Innovative Kosher restaurants, indie fashion stores and the amiable Karmelitermarkt mean there’s more to Vienna’s Leopoldstadt than the Prater and the big wheel.
Kosher restaurants in Leopoldstadt
It is no surprise to see a restaurant in Leopoldstadt – Vienna’s District II, sandwiched between the Innere Stadt and the Danube – promoting kosher food on the window. The area has long been a major hub for the Jewish community, and that’s still visibly true today.
What is perhaps surprising at Mea Shearim, is that the “modern kosher food” includes experimental sushi, maki rolls and bento boxes. It’s Asian fusion meets Israeli, but it’s not done in a flashy look-at-me manner. That just wouldn’t work here.
- For more on Vienna’s Jewish heritage, try a Jewish Vienna walking tour.
What to expect in Vienna’s Prater
Most visitors will only visit District II for the Prater, the park that’s home to the famous Wiener Riesenrad big wheel and dozens of rides that are too good for fairgrounds, but not quite good enough for theme parks. The simple, fun seaside vibe turns to something else as you head south, with benches atop hillocks, sunbathers lying on shaggily unmowed grass and dirt paths meandering in and out of trees.
Leopoldstadt cafés
But in the last couple of years, the rest of Leopoldstadt has been getting attention as well. There have been several attempts to bill it as Vienna’s new hip neighbourhood. But that’s only accurate if you’re taking hip to mean popular, rather than relentlessly trendsetting and scene-shaping. A few café-restaurant-bar hybrids at the bottom end of Praterstrasse may dip tentative toes into showiness, but Café Ansari and Mochi are still largely filled with people enjoying a coffee with friends on a sprawling terrace on a summer’s day.
Shopping in Leopoldstadt, Vienna
Something similar applies to the shops. There are a fair few indie fashion stores, with the likes of Boccalupo on Praterstrasse going for big bold colours in the dresses, but none seem to have the snobbery and pretence at being the absolute cutting edge about them. Most shops, though, are functional and solid, perhaps a little behind the times and ripe for buying out by cool-seekers who’ve bought into the idea of the area being the next big thing.
Stalls at Karmelitermarkt, Vienna
Head towards the instantly loveable Karmelitermarkt, and there aren’t so much stalls as permanent mini-houses selling fish, meat, cheese and the odd knick-knack. Several of them are basically bars and cafés under a not particularly good disguise, and there’s a gradual shift in custom throughout the day. One will be humming at breakfast time, others developing queues at lunch, others producing dozens of chairs from nowhere as people slurp beers long after the sun has set.
More Vienna travel ideas
For a wide range of Vienna tours, activities and experiences, investigate here.
Other Vienna articles on Planet Whitley include:
Disclosure: There are affiliate links within this article. If you buy a product after clicking through on these links, I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to yourself.
