlviertel region shows up in several forms and makes a case for itself quietly, without any fuss.

Large windows frame the Tyrolean peaks from nearly every seat, and the balcony terrace makes the view even harder to ignore in summer. This is a cozy, modern restaurant in the village of Reith bei Seefeld, named after the owner's grandmother, whose influence got her into the kitchen game. The young couple running it keep the mood relaxed while the chef works through seasonal, regionally rooted cooking. The wine list leans Austrian.

A terrace right on the Wörthersee means half the room is staring at the lake, and in summer that's a reasonable use of anyone's afternoon. Inside the bistro, the mood stays chic without getting stiff, and the windows do most of the decorating. The kitchen leans on regional ingredients and the seasons, with handmade cheese and meat noodles and apricot dumplings that suggest someone's grandmother is involved somewhere in the back.

The restaurant keeps its own sheep, which tells you something about how seriously the kitchen takes its Alpine-region sourcing. This fine dining room inside the Bergland hotel runs a set menu that pulls ingredients from within 200km, herbs from the garden included, then filters them through a quietly Japanese lens. The dark, chic interior suits the ambition. Sölden is ski country, so the contrast between the mountain setting and the composed, contemporary cooking is half the point.

The wood-panelled dining room and terrace of this family-run Austrian inn look like they were art-directed by someone who genuinely loves the country. The menu wanders freely from Wiener schnitzel and Tafelspitz to Thai soup and butter chicken, which sounds chaotic on paper but has clearly worked for three generations. Guestrooms are available if the terrace convinces you to stay longer than planned.

Four tables, fourteen seats, one seating at six o'clock sharp: BOU4 operates less like a restaurant and more like a dinner party you had to earn. The chef comes out of the kitchen to present each dish personally, which adds a quiet theatricality to the modern French tasting menu, four or six courses depending on your appetite, with Asian and Levantine touches woven in. The menu changes weekly. Book well ahead.

Warm Alpine wood meets clean brasserie lines inside this elegant hotel dining room in the Montafon valley, where the floral arrangements are bold enough to make a statement without trying too hard. The menu moves comfortably between Wiener schnitzel and quail coq au vin, with steaks coming off a Japanese Yakiniku charcoal grill for good measure. The sommelier runs the floor with quiet confidence, and the wine list leans heavily Austrian.

A terrace with a direct sightline to Salzburg's fortress sets the scene at this restaurant inside the historic Villa Ceconi. The cooking is rooted in Austrian seasons and regional producers, with French technique running quietly underneath. Specialty weeks rotating through themes like truffles or fish and shellfish give regulars a reason to keep coming back. The lunch set menu is a notably gentle way in.

Tucked into a Cistercian monastery courtyard in the middle of Vienna, Buxbaum is a sit-down restaurant that somehow feels like a well-kept secret even when it's full. The dining rooms are cosy in the unfussy sense, and the terrace is the kind of quiet you stop expecting to find in a capital city. The menu moves between Austrian classics and international touches, and the wine list leans on small Austrian producers.

Reservations here fill fast, and the room earns its reputation with a sleek, lively feel that sits somewhere between neighborhood bistro and destination dining. The kitchen leans into creative modern cooking with a Central European edge, charcoal-grilled game and house-made sheep's milk kaymak doing the heavy lifting. The wine list is the team's personal picks, which shows. Six courses of whatever they feel like cooking is the move if you can't decide.

Exposed concrete and warm wood line a two-storey space with large windows looking out over the Austrian countryside, and the terrace catches whatever sun is going. This is a set-menu restaurant, four or five courses built around seasonal and local ingredients with a quietly cosmopolitan sensibility. A vegetarian version runs alongside the main menu, and the kitchen hosts wine tastings and special evenings often enough that regulars keep checking back.

Up to eight guests share one long table pulled right up to the kitchen pass, which tells you everything about the format here. This is an intimate tasting-menu restaurant in the Austrian Tirol where a surprise menu of four to seven courses is the only option, built entirely from ingredients sourced nearby. The cooking is precise and quietly ambitious, and the front-of-house warmth makes the whole thing feel less like a performance than a dinner party.

The chefs here hunt the game they serve, which tells you most of what you need to know. This farm-to-table restaurant in the lively Spittelberg quarter is built around an open kitchen and long counter, turning out unfussy seasonal plates from exclusively Austrian, mostly organic ingredients. You can do a five-course tasting menu or order à la carte. In summer, a pergola with opening windows gives the feel of a terrace without the rain gamble.

