Help with veganism in Vienna

Ok so in approximately 16 days I will be off to Vienna for the month of July. I am extremely excited because not only am I taking a class there but I get to live in a mansion with 14 other students from Wake and have plenty of free time to explore the city and travel to surrounding areas. However, I am a little nervous about the food situation.

What traditional Viennese dishes are vegan, if any? Otherwise what food is good to eat over there - I don't know German as of now so I am pretty much completely lost because I won't even really be able to tell from the menus right away. I'm worried that most of their diet is based around meat, cheese, and pastries blah. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

:p Stacy

If in doubt go for sauerkraut!

Take a look here for a bit of backgroung information.

I felt sick reading about "Blutwurst", the sausage with that wonderful key ingredient - blood! Yuk!

Be careful with the Sauerkraut, may contain pork or lard.

Found some vegan-friendly restaurants mentioned on this thread at the German Vegan Forum:

Greenway, Rupps Beisl, Buchmueller and Makrokosmos

http://www.vegan.de/foren/read.php4?f=35&i=4610&t=4489

I lived in Germany for many years and have no idea about that - you learn something new everyday. I was always vegetarian then though and most German restaurants have so much meat.

I have not been back to Germany for many years, and I was not even a vegetarian at that time, so I don't really know how difficult it is to get vegan food in Germany or Austria. I love Sauerkraut, Kumem, make it myself sometimes and eat it raw, yumm.

Austrian animal rights group operating out of Vienna called VGT (association against animal factories) an awesome group which has had laws changed regarding fur farms, battery farms, circuses and other things. There are 33 vego restaurants in metropolitan Vienna and a vegan pub which has "an amazing goulash"

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Helga

I have not been back to Germany for many years, and I was not even a vegetarian at that time, so I don't really know how difficult it is to get vegan food in Germany or Austria. I love Sauerkraut, Kumem, make it myself sometimes and eat it raw, yumm.

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Mmm I love it too :D

Well I'm off to Vienna! I'll have plenty of internet access so don't worry I will still be posting and keeping you all updated on being a vegan in Vienna. :p I'm sick though so the flight is most likely going to be horrible, and I doubt the plane food is vegan but thats ok. I still can't wait to get over there. Bon voyage a mi! ;)

av fun, northern summer in a city of culture!

Hope you can cope with the boarding of gondolas! :D

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Mozbee

Hope you can cope with the boarding of gondolas! :D

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Mozbee dear, you are in the wrong place. Vienna not Venice!!!! :D

Oh the place Ultravox nearly had a number 1 with! Poor Midge :(

Geography has never been my thing :o

Thanks all! I finally got here after a trip from hell. Never go to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport if you can avoid it because it is horrible, I missed my connecting flight (this happens to most people often because they put connecting flights too close together and at opposite ends of a massive airport) then had to switch flights and airlines and they lost my luggage.. it was rough. But now I'm here in Vienna and its absolutely phenomenal and gorgeous, especially our house which is in the nicest district in Vienna. Now all I need is my stuff and I'm set! :p

Hey Wishin986 are we going to get a photograph of you! - maybe with some lotus eaters :D

PS I know where Paris is ;)

Hi,
well I live here so my favorite places to eat are:

1. Rupp's, a pub someone already mentioned above. Their website is www.rupps.at and they are the only place I know of that serves veggie and vegan versions of Austrian homecooking.

2. Vegetasia. (www.vegetasia.at) which serves chinese food and has the biggest and best variety of substitute meats I have ever seen. It's good enough that even omnis are happy there.

Other than that, try health food stores ("Naturkost laden"). Some of them serve Lunch. Basically most local restaurants will have some veggie options too but nothing vegan other than salad since Austrian food without meat is often limited to dumplings with egg, or cheese nockeln, etc. Watch the dumplings, they most often are made with egg and Lentils most often have ham added. That basically leaves restaurants that serve other cuisine like Indian or Thai. There's also Maschu (www.maschu-maschu.at) with officially the best falafel in town.

going there tomorrow for a few days, will need food

Restaurants

Gesundes
A-1020 Wien, Lilienbrunngasse 3
Tel: 01-2195322
It's also a bio shop. Its cafe is often part vegetarian and part vegan.

Makrokosmos
Fleischmarkt 17 (of all names to have :eek: )
Tel: 01-5131947
It's all vegan; as well as a restaurant AND shop. :)

Health Food Shops

Basic http://www.basicbio.at/ (Though part of the site is under construction :rolleyes: )
Schönbrunner Straße 222–228 (1120 Wien) (at Station Meidlinger Hauptstraße)
Tel: 01-81711000
It's a large organic supermarket.

