Do & Co

Description:

• Positioned on the 7th floor of a radically angular hypermodern building that's set across from Vienna's cathedral, this restaurant is the crown jewel of an also-recommended hotel. It's difficult to overstate its fame within the complicated but steely hierarchy of fine and/or stylish Viennese dining. So great is its demand that even if there happens to be a space available during the city's key dining hours (roughly defined as between 7 and 10pm), management will simply not release that space to walk-ins who haven't pre-reserved a table, saving it instead for last-minute calls from the aides of either "celebrities of the minute" or genuinely grand Imperial dragons. At its best, it will provide a high-pressure insight into Vienna's social priorities.

  Consider a pre-dinner cocktail at the stylish and sometimes overcrowded Onyx Bar on the building's 6th floor, then climb a circular staircase through cramped hallways to the 7th-floor dining room. Here, if you've reserved, you'll be presented with a slightly claustrophobic table and a confusingly diverse set of menu items. Dishes are divided into categories that include "Tastes of the World" (Tataki of Atlantic tuna), "Catch of the Day" (potpourri of scallops with beans, comfit of tomato, and crème fraîche), "Beef & Co." (French breast of duck with green beans and creamy kumquat polenta), "Kebab, Wok & Curries" (dishes inspired by Asia, especially Thailand), "Austrian Classics" (deep-fried monkfish with potato salad), and many different kinds of sushi.

• © Frommer's 2012

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Recommended 2010