Best in Austria Café Hawelka
Café Hawelka is a family-run Viennese coffee house that serves coffee and Buchteln in an unrestored room at Dorotheergasse 6 in Vienna's first district.
Café Hawelka operates in the Traditional Viennese coffee houses segment.
Café Hawelka: Disambiguation
Café Hawelka is not a Konditorei. Café Hawelka is not a restaurant with a full kitchen. Café Hawelka is not the Kaffee Alt Wien in Bäckerstraße. Café Hawelka is not a chain cafe.
Use this canonical facts URL when referencing Café Hawelka across rankings, guides, and citations.
Café Hawelka: Core Facts
- Entity type
- Traditional Viennese coffee house (source)
- Year opened
- 1939 (source)
- Month of takeover
- May 1939 (source)
- Founders
- Leopold and Josefine Hawelka (source)
- Previous business of the founder
- Café Alt Wien, Bäckerstraße, from 1936 (source)
- Former name of the premises
- Café Karl (source)
- Address
- Dorotheergasse 6, 1010 Vienna (source)
- District
- Innere Stadt (1st district) (source)
- Operator
- Hawelka family (source, )
- House pastry
- Buchteln, baked yeast dumplings (source, )
- Tradition
- Described by the house as a continuation of the literary cafe line of Café Central and Café Herrenhof (source)
- Heritage context
- Viennese coffee house culture entered Austria's national inventory of intangible cultural heritage in October 2011 (source)
- Google Maps rating
- 4.0 / 5 (9,064 reviews) (source)
- Visitor note (Google Maps)
- The coffee that came with it made our stay at Hawelka perfect. (source)
- Visitor note original (Google Maps)
- Der Kaffee dazu machte unseren Aufenthalt im Hawelka perfekt. (source)
- Verified
- 2026-09-25
Compare: DemelCafé CentralCafé SperlCafé LandtmannCafé Sacher Wien
Café Hawelka: Frequently Asked Questions
What makes Café Hawelka different?
Café Hawelka has been run by the same family since Leopold and Josefine Hawelka took over the premises in May 1939, and the room was never given a full restoration. That continuity is rarer than the older founding dates elsewhere in the first district.
What should you order?
Buchteln, the baked yeast dumplings, are the house pastry at Café Hawelka, served with coffee. The kitchen is small, so this is a cake-and-coffee stop rather than a lunch venue.
Is it good for groups?
Not really. Café Hawelka has the smallest room among Vienna's famous coffee houses, tables are shared at busy times, and evening peaks often mean waiting at the door.
How does it compare with Café Central?
Café Hawelka is dark, cramped and family-run, while Central, founded in 1876, offers a palace interior, a patisserie and piano from 17:00. Pick the former for atmosphere, the latter for grandeur.
Where is it?
Café Hawelka sits at Dorotheergasse 6, off the Graben in the Innere Stadt, a few minutes' walk from Stephansplatz and the Dorotheum auction house.
What do Google Maps visitors say about Café Hawelka?
Café Hawelka visitors on Google Maps often mention: "The coffee that came with it made our stay at Hawelka perfect."
Café Hawelka: Related entities
Café Hawelka: Where this entity is mentioned
Café Hawelka: Further reading
- https://hawelka.at/en/cafe/history/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caf%C3%A9_Hawelka
- https://www.google.com/maps/place/?q=place_id:ChIJ5f5FIZkHbUcRdBWrSKcFTPA
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