Biomarket http://www.biomarket.at/
Fasangartengasse 20-24
Tel: 01-8040088
It's a large organic supermarket, which is said to have great vegan selections.
Open Mon-Fri 8:00-19:00, Sat 8:00-17:00

Naturkost Spittelberg
1070 Wien, Spittelberggasse 24
Tel: 01-5236192


I hope that helps, nervine.

ace! thank you ever so much man! (or woman ;))

hi,

here is some tourist info:
www.vegan.at/english
with a full list of vegan restaurants, products available, places to get icecream,..

every fryday and saturday we have demos in vienna at least.
Mariahilferstraße 111, 1060 Wien
fryday from 13h-19h
saturday from 12-18h
if you want to get to know austrian vegans,..
after the demo we always go to formosa.

my three favourite restaurants are:
shi-ho
formosa
mondscheinstüberl
(see the list above)

greetings flux :)

i love that little vegan shop/restaurant at Mariahilfer. its in that side street at that church with the little square. not too far from the lush shop and hayden cinema. that's the only vegan place i came across. very nice people there. got free yogi tea there! delicious! their fries and chickenburgers are to die for! forgot the name but i believe their logo is FVP??

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nervine

i love that little vegan shop/restaurant at Mariahilfer. its in that side street at that church with the little square. not too far from the lush shop and hayden cinema. that's the only vegan place i came across. very nice people there. got free yogi tea there! delicious! their fries and chickenburgers are to die for! forgot the name but i believe their logo is FVP??

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it is called formosa food. it is also one of my favortites. ;)
formosa, barnabiteng. 6, 1060 wien
www.vegetarischesformosafood.at
food is all vegan, very good range of products in the shop as well
:)

lg flux

Vienna is amazing for Vegans!

I've been here for over 7 years (originally from Charlotte, NC) and can't believe the options, compared to say, Madrid or other areas of Europe.

I firstly and highly recommend you take a look at Tupalo's Vegan tag for Vienna (http://tupalo.com/vienna/tag/vegan). There are lots of local vegans there tagging and reviewing vegan-friendly locations.

My favorites are:

- Formosa (mentioned already)
- Vegetasia (2 locations with all you can eat vegan lunch buffet!)
- Mondscheinstuberl
- Rupps
- Schillinger's (40 minutes outside of Vienna, but paradise if you can get a ride).
- Restaurant World (vegetarian/vegan curry buffet, with a separate side for meat-dishes, but they are kept far apart).
- Dharamsala (vegan/vegetarian curry shop on Yppenplatz. Great Seiten burger!)

There are more, believe it or not!

Wow, Vienna does look like it has an amazing selection of vegan eats. My uncle went to vienna last year and i have been looking thru his holiday pictures, it looks like a beautiful place, i want to see more of europe and i think Vienna might be the next place on my list :)

*Oooooooooooooooooooh Viennaaaaaaaaaaaa*

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skylab

My favorites are:

- Formosa (mentioned already)
- Vegetasia (2 locations with all you can eat vegan lunch buffet!)
- Mondscheinstuberl
- Rupps
- Schillinger's (40 minutes outside of Vienna, but paradise if you can get a ride).
- Restaurant World (vegetarian/vegan curry buffet, with a separate side for meat-dishes, but they are kept far apart).
- Dharamsala (vegan/vegetarian curry shop on Yppenplatz. Great Seiten burger!)

There are more, believe it or not!

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Wish I would have found those places when I went! It was terrible for me, eating like questionable grilled veggies for a week! Now I've got to go back.

I'm so looking forward to going to the veggie/vegan pub :D

I know, who would have thought a pub would be veggie/ vegan!

They're not the only ones: http://www.georgebrighton.com/

But the george doesn't do schnitzel and Gulazsch (sp?)

Rupps is brilliant, though, they constantly change the status of their apple strudel. Sometimes it's marked vegan on the menu, sometimes not. You ask, and they are out of the vegan dough. Then a month later, it's back.

Highly recommend the schnitzel and goulash though!

There is also a new(ish) vegan foodie blog from a Vienna vegan. Lots of delicious food photos and reviews of local Wien vegan-friendly restaurants. It's call Oh Glorious Food and I recommend it! http://veganfoodism.com

A new vegan fast-food diner just opened up a few weeks ago! Very very good, lovely owners who are extremely nice. Their tacos with soy-sour cream are amazing!!!

I love Vienna.


GoVeg Diner
Favoritenstraße 156
1100 Vienna

+43 1 66912659473
http://www.govegdiner.com/

Reviews and map:
http://tupalo.com/spot/14537-go-veg-...vienna-austria

Hello,
sorry for re-vitalizing a totally old thread, but I am new to the forum and have just found this thread :-)

One thing that gripped me when I read this thread was the message lauding the 'VGT' - Verein gegen Tierfabriken, an animal rights group.

And this is actually a very sad chapter of current Austrian history.

In 2007 a special investigative group (SOKO - Sonderkommission) of the police started investigations against this animal rights group on the grounds of the newly created 'Terrorism' law. This law (§ 278 a) states that if somebody founds a 'criminal organization' - an organized group with the aim to exert considerable influence on politics or economy, then he can be fined with up to 5 years of jail.
As the group aimed to stop clothing stores from selling fur coats (and one owner of a large clothing chain happened to be on friendly terms with the ministry of justice), a task force was manned to proof that this group was not just responsible for exerting pressure and threads on the clothing stores, but had actually also either executed, masterminded, or at least accepted every criminal activity with an 'animal rights background' that had been executed in Austria in the last decade. In May 2008, some locations of the group were raided at dawn by police special forces, 30 people were detained, computers were impounded, and 10 suspects were kept in detention for several months.

