Café Central Vienna: Menu, Booking, Reopening

For the room, yes; for the food, not for us. On our first try we went for dinner and got there about seven minutes before it closed at 22:00; they would not seat us, so we ended up at Five Guys. A few days later, after a whole day at Schönbrunn, we came back, sat down under the vaulted ceilings and ordered Tafelspitz.

The plate came with boiled beef, creamed spinach, a rösti wedge, root vegetables, chive sauce and apple horseradish. People had praised the food here a lot, but we did not find it that good; the Tafelspitz we had at Plachutta  was better.

We thought the desserts might be its strong side, but we did not get to try them. Would we queue at the door again for these dishes? No.

If you want a coffee house meal in Vienna, we liked Café Landtmann  more; for Tafelspitz go to Plachutta.

No. Café Central has been closed for a general renovation since 16 March 2026, and reopening is planned between autumn and winter 2026 (official info, 19 October 2026). The work is mostly technical: the kitchen, ventilation and fire safety.

The Thonet chairs are being overhauled and the historic chandeliers restored, and the aim is for the hall to look the same as before (news reports, March 2026).

While the coffee house is closed, the same company runs the temporary DECENTRAL café at Freyung 3, a short walk from Herrengasse. It is open daily and serves the café's coffee and cakes: a Melange is €5.40 and apple strudel €5.90, so coffee and cake come to about €11.30 (official info, 19 October 2026).

You book a table at DECENTRAL by phone or email. On Café Central hours for now: the official pages give two different opening times for DECENTRAL, 7:30 and 8:00, so check the café's own channel before you go.

The full Café Central Wien menu returns when the coffee house reopens; we will update this page with the new prices then. For now, the menu in Vienna is the DECENTRAL one: Viennese coffee and the café's cakes, with a Melange at €5.40 and apple strudel at €5.90 (official info, 19 October 2026).

On our visit the main menu had Viennese classics such as Tafelspitz, which is what we ordered; by the entrance hangs the café's "Guide A la Carte 2021" award.

During the renovation Café Central's online reservation is closed. Before it closed, there was a queue at the door, and that is what we asked ourselves: is it worth queuing here to eat?

For us, not for the food. If you go after it reopens, come early in the day; late in the evening they stop seating guests before closing, as we found out seven minutes before 22:00.

Café Central opened in 1876 on the ground floor of the Palais Ferstel, the former bank and stock exchange building designed by Heinrich von Ferstel; the building and the café are both under heritage protection. Around 1900 it was a meeting place of Vienna's writers and thinkers: Sigmund Freud, Arthur Schnitzler, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Leon Trotsky and Peter Altenberg, whose papier-mâché figure still sits near the entrance.

After the First World War many regulars moved to other coffee houses; the café closed in 1943 and stayed shut for decades before it reopened (news reports, March 2026).

That history is why people queue here, and it is also why we say: come for the hall, the vaulted ceilings and the story, and order a coffee and a cake rather than a main course.

Café Central and its temporary café are both in the Innere Stadt, the old town; if you stay there you can walk to them, and to the Hofburg, Demel and St. Stephen's: See Innere Stadt hotels  Ad. Ad Areas and the hotels we stayed at are in our where to stay in Vienna  guide.

For Kaiserschmarrn and apple strudel go to Demel ; for coffee, strudel and a grand room on the Ring, Café Landtmann . All ten places we ate at are in our what to eat in Vienna  guide.