Steirereck

Vienna's most celebrated restaurant, in a glass-and-steel pavilion built around a historic dairy building on the edge of the Stadtpark.

Heinz and Margarethe Reitbauer opened the first Steirereck in 1970 in the 3rd district, bringing the produce and cooking of their native Styria to the capital. In 2005 the restaurant moved into the Meierei, the old milk bar in the Stadtpark by the Wien river, which was later extended with a striking modern pavilion. Their son Heinz Reitbauer took over the kitchen and made it one of the most acclaimed in Europe, a regular on international best-restaurant lists.

The cooking is modern Austrian in the purest sense: rare vegetables and herbs grown for the restaurant, fish from Austrian lakes and rivers, and old regional techniques reworked with precision. Details have become famous in their own right — the bread trolley with its dozens of breads, the vast cheese selection. Downstairs, the Meierei is the more relaxed sister, serving breakfast, classic Viennese dishes and cheese through the day.

Honest note: this is a special-occasion price level, and dinner tables need booking well in advance. Lunch is the easier way in, and the Meierei offers a taste of the house without the tasting-menu commitment. Dress smart rather than formal. The Stadtpark and the Kursalon are on the doorstep for a walk afterwards. Neighbourhood: Landstraße; where to stay nearby: where to stay in Vienna.