Bars in Vienna

Restaurants in Vienna

Clubs in Vienna

Fledermaus 1, Spiegelgasse 2 (513 1418). U1, U3 Stephansplatz. Open 10pm-4am daily. No credit cards. Up until 1998 the home of the Porgy & Bess jazz club, now it's a magnet for a chic crowd who enjoy slumming it under its subterranean brick arches. Various DJs churn out house and funk at weekends, but the place is very much in its infancy and may change its sonic policy. Exude photogenic importance at the door and don't come in groups. Jenseits 6, Nelkengasse 3 (587 1233). U3 Neubaugasse. Open 9pm-4am Mon-Sat. No credit cards. One of Vienna's finest. Ring to enter. Reputedly an ex-brothel, the chintz and velvet interior appears to back up the legend. Whatever used to go on there, today it is an excellent spot to while away part of an evening, boozing in incomparable retro surroundings to the sound of top DJs such as Amina Handke, daughter of the author of The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick. Get there early because it heaves from 11pm on and the door man habitually loses his cool and yells 'Es hat keinen Sinn!' - it's totally pointless (for you to come in) - at unsuspecting punters. Roxy 4, Operngasse 24 (587 2675). U1, U2, U4 Karlsplatz/tram 1,2, D, J/bus 59a. Open 10pm-4am Mon-Sat. Admission AS60. No credit cards. Useful central late-nighter, the Roxy has been given a new lease of life and a minor face-lift by the Sunshine crew. Best of all is the increased quality control on the music front, with DJ Samir principally to thank. While it's difficult to say what you're likely to hear in the Roxy, early 2000 was full of Brazilian beats, poppy house and killer jazz-tinged grooves. Recommended. Guess Club 6, Kaunitzgasse 3 (585 5108). Bus 57a. Open Bar 3pm-2am Mon-Wed, Sun; 3pm-4am Thur-Sat. Restaurant 6pm-1am daily. Credit AmEx, DC, MC, V. Ultra-modern 'concept' bar with weird lighting, cool decor and elaborate web pages, with numerous cams to give you a taste of the place. Various bars, various cocktails and various visually delightful eats, the Guess Club elicits a variety of reactions, ranging from 'cold, pretentious shite to 'this is exactly what Vienna needed'. Make what you will. Sub Zero 7, Siebensterngasse 27 (522 0208). Tram 49. Open 9pm-4am Tue-Sun. Admission AS80. No credit cards. Newly opened underground club with a young crowd. A tad claustrophobic, but once you get your bearings it's good fun. Playstation, ancient pac-man consoles and an amazing foot massage machine (AS5 well spent) are dotted in various nooks and crannies. Two small dancefloors with Jason KingSize spinning house and various possees of drum 'n' bassers on Saturdays and ragga & dancehall on Tuesdays. rhiz 8, Lerchenfelder Gürtel, Stadtbahnbögen 37-38 (409 2505/rantasa@rhiz.org). U6 Josefstätter Straße/tram J. Open 6pm-4am Mon-Sat; 6pm-2am Sun. Admission performances up to AS100. No credit cards. A ten-minute walk from B72, rhiz is a similar set-up, with two railway arches shut off by huge plate-glass windows and visible original brickwork. Inside, the ceiling is covered in a mesh of ventilation ducts and wiring à la Pompidou Centre and metallic projection screens hang from the walls. The selection on the CD jukebox would make any reader of The Wire moist, but it's rarely operational. Musically, rhiz offers one of the city's most aurally challenging programmes, with the accent firmly on electronica, turntablism and other millennial mutations. Regulars include Dorfmeister and Huber's duo Tosca and Mego folk such as Pita (with whom rhiz often collaborates on CD projects) and occasionally there are multimedia events such as a reading with sounds by David Toop from his book, Exotica. The atmosphere is often quite earnest and anoracky. Internet access is available (AS30 an hour) and drinks, especially whisky, are reasonable by Vienna standards. Check rhiz's website to get an idea of where it stands on the ideas front and what they're putting out on the rhiz label. The summer terrace is a soundscape in itself - cars roar by, the tram clatters