Vienna's Heurigers or wine taverns

   Wanting a more typical Viennese dining experience, I asked our hotel concierge for a restaurant suggestion away from the downtown. “Is there somewhere we can go on the tram that stops outside the hotel?” I asked. He recommended three restaurants 25 minutes away in Grinzing, in the direction of Nussdorf. It was here that we discovered the Heuriger, or wine garden.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heuriger indoor/outdoor taverns operated by wineries.
     While I had heard of the Vienna Woods, I wasn’t aware that there are numerous vineyards and wineries within Vienna’s urban boundary. While each heuriger is different, many often offer a buffet rather than menu service, that is set up inside where you point to what you want and the price is based on weight.

     Our first visit was to Werner Welser where our server appeared in traditional Viennese dress. I asked for a wine list and she said there was a red wine and a white wine. In another I was offered the choice of new wine or old wine.) While there were other tourists in the restaurant, and some cater to large busloads of tourists, we were told that these places are generally frequented by locals.
     On our last night, we ate at Heuriger Zimmerman, which offers a more conventional restaurant-style service with a menu and wine list. However our server did not speak English which Sally thought was a good sign, but it did make ordering somewhat awkward, with surprising results!
     If you go to Vienna, I highly recommend a visit to one of the many Heurigers.

It wasn't the healthiest food in the world (we did have salads beforehand) but it certainly was tasty!

I was surprised by the traditional outfits worn by servers but discovered this wasn't just for tourists....this is the norm for the locals as well.

Heuriger Zimmerman, one of the better rated restaurants in the area

In the mid-afternooon, an interior view. Shortly after this was taken a busload of 60 tourists from Asia showed up!

Can you tell the old wine and the new wine? More importantly, this is a glass of wine in many of the Heurigers (about 3 euros each)