Vienna is full of places serving up a variety of tasty cuisines. These are the best spots in the town to grab a bite, from this year’s 50 Best Restaurants list — including two of the Top 10. From Italian and Greek to modern American and Persian, here are Vienna’s best restaurants of the year.
By Alice Levitt, Dawn Klavon, and Monica Saigal
Price Key: Entrées = $ 15 and under | $$ 16–25 | $$$ 26–40 | $$$$ 41 and over | * = prix fixe only
Clarity
Vienna | Modern American | $$$$
Locals whisper that Clarity is a date fail-safe, and the odds are in their favor. Slide onto a mustard-yellow banquette beneath halo-like crystal chandeliers and you’ll feel the city’s buzz melt away, even if the next table is close enough to borrow salt.
Servers greet regulars by name and steer newcomers toward plates that could double as still-life paintings.
Start with the beet carpaccio, a ruby-and-gold mandala brightened by pomegranate arils and toasted hazelnuts. Follow it with chilled cucumber gazpacho poured tableside over a Maryland-crab salad studded with almonds. Should you surrender to the wild Alaskan halibut, your teeth will be met by a crisp-edged filet crowned with truffle petals and perched on inky lentils that taste like hearth-warm smoke flirting with a salty sea breeze.
Comforting yet polished, Clarity feels like that trusty dress you slip on and remember why you love it — precisely what date night requires.
Eat This: Beet carpaccio, cucumber gazpacho with Maryland crab, wild Alaskan halibut
Evelyn Rose
Vienna | Modern American | $$$
There’s a palpable hug-the-room warmth at Evelyn Rose, and it starts with the name: Chef Nick Palermo and co-founder Sam Schnoebelen honor their grandmothers, Evelyn and Rose, who taught them life’s sweetest moments happen when everyone squeezes around the dinner table. That spirit lives on in a dining room framed by exposed-beam rafters and the scent of rosemary focaccia drifting from the open kitchen.
Palermo’s menu is elevated comfort done right. Earth N Eats roasted baby beets arrive jeweled with hearts of palm and clouds of chèvre, brightened by peppery greens. Summer-sweet grilled corn, tumbled with smoky poblano sour cream and goat-milk feta, proves vegetables can steal the show. But it’s the whole-milk ricotta cavatelli — buried under tomato-braised brisket, pork shoulder, and Palermo’s tender meatballs — that turns weeknights into occasions.
What began as a neighborhood haunt has blossomed into a destination where kindred spirits gather over unforgettable plates; Evelyn and Rose would be proud.
Eat This: Roasted baby beet salad, grilled sweet corn, whole-milk ricotta cavatelli
Ingle Korean Steakhouse (No. 7)
Vienna | Korean | $$$$
Remember the Choose Your Own Adventure book series? Packed with choices that would lead to myriad possible endings, the stories were an eminently satisfying way to make kids read. Ingle Korean Steakhouse is the wagyu-powered equivalent.
It starts with the first sip of water, when your server arrives with a tray of cucumbers, lime, and lemon from which to pick. The six-course prix fixe dinner includes a collection of American wagyu cuts of the day, but from there, you have almost as many options to devour as you did as a book-hungry youth.
Shared appetizers might be steamed mussels marinière, cod roe garlic toast, or a scallion pancake with shrimp, but we encourage trying the sashimi salad, spicy-and-sweet hwe moo-chim. Each diner gets to select their own savory meal, be it beef fried rice, soup, or one of three takes on chilled buckwheat noodles.
But when it comes to the tender meats grilled on your table, to paraphrase Sondheim, loving them is not a choice.
Eat This: Corn cheese, hwe moo-chim, wagyu cuts of the day
Joon
Vienna | Persian | $$$$
Most of us probably consider a Persian kebab a not-so-guilty pleasure, a quick treat when we don’t feel like cooking. But for decades, it’s been Najmieh Batmanglij’s raison d’être to prove that the food of her homeland is something far more refined than marinated meat on a skewer.
The famed cookbook author combines her powers with those of DC chef Chris Morgan in a warren of rooms that delight with their collection of colors — and the flavors presented within. Take, for instance, the Persian cucumber salad, an assemblage of pomegranate, pistachio, feta, and mint that comes together in a symphony of loveliness.
You could have one of several kebabs, but the grilled rockfish with sour-orange-and-parsley beurre blanc is a stunning fusion of French and Iranian influences. The crisp-skinned fish is topped with jewel-like smoked trout roe, then paired with crunchy-topped rice flavored with dill and meaty fava beans.
Joon is Batmanglij’s world, and we’re lucky to be invited to join her, especially if that invitation means a bite or two of rich chocolate and kataifi pie.
Eat This: Persian cucumber salad, grilled rockfish, chocolate and kataifi pie
Nostos (No. 2)
Vienna | Greek | $$$
A flash of tableside flames from sizzling saganaki is every bit as rousing as what you’ll find in Athens.
White curtains billow like sails, conversations drift in half a dozen languages, and servers nudge you toward a glass of crisp Assyrtiko from the restaurant’s delightful Greek wine list.
Begin with the trio of housemade dips — cool dill-sparked tzatziki, smoky eggplant, and creamy Santorini-style fava crowned with diced purple onion — which arrives with slices of freshly baked pita still warm from the oven. Each bite is a postcard from the islands.
Then arrives the standout moussaka, baked and served in its own petite cast iron skillet, where cinnamon-laced beef, eggplant, and potato hide beneath a bronzed béchamel cloud. Finish with paidakia, the chargrilled lamb chops paired with simply grilled asparagus.
At Nostos, consistency is the secret seasoning. Each visit feels like a homecoming, only with better olive oil and a little more sunshine on the plate.
Eat This: Flaming kefalograviera saganaki, skillet moussaka, lamb chops with asparagus
Roberto’s Ristorante Italiano
Vienna | Italian | $$$$
When Roberto Donna and his wife, Nancy Sabbagh, opened their first restaurant in Vienna, the goal was to create an eatery the neighborhood would love. Three years on, the bustling dining room proves they’ve succeeded in that goal.
But Donna also said that he wanted to bring back guéridon service. With a cooking station wheeled to nearly every table, they’ve mastered that art, too. At Roberto’s Ristorante Italiano, it’s almost a sin not to order the fettuccini alla parmigiana.
The fresh pasta is twisted and turned — with a bit of the water in which it was boiled — in a wheel of aged parmigiana. The al dente result is George Clinton–level funky, creamy, and all-around pleasurable.
Don’t skip dessert. The dome of chocolate-and-hazelnut-flavored semifreddo all but melts into its pistachio cream sauce. It’s so intensely nutty, it nearly skims into bitterness.
Yes, Roberto’s is beloved by the neighborhood. But an everyday neighborhood restaurant? It’s miles above it.
Eat This: Pancetta di maiale croccante, fettuccini alla parmigiana, semifreddo di gianduia
Feature photo of Roberto’s Ristorante Italiano by Rey Lopez