round the corner and the U-Bahn roars overhead. U4 12, Schonbrünner Straße 222 (815 8307). U4 Meidlinger Hauptstraße. Open 10pm-5am daily. Admission AS60-100. Credit AmEx, DC, MC, V. The grande dame of Vienna's disco scene, this likeable club is occasionally a live music venue, featuring German hip hop acts such as Fettes Brot. Club mythology talks of aftershow gigs by Prince, Sade and Falco, but now the tonic is very much theme nights - the popular but dodgy-sounding Notte Italiana (Italian pop and disco), Boogie Nights (part of the current tiresome obsession with funk and porn cf. Piper's Ballroom's Hustler night) and the unimaginatively named Heaven Gay Night on Thursdays. It has had the same bouncer (Conny de Beauclair) guarding the door for the past 20 years. Volksgarten 1, Burgring 1 (533 0518). U2, U3 Volkstheater/tram 1, 2, D, J. Open May-Sept 10pm-5am Thur-Sun. Admission AS80-180. No credit cards. One of the city's most established party zones, with 1970s ambience and a decent sound system conveying a varied mix of soul, funk, hip-hop and house, with the action spilling outdoors into the garden in summer. The punters are a mixture of party animals, fun-searching out-of-towners, and a regular handful of Eastern European women of dubious virtue. It's essential to check the listings and flyers as new nights are always cropping up. Sunday's Soul Sugar Club is a reliable event for those in search of satisfaction-guaranteed groove and funk from accomplished DJs Samir and Arno. The Saturday night hip hop session with DJ Chinaman is also still going strong. Drinks are rather expensive so it's worth getting fuelled up in advance. How it will be affected by Joe Zawinul's plans to open his 'Birdland' jazz club here in 2000 remains to be seen. Klub Shabu 4, Künstlerhauspassage (505 9904). U1, U2, U4 Karlsplatz/tram 1, 2, D, J. Open 9pm-2am Mon-Thur, Sun; 9pm-4am Fri, Sat. Credit AmEx, DC, MC, V. The dingy '70s atmosphere seems charming in the orange lighting. The DJs spin anything from country to electronic to one of Vienna's more eclectic and arty crowds. Note: the entrance is hard to find - it's beneath one of Otto Wagner's pavilions - and may be threatened by the proposed U-Bahn extension. Bricks 2, Taborstraße 38 (216 3701). Tram N. Open 8pm-4am daily. Admission free-AS40. No credit cards. Small, dimly lit basement club/bar with no plaster on the walls - hence its name - split into three rooms. One has a large horseshoe-shaped bar where the music is quiet enough for conversation. The middle room has a dancefloor, while the smallest room has table football and a couple of arcade games. The place has a lot of potential, but the owners Bertl and Marcus don't seem prepared to spend money on the aesthetics or the sometimes defective equipment. Having said that, there's something going on every night of the week so it's worth checking out. Among the best are Amour on Saturdays with hip hop, swing and soul, and Wednesdays with DJ Elk (one of Vienna's best loved) playing 1960s classics. Meierei 3, Stadtpark (Heumarkt entrance) (710 8400). U4 Stadtpark. Open 10pm-late Wed, Fri, Sat (check posters and listings). Admission AS80-100. No credit cards. Set in the bucolic surroundings of the Stadtpark with no neighbours to annoy, the Meierei transforms itself at night from an OAPs' coffee-and-card-games spot into one of Vienna's most frequented clubs. Heaving at weekends, it's nicer in summer, when you can pop out into the park for a breath of fresh air. The whole thing runs under the auspices of the Sunshine Club, which has a roster of Vienna's finest DJing talent such as soulman Samir, Jürgen Drimal as well as Pulsinger & Tunakan and Kruder & Dorfmeister. Goldie, 4 Hero and various Wall of Sounders have also passed through here. In late 1999 it started to put on live acts such as Brazilian funksters Azymuth and Heinz Tronigger's excellent Madrid de los Austrias. However, so much international exposure of the Wien DJ scene has taken its toll and drawbacks here include shirty doormen and excessive bar prices.