Top 8 on-the-go healthy lunch spots in Vienna’s 1st district

Category: ramen, asian, noodles, meats, dumplings, takeaway

Since 2002, the ra’mien restaurant chain has been slowly making a name for itself, to the point at which they now have 4 successful locations in Vienna. And now you can get the vast range of their Asian dishes, quickly. ra’mien go should definitely be your go-to place for a quick bite if you are craving some tastes of Asia. The portions are generous and so are the flavours. The service is fairly fast and the quality is consistent

Tip: If after eating a main dish you are still missing a little something, try the vegetarian gyozas! They’re big enough to fill you, but also not so big to leave you paralyzed by a full stomach.

Category: restaurant, buffet, italian, breakfast, sandwiches, aperitivo

This Italian bar and bistro serving up breakfast, quick eats, wine, spumante, stuzzichini, and the infamous Italian aperitivo, just opened up at the Schottenbastei (close to the main university campus). The place has a clean look, serves up quality antipasto, scrumptious pastries and has that good old Italian flair.

Tip: come here to feel super Italiano whenever you escape Vienna… which should be never, but ya know.

Category: sandwiches, eats, Japanese

Onisando is a Japanese sandwich bar, bringing new flavours to Vienna’s culinary scene with their odd sounding combination of sandwiches and Japanese cuisine. The set menus at Onisando always consist of a sandwich with 1 kind of meat, fish, or a vegetarian filling, a miso soup and an orange for desert (they’re keeping an eye on your health for you). Choice is simple here, which makes the answer to that much discussed question on a work morning, ‘what are you going to have for lunch?’ easy.

Category: restaurant, take-away, Austrian, soup

Schachtelwirt is making all the Austro-Bohemian favourites to go…in a box! The place is the heart of an Austrian tavern reinvented. While most Gasthäuser will invite you to sit for hours and eat lunch, this place encourages the opposite. Sounds like a McDonald’s by Oma? Well, it’s not even close. This allows city workers the chance to pick up a hearty (and quality) Austrian dish, like a quick soup, Knödel (Austrian dumpling), pork roast, or other seasonally-inspired dish, in a box (hence the name) when in a hurry.

Category: Polish, pierogi, dumplings, carbs, meat and cream

In a rush and don’t have time to use a knife and fork to dissect your meal? Piotrowski Pierogi serves up delicious Polish pierogis, simplifying the act of enjoying your meal with your hands as you’re walking back to work. You can choose from 5 savoury pierogis, as well as 3 sweet varieties. All the pierogis are freshly handmade and prove to be little pockets of flavour explosions.

Tip: If you get a group of coworkers to join in, the delivery fee will be free after only 45 pierogis (we calculate that would be 5 pierogis for 9 normal human beings)

Category: healthy, hip, soups, salads

This hidden, but not so secret, kitchen offers great balanced and healthy menus which can be taken away – perfect for one of those rushed lunch breaks. There are different menu combinations to choose from daily, and they’re all filling and nutritious. And for all of you like us that are indecisive when there’s so much yumminess to choose from, the menu is simple.

Tip: You can make sure that your meal will be completely organic by just investing 1 Euro more.

Category: healthy, salads, wraps, burritos, smoothies

While normally we would avoid throwing in to a ‘best of’ list anything resembling a chain, freshii has earned its place on the list for being that super healthy friend – you know, the one who is eating all the whole grain stuff, and you want to hate them for it, but can’t. These guys have got healthy food down, and while that obviously comes at a cost (to your wallet), the whole grain tortillas are lovely and the homemade sauce selection is huge. You can build your own burrito here, however, their menu is more geared towards selecting one of the four set options, which are well worth working through. Inside, the wall is decorated with a periodic table of all the healthy things amongst their ingredients (mostly sourced from Austria).

Tip: try some frozen yoghurt for dessert, it’s pretty refreshing!

Midi is the French bistro serving fast, quality, light lunch attracting all types of people.

This is one of the first things you notice at the little French bistro, Midi at Vienna’s Hoher Markt square in the 1st district – the eclectic range of lunch diners. There’s an older lady drinking red wine with her lunch, a bunch of young pretty people at the back, and a businessman who’s having trouble keeping his tie out of his soup.

Midi combines the tasty cooking the French are famed for (besides their kissing) – with the fast and fresh lunch culture which is seeing more and more people eating lunch hunched over a reasonably priced plate of light, healthy food, rather than a computer at work.

The weekly changing menu sees two different dishes served daily (one vegetarian and one with meat) from the cooks current 80 dish repertoire. It’s self-service, in which you grab one of the pastel blue trays and select from the steaming dishes behind the counter.