Café Bellaria

Review

Young again after 151 years

Café Bellaria was almost a Ringstrasse café. Just 70 meters separate it from the Ring, although that probably wouldn't have changed much, as it's a car racing track and streetcar junction, so hardly a sensual location for a charismatic coffee house. And so Café Bellaria - which was founded in 1870 and is the oldest coffee house in Vienna - developed into a somewhat quirky place away from all the attention, where regulars celebrated Franz Antel regulars' tables and weekly opera evenings. Last year, however, not only the Bellaria cinema closed, but also the café, which immediately aroused the interest of American hamburger chains because the location is already great. But it also happens that Rubin Okotie - a former member of the Austrian national soccer team and two years ago the operator of one of the first bowl restaurants in Vienna - likes to have breakfast in David Figar's bistro in Kirchengasse and is also always on the lookout for interesting gastronomic properties. So the two of them took a look at the café and knew immediately that this was what they wanted to do. Another colourful hipster place that also boasts a historical attitude? But it turned out really well: the atmosphere of the café was not only retained, but was also very well worked out by KLK (Mochi, The Krypt, Urbanauts). The impressive stucco dome and the arched windows were given a symbiotic contrast with a poured floor, a neon snake, bright red Thonet armchairs and, above all, wall cladding made of grey slate slats. Sure, burgers and bowls are a must. However, the breakfast menu is not bad at all and clearly beats the nearby Museumsquartier eateries. For the sake of former regulars, there's also schnitzel, goulash and roast onion, and the kitchen also shows real courage to be original: Chicory salad with gorgonzola marinade, roasted nuts and grapes used to be really different and really good (€ 11), roast duck breast is also rare, but thanks to modern sous-vide cooking, the previously tough muscle is tender as butter, the gnocchi are fluffy, the sour cherry and port wine jus perhaps a little too much of a good thing, just the roast salad hearts would be enough (€ 23).
And very important: from 5 p.m., the café also becomes a bar, where Fabian Kalal mixes exceptionally good cocktails from exceptional ingredients: he adds nut butter to the Campari for the very good Negroni, for example, which gives it a bit more body. To sum up: a newly opened coffee house that turned out much better than expected, where you can eat well and get drunk.

More in Viennese Café
Food & Drink in Vienna