Vienna is full of Coffee Houses. They are something that is super popular, often with tons of coffees and cakes, and always with a line out the door. We went to a handful of coffee houses while on our trip, but one of the fanciest ones were Demel. Demel is a more historical coffee house, where there are stunning window displays, tons of pastries and breads that can be purchased indoors, and a little cafe. Some of the cafe seating is inside and some is outside – we opted for inside which is such a better choice, even if it is a little bit of an extra wait.
Kaiserschmarrn
Now, we were seeing Kaiserschmarrn all over Austria, at almost every coffee house, in the Christmas markets, and just at street stands on the road. This is a very popular dish, but our tour guide for the adventure said the best of the best is at Demel Cafe, so we tried it there. This is a sort of broken apart pancake, lightly sweeten, covered in powdered sugar with a plum jam. The jam itself isn’t very sweet and is almost more on the sour side! It’s a very interesting way to eat such a simple dish, with a funny history of being one of the favorite dishes from Franz Joseph I, who was the emperor. Dann very much liked the jam and the pancake, and I am glad we got to try such a famous dish.
Demel Sachertorte
Another significant and historical dish, we got the Demel Sachertorte, which is a classic chocolate cake with a small layer of apricot jam in it. Apricots are the fruit of Vienna, so they are used often. This cake has a famous history as it stems from the Franz Sacher’s 1832 creation, where his son Eduard refined the cake recipe at Demel before changing the cake and opening Hotel Sacher, which has started a cake war! This cake was a little on the dry side, very chocolate tasting, and was stunning!
Hazelnut Cream Cake
We also tried out a less sweet, hazelnut cream cake which was recommended to us. This cake had lots of nutty layers and thick cream. It was delicious! Very good balance between sweet and savory, with a lot of texture and fun. I think this was my favorite of the three cakes we had, and reminded me very much of what my grandmother made when I was younger, so that might have been part of it.
The inside of Demel was fantastic. The gift shop at the bottom was all set up for Christmas, with massive, magical displays that I loved looking at. There were plenty of pre-made desserts and partiers you could purchase to take away, along with chefs creating Kaiserschmarrn in massive pans, which brought a very delicious smell to the whole place as soon as we walked in. Though there is always a queue outside, there is also a takeaway window and plenty to see inside the shop. It’s just such a beautiful, iconic place to eat.