A lakeside Austrian restaurant on the Attersee, where the terrace practically does all the work before the food even arrives. The menu stays close to home, Wiener schnitzel from saddle of veal, half a roast chicken, with occasional Mediterranean detours that don't overstay their welcome. The wine list runs deep into Austrian bottles. The mood is rural without being rustic, the kind of place where lunch stretches longer than you planned.

A restaurant in the center of Wattens where the evening menu is essentially yours to design, picking from the featured dishes to build your own seven-course run, or handing yourself over to a surprise menu of three to five courses. Lunch skews more casual, with daily-changing sets and Wiener schnitzel alongside sea bass with saffron foam. In summer the terrace opens onto a small park square, which does most of the decorating for you.

A former coffeehouse in Vienna's second district, now running under a sign that says just "K," Das Kraus fits six tables and one tightly focused tasting menu. The chef came up through a Japanese kitchen, and the seasonal Austrian cooking carries the occasional quiet Asian note without making a fuss about it. Temporary art hangs on the walls because the owner runs a gallery, which explains a lot about the room's tone.

A terrace over the lake sets the tone at this modern tasting-menu restaurant in rural Carinthia, where the room feels Alpine without being folksy. The kitchen runs five to eight courses that lean on regional produce but wander freely, pulling in Mediterranean ideas without making a fuss about it. The hosts run the floor with the kind of warmth that makes a long menu feel like dinner with friends rather than a test of endurance.

In the heart of Innsbruck's pedestrian zone, Das Schindler splits the difference between a proper restaurant and a cocktail bar, which turns out to be a comfortable place to be. The seasonal menu runs to three or four courses at dinner, with a shorter, easier version at lunch. The room has that urban brasserie energy where nobody feels overdressed or underdressed, which in a tourist-heavy old town is its own small achievement.

The open kitchen sits in the center of the room, and the chef's table positioned right there makes it feel less like dinner theater and more like being let into a secret. This is a creative tasting-menu restaurant in Salzburg, running four to seven courses of ingredient-driven cooking with a vegetarian version available if you ask ahead. The wine list leans Austrian, German, and French, and the team presents several dishes in person, which somehow never feels like a performance.

Perched at 1,800 meters with the ski slope running right past the door, this mountain restaurant inside Hotel Seekarhaus runs a relaxed, all-day alpine kitchen from late morning until late afternoon. The menu moves between organic Wagyu burgers and classic Backhendl, finishing with Kaiserschmarrn the way it should be made. When the weather cooperates, the terrace and its panoramic views are the whole point; a freestanding pavilion and a cosy fireplace room cover everything else.

Vaulted ceilings in a compact Klagenfurt dining room, where a husband-and-wife team runs a small restaurant with a monthly changing set menu of three to five courses built around fresh seasonal and regional ingredients. The chef tends to leave the kitchen to present dishes personally, which either charms you or puts you on the spot. House-made non-alcoholic pairings are available alongside wine, and the whole thing moves at a cordial, unhurried pace.

A snug restaurant in the Tyrolean hills where the open kitchen turns local trout and foraged chanterelles into plates that look more considered than the cosy wood-paneled room might suggest. The chef leans on regional producers, then adds enough contemporary edge to keep things interesting. In summer, the terrace with its mountain backdrop fills up fast, which tells you something about how the locals feel about the place.

A garden terrace deep in the 18th district, leafy enough to forget you're in a city, anchors this modern Austrian restaurant where the menu shifts with the seasons. Dishes come in small tasting portions or full plates, and a five-course wine-pairing menu gives the sommelier crowd something to get serious about. A small Speak Easy Bar handles cocktails when the mood turns sideways.

A restaurant that splits itself across several rooms, some with rough-hewn rustic bones, others trimmed out more cleanly, plus a terrace when the weather cooperates. The kitchen runs classic and contemporary Austrian in tandem, with à la carte options alongside a five or seven course chef's menu for the table. Austrian labels dominate a wine list that takes itself seriously. The train station is genuinely a short walk away, which is either convenient or a sign.

A farm-fresh egg with celeriac, greaves, and pig's head is the dish the chef treats as his calling card, which tells you exactly what kind of restaurant this is: rooted in the land, not chasing trends. Der Luis is a creative dining room in the village of Anger, serving a surprise tasting menu of four to seven courses built mostly from local ingredients. It shares a building with a more casual pub, in case someone in your group blinks at the ambition.