Vegan in Vienna

Living in France as a vegetarian or vegan is not always easy. In rural areas, in particular, the locals will struggle to understand your diet and your motivations. Ingredients, which many living in the UK or other more enlightened countries may consider to be everyday purchases, are difficult if not impossible to obtain. Eating out is tricky too, and news of a new veggie establishment usually spreads like wildfire in both the English and French speaking veggie communities. (Yes, there are French vegetarians and vegans.) For this reason, I love a trip to Germany and the chance to visit one of my favourite German supermarkets. Earlier this year, as I mentioned in a previous blog post, we were impressed with the vegan food available in Sweden, too. I’ve just returned from another trip east and I’m pleased to say that Germany did not disappoint; the campervan was loaded to the gunnels with vegan cheese and ‘fake meat’ salami. However, the biggest surprise was Austria.

I have to confess that Austria had never really been on my radar. I knew little about the country, apart from its …ahem … WW2 connections, and, of course, the Sound of Music, cuckoo clocks and the beautiful countryside of the Tyrol. I’d always thought that it was a fairly insular country, a sort of quieter German cousin. After a couple of days in Poland, visiting Auschwitz, we needed a bit of cheering up, so decided to head home via Vienna. There’s a great campervan stellplatz on the outskirts of Vienna, only 20 minutes by U-bhan into the centre from a station 200m away.

Situated at the confluence of eastern and western Europe, and with a hint of the Levante thrown in, Vienna is a multicultural capital. Any and every type of cuisine seems to be available, and this included vegan. Genuine 100% vegan. Not vegetarian with vegan options; not ‘normal’ restaurants with veggie options; 100% vegan eating places.

Despite its being a UNESCO world heritage site, we found the Inner Stadt was a bit of a soulless place. Granted, we enjoyed the Baroque architecture, endless grand buildings, beautifully maintained gardens, clean environment and quiet calm atmosphere. But we had an impression that this was a ghetto of the rich, populated by immaculate and incredibly dressed Russians conveyed from one designer outlet to another in chauffeur-driven limousines, or nibbling delicately on a slice of torte at one of the ‘must be seen at’ coffee houses. We were never going to be impressed by the window displays of Cartier and Hermes, or the uniformed flunkies standing outside them. However, we were not going to be discouraged from joining them with a slice of torte. Vienna is (claimed to be) the birthplace of the coffee house and there is no end to the choice of grand cafes. After a little research, we decided to give Hotel Sacher, and the long queue outside, a miss. (Although we did later buy overpriced Sacher Tortes to take home as presents.) We headed for the Café Central, the former haunt of Trotsky. The café failed to live up to its reputation for unfriendly staff, and we received a warm welcome. How to choose from all the beautiful cakes on offer? I’m afraid I had to forgo the vegan principles and sample the one with the most chocolate without even asking the V-question.

What to choose at the Café Central?

 

Next, it was time for lunch and we needed to get back on the vegan wagon. My HappyCow app showed that there were lots of vegan restaurants outside of the main tourist area, so we headed for the student quarter just outside the inner ring road. The streets were buzzing, it was lunchtime, and there was no end of options, from a hole in the wall outlet selling a pizza slice and a drink for €1 to Asian restaurants offering sit-down fixed price menus of €10 or so. We headed for Swing Café. The USP here is a vegan, fast food burger joint playing swing music softly in the background. This was one of five branches in Vienna, all 100% vegan. Five! The word ‘best’ was used a lot throughout the meal: best burger, best onion rings, best chips, best ever. Everything was freshly made, on the premises. The prices were no different to the large, well-known, burger chains, but surpassed them in quality. Apart from the biodegradable card containers and unbleached paper napkins it was indistinguishable from any ‘normal’ burger joint, except that it was vegan. Sadly, after the coffee and cake we’d had earlier we had no room to sample the vegan tiramisu on offer. Meal for two; 100% vegan, no dessert, including drinks and sides €21.20.

Swing Kitchen

 

On our second day exploring Vienna I had plans to visit a vegan ice-cream parlour. In fact, it was one of five – yes, again five branches of a small chain, all 100% vegan. However, our timings of a museum visit were a bit awry and we came out feeling hungry for lunch, not ice-cream. Whilst walking back towards the centre we stumbled across a restaurant called Veggiez. I checked out the menu; another 100% vegan place! This time slightly more variety on offer, burgers yes, but also falafels, wraps and salads. It was just before 12 and they were setting tables, but an early lunch was no problem. It was clear that there were numerous vegan-only outlets in Vienna, ranging from the high-end Hollerei to the fast-food outlets we prefer, and that suit our budget. We quizzed the proprietor of Veggiez about the proliferation of vegan food in Vienna. He did not seem to think that it was unusual and explained that a couple of years ago, as soon as vegan became a new first-world trend, entrepreneurs had begun to open new restaurants. Only the best had survived, but there was an increasing clientele of vegetarians, flexitarians, vegans, and meat-eaters too, who demanded good prices and high quality.

Wraps (and obligatory chips) at Veggiez

Before leaving Vienna we had time for a little shopping. On our way out of the student area we visited the Nachtsmarkt, Vienna’s top outdoor food market. Nasch means to snack, by the way, so it is not, as we originally thought, related to a night market. There has been a market in this location since the sixteenth century, but the green wrought-iron stands currently in place date back to the 1920s. The market extends for some one-and-a-half kilometres so we only saw the tip of the iceberg. Every cuisine imaginable is represented, with both stands selling fresh produce and groceries, and mini-restaurants and snack stalls. Vegan is well-represented. Of course, we found the Asian stalls and were able to stock up on sambal at less than half the price I pay to buy it from Amazon.

The Nachsmarkt Vienna

 

The other surprise was a quick trip into the Spar supermarket next to the stellplatz. With experience of the Spar supermarkets of the 1970s in the UK, my expectations were very low. So, imagine my surprise when we were greeted by a large open chilled cabinet filled with vegetarian and vegan fresh foods: cheese, salamis, tofu, seitan, ready-meals, salads, smoothies, vegan ice-cream, milk, yoghourt, chocolate, the list goes on. A quick visit to buy a couple of bottles of beer turned into a big shop! The prices were surprising, too. I’d always thought that Austria was an expensive country, but the prices were favourably comparable with Germany. Austrian Spar is now on my list of favourite supermarkets, alongside Edeka and Rewe in Germany and ICA in Sweden. I’m already planning next year’s visit to Austria.

Vegan ice cream from Spar