Not a single piece of evidence of any kind of felony or criminal activity was identified, however, those 10 people are now on trial in a process that makes Soviet and Chinese propaganda trials against 'enemies of the state' actually look good ... the judge plays the role of prosecutor, witnesses of the defense are not accepted, evidence that exculpts the detained is not presented by the prosecution and the evidence presented by prosecution (e.g. text analysis study performed by a college teacher) is deemed ridiculous by leading criminal experts in Austria and Germany (but their expertise is not accepted by the judge that has the sole discretion on whether to accept it or not) e.g. of course, the text in this claim of responsibility is not at all in the style used by the defendant, but that only proofs that he deliberately tried to hide his distinctive style, so it is 99% sure he is the actual author).

The testimonial of the prosecuting police experts claims 'as there was no evidence uncovered at all, this clearly proves what amount of criminal energy the defendants used to hide all their traces' ... don't laugh, that is very much the opinion of the prosecution and the judge. The whole trial is a terrible farce for everybody following it. you can read more about it on the aptly named website http://www.shameonaustria.org/en/

Experts following the trial expect that there will be a 'guilty' verdict but that the punishment will consist of the jail time that the defendants have already spent during the prosecution ... so that they don't have to go to jail additionally, but on the other hand receive their 'just punishment' for being assholes. I am not kidding you.
Just some interesting morsel of information when considering to go to Austria.

To be quite frank, I have been living in Germany for the last 15 years. However, when any of my colleagues asked me whether I want to change my citizenship to German, I could not really understand this suggestion. Now I am actively researching the possibility, just because of this travesty of political justice going on...

Best regards,
Andy

PS: And, there was the question which typical Austrian dish is vegan ... forget about it!

A huge number of 'typical Austrian dishes' comes to my mind - and Austria prides itself quite a bit on its food tradition - but every single one of them either contains meat, milk or dairy. For vegetarians, there are some choices, but vegans need to find a vegan restaurant or a local vegan who cooks for them a 'veganized' version substituting the milk with soy milk and the eggs with something else.

Just been to Vienna for the weekend and thought I'd note down the places we ate before I forget - all are listed on Happycow. I will write more details later if/when I have time (before I do forget :o).

Bio Bar von Antun - Austrian style food, but vegan. I had a curry which wasn't very curry-y but was quite pleasant. Central - near Rachel Whiteread Holocaust monument.

Loving Hut, Neubaugurtel branch - similar to Brighton Loving Hut but with indoor loo! I had a seitan kebab with rice and veg.

Rupps - discussed above - cosy, welcoming maybe a bit fake meat oriented though what I had (pasta with veg) wasn't.

Yamm - very similar format to Tibits, plus excellent VEGAN CAKES (separate from the buffet), bit expensive compared with the others but not outrageous. Central - opposite the university.

Denn's/Biomarkt Maran (these companies have merged I think), Taborstrasse - an organic supermarket which is not completely vegan but which sells more different types of tofu than you can imagine. This was handy as we had a kitchen in our hotel room so we bought our breakfasts in there.

Our conclusion was that Vienna is quite vegan-friendly but you probably do need to go to the specialist places as regular cafes and restaurants don't look as if they have much that's vegan. ETA I think the nicest food I had was in Yamm, but all the other places were fine too.

Hello Harpy,

great to hear that you liked it! Vienna is a wonderful city and really has lots to offer for vegans.

I really like the "Bio bar of Antun" - great vegetarian restaurant with vegan options.

BUT - I guess you have unfortunately missed "XU's cooking". Definitely not health food, but even omnis I was there with loved the Chinese buffet. And my kids, who are normally quite picky. If you ever go there again, try it out!

Best regards,
Andy

Thanks Andy - would like to go back before too long so will try and get to XU's Cooking.

It seemed a lot easier to get vegan and vegetarian food than on my previous visit but that was (gulp) almost 20 years ago so before the days of internet guides etc - so perhaps the food was there all the time but harder to locate :D

Hi,

I am thinking of going to Vienna for a few days via train. I mainly want to go to check out the coffee shops and read a few books on the way. However, I am a bit worried that I when I get there I won't be able to go get hold of soya-milk etc...Can I grab a soya latte easily in Vienna? From the look of the thread food shouldn't be too much of an issue.

Hmm, I'm afraid I didn't try to get a soy latte while I was there because I take my coffee black. My guess is that you might have trouble getting one in a more traditional coffee house, but that you could probably get one in one of the new trendy cafes that they also seem to have a lot of, and almost certainly in one of the vegan or vegetarian places. You could buy soya milk in one of the bio supermarkets listed on Happycow, or maybe a regular supermarket - I'm afraid I didn't try.

Hope you will hear from someone who actually knows the answer :o ETA but I would definitely make the trip if you can - Vienna is lovely and it would be fun to go by train.