That time I had Sacher cake in Vienna…..

Sacher Cake at Cafe Sacher, Vienna

Who doesn’t like cakes? I can’t resist a dessert  and I often peruse the dessert’s menu even before I order the drinks let alone the main dish. Sacher Cake is probably one of the most famous cakes in the world and there are also plenty of recipes to make it yourself at your home. But you can only have the original Sachert-Torte at Café Sacher in the heart of historical Vienna.

I’ve been to Vienna several times. My first visit was in December 2005 when my best high school friend and I took a train to Vienna. We’ve done a ride on Prater’s Giant Wheel, took photos of colourful Hundertwasser’s house, tracked down the cafe from the movie Before Sunrise and we visited Schonbrunn palace among other things. Above the castle is a great viewpoint and a cafe called Glorietta where I had my first Sacher Cake in Vienna. It was horrible; it was dry and old. A big disappointment.

Glorietta just opposite the Schonbrunn palace
Glorietta just opposite the Schonbrunn palace

Fast forward almost a decade and I’m back in Vienna and I’m having Sacher Cake in a beautiful restaurant Residenz right next to the Schonbrunn palace. Again the Sacher Cake wasn’t really good. I couldn’t believe it. I had other great cakes at this restaurant and I had wonderful cakes in Vienna in a lot of different places but I still couldn’t find a decent Sacher Cake in Vienna even if my life depended on it. Maybe the castle had something to do with it? Both times I had Sacher Cake was actually in places in Schonbrunn palace garden!

I’ve wanted to try the original Sacher Cake at  Café Sacher for a long time but there was always a long queue outside the cafe and I just left it always for some other time, some other trip to Vienna. Finally, last December I had the one and only Sacher Cake. And it was so delicious!!

Sacher Cake at Café Sacher, Hotel Sacher, Vienna

It all began with a new recipe..Prince von Metternich instructed the young Franz Sacher to come up with a cake for his illustrious guests back in 1832 and thus a legend was born. The cake was made of chocolate, apricot and whipped cream. In 1876 Eduard Sacher opens a new hotel in Vienna by the name of Sacher and the Sacher Cake quickly becomes the symbol of the hotel. Today the Hotel Sacher is still a family-run business. The original hand-made Sacher Cakes are exported all over the world from Vienna.

Sacher Cake at Cafe Sacher, Vienna

My experience

It was around 10 pm on a cold December night when I walked past the Cafe Sacher. The queue in front of the cafe didn’t seem so long so I joined without much thinking and after 20 minutes or so I was finally inside the legendary Cafe Sacher. I left my coat at the cloak room and followed the waiter to my designated table. The interior was plush and grandiose and very much in old Vienna’s cafe house style but perhaps a bit fray at the edges if you looked too close. I perused the menu but I knew all along what I wanted to order. ˝A Sacher Cake, please, and a Sacher tea˝, I told the waiter. I occupied myself with the menu looking at the different cakes and teas and coffees on offer and I read a short history on the Sacher cake. Yes, the menu looked like a newspaper.

Sacher cake
my very delicious original Sacher Cake

I didn’t have my camera with me because this was an impromptu visit so I just snapped a few photos with my phone. I was too mortified to even try to take the photos of the cafe so I just photographed my Sacher Cake and my Sacher Tea. How was it? Sacher Cake is made of a special chocolate and believe me, you can taste the difference! It was divine! There was the Hotel Sacher round chocolate seal on the cake.  I finally had a great Sacher cake in Vienna. I only had to wait ten years to try the original Sacher-Torte. My tea was divine too, a special blend that goes perfectly with the cake, of course. I enjoyed my visit to Cafe Sacher and I loved my piece of Sacher Cake. It’s definitely one of those Vienna experiences you just need to try however touristy they might seem. And it didn’t cost me an arm and a leg!

Practical info:  There’s Cafe Sacher, Sacher Stube and Sacher shop/bar at the Hotel Sacher. Going into other ones isn’t that tricky but if you want the original experience it’s worth to wait in the line for the Cafe Sacher. You can eat a dinner or lunch too at Cafe Sacher, not just cakes.

Do you like Sacher cake?

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50 thoughts on “That time I had Sacher cake in Vienna…..”

    1. thanks:) I had many Sacher cakes in my hometown and they were all right but the two I had in Vienna were horrible. except the one at cafe Sacher, that one was great!:)

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  10. Hurrah for cake! Loved reading this, Tanja, and interesting to find out that it was definitely worth going for the full on Sacher experience. I’d have been so keen to visit the Before Sunrise cafe too. Thanks so much for linking up with #FarawayFiles

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  11. Yummy! Food experiences are always the best. I love Sacher Torte and where better to try it that its home in Vienna. I loved how you found the cafe from Before Sunrise on your first trip. That’s the kind of thing I would do. Love that series! Always wished I was Julie Delpy’s character.. so french and chic! Thanks for sharing on #FarawayFiles

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  14. We are planning our trip to Vienna and I can’t get over all the delicious foods I want to try. I’m adding this to the list of places we have to go! Perhaps I can even convince my husband to take the two older kids and the baby and I can go alone! haha. Thanks for the tips, hopefully the line wont be too long to try the original. #CityTripping

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  16. The Sachertorte that I’ve had in Vienna has always been good. Not brilliant, a little bit “what’s all the fuss about?”, but tasty enough. But I’ve never been to the Hotel Sacher to have the original. It’s nice to know where I was going wrong ;o) Next time (if the queues aren’t too bad)!

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    1. 🙂 I know what you mean actually, there are more scrumptious cakes out there:) but this one is a legend and the original Sacher cake is way better than all the copies:)

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  17. I missed out on Cafe Sacher the one time I was in Vienna. Like you said, it was way too busy! So I went round the corner to Cafe Mozart. I love your blog so much, it reminds me of all the time I spent in Europe. 🙂 Thanks for all the happy memories.

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  23. Ah, your post reminded me how delicious the Sacher Torte is. I love to try all the possible deserts when I go to Europe, especially in Vienna that has such a great tradition in this respect.

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