SEE ALSO: Table for Two: Vestibül.

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This catering company, Austria’s most famous, runs two restaurants in Vienna, including one in the Albertina. The branch on the seventh floor of the Hass Haus, on the Stephansplatz, has the most spectacular views of the city’s famous cathedral. Prime spot: on the terrace, overlooking the roof of the Stephansdom, with its beautiful patterns of ceramic tiles (all 230,000 of them). The Do & Co, which several foodie friends of mine love, also has two private function rooms on the building’s top floors. The glass-enclosed space on the ninth floor is particularly impressive; it’s just big enough for a long table for up to twelve people, perfect for hosting a special dinner with 360-degree panoramas. Be sure to reserve well in advance (for New Year’s Eve the Do & Co restaurant is booked through 2015. If you cannot get a table, drop by the Onyx Bar on the sixth floor for a drink and similar vistas.

Chef Wini Brugger’s restaurant takes its culinary cues from the countries that used to make up French Indochina, including modern-day Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Brugger, who spent thirteen years working in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Saigon, puts a creative spin on East Asian dishes, prominently featuring seafood and beautifully balancing sweet and spicy flavors. The colonial-inspired setting, with dim lighting and low seating areas, is romantic, and the bar serves some of the city’s most innovative cocktails, including Kon Tiki, a fizzy concoction made with green tea, pineapple juice, rum and Prosecco. The friendly and knowledgeable staff help customers with the perfect wine pairing from Indochine 21’s extensive cellar. Open daily.

When I visited this small restaurant, which is hidden on the top floor of gourmet store Meinl am Graben, last December, the culinary scene buzzed with news that Joachim Gradwohl had just been named “Chef of the Year” by the influential Gault Millau guide, a well-deserved distinction. In light of all the press, reservations were impossible to secure, so I had to make do with a glass of Blaufränkisch at the bar. Next time I’ll make it a point to reserve early in order to try Gradwohl’s haute Austrian dishes, which are served in a beautiful dining room with dark paneled walls and plush orange banquette seating along windows overlooking the Graben. The restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Closed Sunday.

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Walking into the vaulted white dining room of the Palais Coburg feels like stumbling onto the set of an avant-garde opera production: the interior is dominated by a huge tree installation, by French sculptor Bouvier, artfully made of polished silver spoons, forks and knives. It’s an appropriately dramatic setting for chef Christian Petz’s innovative cuisine—the restaurant is one of only three in Vienna with a Michelin star—served by sympathetic young waiters who enliven the hushed atmosphere. Petz, who came to the Coburg from Meinl am Graben, focuses on fresh ingredients and sharp, clearly defined flavor combinations. A recent meal here included two elegantly presented amuse-bouches, including a savory mini-bouillabaisse and an oyster with passion-fruit foam. The meal, matched with wines by charming twenty-nine-year-old head sommelier Thomas Breitwieser, moved expertly from a smoked goose liver parfait with black olives to a turbot with smoked escargots, culminating with a stuffed braised oxtail with a chestnut sauce. Save room for dessert, especially for the multi-tiered petit four trolley that is pulled up to each table, allowing guests to choose from more than ten homemade treats, including tiny chocolates filled with passion fruit and pumpkin, four varieties of truffles, mint marshmallows and pastel-colored macaroons.

The Palais Coburg, located in a neoclassical palace that also houses a five-star hotel on the upper floors, has one of Europe’s best wine cellars, which won the _Wine Spectator_’s Grand Award in 2007. The ambitious collection of nearly 60,000 bottles—during the past four years, $30 million worth of wines were added—features rare vintages from France, Italy, Spain and California. In the restaurant, there are three wine lists: a regular one listing moderately priced selections; a leather-bound 140-page book listing all the wines and a special rarities list, which includes astronomically priced treasures like a 1985 Latour ($718), a 1999 Screaming Eagle ($4725) or a 1990 Domaine Leflaive ($2124). Throughout the year, the restaurant has special aperitif- and wine-tasting events that feature tours of the six spectacular wine cellars, such as the one that showcases Chateau Yquem vintages from the past 120 years. Call the restaurant for more information.

The Steirereck, in a new location in the Stadtpark since 2005, is consistently ranked among the city’s top four, and its prix fixe dinners are multicourse affairs that are expertly matched with Austrian vintages. The adjacent Meierei Steirereck (+43-1-713-31-68) is a more low-key bistro and a fantastic cheese shop. Every day at 1 p.m. they serve homemade apple Strudel fresh from the oven. At both restaurants reservations are a must. Steirereck: closed Saturday and Sunday; Meierei Steirereck: open daily.