The Best Places in Austria

Fine dining inside the Almhof Schneider, a storied alpine hotel a short walk from the Schlegelkopf piste, open only when the snow is down. The two rooms tell you where you are: one designed by artist Paul Renner, the other lined with woodcuts by Christian Thanhäuser. The menu runs Austrian classics alongside international detours, and the wine list clears 1,200 labels, which is a lot of labels.

The stone-vaulted ceiling of this old town-center restaurant sets a mood that the menu refuses to match, in the best possible way. Contemporary dishes roam from Asian noodle salads to Mediterranean pasta to a port-sauced roast beef, and the Kaiserschmarrn has apparently achieved local legend status. The hostess runs the room with warmth and a personal philosophy stitched right onto her apron, which really does say it all.

A modern dining room inside a small boutique hotel in Seefeld, where the open kitchen is part of the view from the right table. The menu takes classic European cooking and nudges it somewhere alpine, pulling in local fish and regional produce without making a fuss about it. The chef and the front-of-house team share the floor, and Austrian wines anchor the list. Three set menus or à la carte, so you can commit as much as the evening calls for.

Gogosch is a local word for rooster, which tells you something about how deeply this farm-to-table restaurant is rooted in Burgenland. It sits inside the Bio-Landgut Esterhazy estate, inside a converted stable with exposed beams and a terrace that earns its reputation. The kitchen keeps things unfussy but considered, leaning on organic and regional produce for dishes like venison carpaccio and baked schnitzel.

A tiled oven, timber ceiling, and brick vaulting set the scene at this restaurant inside a centuries-old inn turned boutique hotel in central Gmunden. The kitchen runs from regional Austrian classics to what the menu calls Alpine sushi, with a fine dining option in the evenings. The courtyard terrace is pretty enough to make you linger, and the wine list leans heavily, and sensibly, toward Austria.

Low ceilings, a lot of wood, and a wine list running to 600 bottles greet you at this farm-to-table restaurant tucked inside what feels like it's been around forever. The kitchen follows the market, so the menu shifts, but the cooking runs toward classic Austrian territory. In summer, the terrace pulls most of the room outside. The staff manage the trick of being present without hovering, which is harder than it sounds.

The large central bar is the room's center of gravity, and the dimmed lighting makes it easy to pretend you're in Dubai rather than the Austrian Alps. Zuma is a globally travelled Japanese-international restaurant with a robata grill, an extensive sushi menu, and cocktails that arrive before you've properly sat down. The English-speaking staff handle the après-ski crowd with practiced ease in a setting that feels considerably more sleek than cozy.

A handwritten menu is the first signal that this is a family-run Austrian restaurant doing things the old-fashioned way, and four generations in, no one seems tempted to change that. Veal liver, schnitzel, and pan-fried Arctic char with celeriac cream share the page alongside estate wines from Burgenland. In summer, a gravel courtyard shaded by old trees fills up fast, and fairly so.

A 500-year-old building on the market square, its historical walls kept intact through a careful renovation that gave everything an upscale, inviting finish, plus a terrace that earns its own visit. This is a proper sit-down restaurant where the chef runs a tight seasonal menu of Austrian classics with a modern lean. The wine list skews heavily local, with natural wines alongside the usual suspects.

A family farmstead in the Mühlviertel hills that has been passed down five generations, Bergergut is a small, adults-only countryside hotel where couples go to be left alone by the Linz crowd. Rooms have names and personalities, from a suite built around an open fireplace to a theatrical penthouse. The kitchen draws almost entirely from local producers, which in this corner of Upper Austria is less a policy than a point of pride.

Lunz am See holds a minor meteorological distinction as the coldest spot in central Europe, which makes the case for a boutique hotel with working fireplaces and a heated outdoor pool rather compelling. Refugium Lunz sits on the church square in a house with vaulted stone archways and wood-beamed ceilings, kept by Vienna architects who clearly couldn't help themselves. The open kitchen bakes bread daily, bicycles and hiking gear are on hand, and the rooms are calm enough that doing nothing feels like a plan.

Thermal pools fed by mineral-rich water sit at the center of this spa resort in Lower Austria's Weinviertel wine country, a corner of the country most visitors drive past without stopping. Every room has a private loggia, the Silent Spa concept means the sauna world is actually quiet, and the restaurant leans into local produce in a dining room that feels dressed up without being fussy. The Michelin Guide has it in their selected hotels.

A rotating oven anchors the dining room of this Neapolitan pizza spot on the ground floor of a stately Vienna hotel. The kitchen turns out properly charred, contemporary-leaning pies with a pronounced crust, alongside a long menu of pasta for anyone whose loyalty wavers. The bar counter with stools is made for an aperitif, and Italian wines keep things appropriately themed. Listed in 50 Top Pizza Europe's Excellent Pizzerias.

Roman-style pizza in Vienna's seventh district, where the dough is long-fermented and hydrated enough to make Neapolitan purists quietly nervous. The kitchen pairs each pizza with a cocktail, which sounds gimmicky until it doesn't. Fried starters, including supplì, come first, and the room keeps things low-key and unhurried. It reads like something transplanted from a fashionable Milan side street, which is more or less the point.