Never let it be said that I am someone who avoids a travel cliché.  Vienna and chocolate cake go practically hand-in-hand.  It would almost be a crime to visit Vienna and not have a slice.  The only question is, which café to visit?

Synonymous with Sachertorte is Café Sacher at the Sacher Hotel in Philharmoniker Strasse.  I arrived on a wet and overcast day, and the queue for afternoon tea in the main café was stretching outside along the pavement, hopeful diners forming a bedraggled, umbrella-holding line.  However, just around the corner, a cut-out pavement sign of a young man dressed in a smart uniform and natty hat, and holding a tray on which was displayed the fabled Sachertorte, directed my steps towards an inside counter, from where I was instructed to take the stairs to the first floor, to be immediately seated in the luxurious surroundings of the Café Bel Étage.

Seats of sumptuous maroon upholstery with thickly padded backs lined the large room.  Three window booths held a particular appeal, overlooking the busy thoroughfare below.  For the sake of form, I looked at the menu, although I already knew what I intended to order.  But then again…

Isn’t apple strudel almost as much a Vienna cliché as is Sachertorte?  Suddenly, I was in a dilemma.  Sachertorte or strudel?  They both looked very good.  What to choose?

In the end, it was no dilemma at all.  When in doubt, have both.

And, if I was called upon to choose a favourite out of the two?  To my surprise, I would actually plump for the strudel.  Now, don’t get me wrong: the Sachertorte was very nice, no complaints whatsoever on that score, it was just that the strudel was genuinely divine; light and sweet and tasty.

Returning outside, so full of sugar that I no longer noticed the drizzle, my thoughts began to turn to where I might go for dinner.

© E. C. Glendenny

E. C. Glendenny is on a sugar-rush in Vienna.