Vienna is full of coffee houses that respect the tradition of marble tabletops, pristine chandeliers, and formal sofas. Café Friedlich in the Kunst Haus Wien is not one of them. And I love it.
- Unusual interior design and architecture in the Hundertwasser style
- One of the “greenest” cafés you’ll find in Vienna
- Imaginative fare and vegetarian alternatives
- Be sure to use the toilets (I’m serious)
- (Re)opened in 2024 after renovation
- Book a classical concert experience* in Vienna
- See also:
Art and avocados
(Main entrance to the Kunst Haus Wien. Café Friedlich is at the rear of the museum)
It’s hard to pass by the Kunst Haus Wien without stopping to gawp. The building looks as if Friedensreich Hundertwasser designed it, with its mosaic of shapes, colours, curves, columns, and vegetation.
Actually, Hundertwasser did design the building, which houses the Hundertwasser permanent exhibition, special exhibitions, and a rather different kind of café restaurant: Café Friedlich.
Think of this café as the artistic cousin in the Viennese coffee house family.
The floor, for example, consists of a mosaic of black and white tiles interspersed with dots of colours, and it rises and falls unevenly.
The whole interior reflects Hundertwasser’s design philosophy with its rejection of conformity.
At first sight, for example, the chairs seem rather standard bentwood designs, until you realise that no one chair is similar to the next. Even the crockery has an unexpected flair.
Plants and flower baskets hang from the walls and ceiling, often climbing along the roofspace. Yet it all still retains an ordered elegance.
Nor does the design approach stop there: be sure to use the toilets for an extended Hundertwasser experience.
All-in-all, Café Friedlich feels like a rediscovered plant conservatory put through a pristine conversion, then bent slightly out of shape by forces unknown.
And, frankly, any café that plays a cover version of Leonard Cohen’s Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye (if memory serves) is an instant 10/10.
In the warmer months, sit in the outside courtyard among a morass of wild vines and other plants to enjoy the tumble of colours, spirals (and trees) of the museum building around you.
It really is a lovely place.
On the menu front, the café offered imaginative choices to match the décor on my visit shortly after the 2024 reopening.
So no traditional Wiener Frühstück among the breakfast options, but a Budapest bagel or banana bread porridge instead.
The main meals combined a couple of more traditional dishes (like Schnitzel) with international and creative alternatives, like Nasu Dengaku or a “field and meadow” mix.
Given the above, this is not a coffee house in the traditional sense of the word. Time does not slow down quite so much here. Instead, it twists and turns and leads you off into other directions.
A place to chat, a place to relax, a place to contemplate your next watercolour.
The café certainly represents another arrow in your quiver of gastronomic options; a colourful alternative to the pristine formality or rigid traditionalism of some of the city centre classics.
Consider it a wonderful way to finish off a visit to the surrounding Kunst Haus Wien.
How to get to Café Friedlich
See the article on the Kunst Haus Wien for directions and travel tips.
The café resides on the ground floor. Since the museum and main exhibition are upstairs, you can go through into the café without having to buy a ticket for either.
Alternatively, simply reach the café from around the back, where Dampfschiffstraße meets Weißgerberlände. The Donaukanal river channel drifts past here, so the café makes a nice stop during a riverside walk.
Address: Weißbergerlände 14, 1030 Vienna | Website