The food in Bregenz has a character all its own, quite different from Vienna. Vorarlberg cheese from mountain farms is the heart of the kitchen here, and Käsespätzle is the dish locals eat week in, week out, all year round. Austrian Alpine cooking leans rich and filling, built on fresh ingredients from the land all around. Before a hike or after a day out on the lake, try it once and you'll see Alpine food is more than just sausage.
#1 Käsespätzle
The signature Vorarlberg dish that no restaurant menu in Bregenz can do without. The spätzle (an Austrian-Swiss pasta, short and round like little gummies) is boiled fresh, then mixed with two or three kinds of Vorarlberg cheese in the pan, the cheese melting around every strand, finished with golden crispy fried onions on top. It's rich, full of cheesy aroma, and very filling even in a medium portion. Locals order it for both lunch and dinner.
- The cheese varies between restaurants — the good ones use Vorarlberger Bergkäse aged 3 to 6 months, which gives a sharper flavour than factory cheese.
- This dish is very filling, so order the small size (kleine Portion) if it's your only dish and you're not having anything else.
- Ask for a green salad on the side to cut the richness of the cheese — most places have it.
#2 Wiener Schnitzel
The most famous Austrian dish in the world. A piece of veal pounded flat and coated in egg and breadcrumbs, then fried in butter in the pan until the whole sheet turns crispy and golden. A real schnitzel must use veal, not pork (which is called Schnitzel Wiener Art), and it must be fried in real butter only. The coating is crisp on the outside while the meat inside stays soft and springy — a squeeze of fresh lemon adds brightness. Eat it with boiled potatoes or potato salad.
- Ask whether they use Kalbsschnitzel (real veal) or Schweineschnitzel (pork), because the price differs a lot and so does the flavour.
- A properly crispy schnitzel should puff up and not cling to the meat — frying in hot butter pushes the coating away from the meat.
- Don't pour sauce on a schnitzel — Austrians consider it wrong. A little squeeze of lemon is all you need.
#3 Kaiserschmarrn
Austria's most famous dessert, its name translating literally as the emperor's pancake. It's made from a fluffy egg batter, baked or fried until soft inside and crisp at the edges, then torn into uneven pieces in the pan, dusted with icing sugar and served with plum or apricot jam. The sweet-and-sour jam plays against the soft, fluffy batter. In Vorarlberg some places add raisins to the batter, following the original recipe that Emperor Franz Joseph loved.
- You can order it as a dessert after a meal or as a main, because the portion is huge — Austrians often eat it for lunch.
- Good places make it fresh, taking 15 to 20 minutes rather than reheating from frozen, so it's worth the wait.
- Try it with Zwetschkenröster (fresh plum compote cooked with cinnamon) instead of ready-made jam if the place offers it.
#4 Apfelstrudel
A world-famous Austrian pastry with dough so thin you can see through it (some places say it has to be thin enough to read a newspaper through). It wraps a filling of chopped apple mixed with raisins, cinnamon, sugar and breadcrumbs, baked until the outside is crisp but the filling stays soft and moist, served hot with vanilla sauce or fresh cream. In Vorarlberg some places add pine nuts or a local apple variety sweeter than the ordinary kind. It's at its most comforting on a rainy day or in cool weather.
- Ask whether it was made fresh today — a freshly baked strudel is crisper than a piece that's been sitting out for a while.
- Eat it hot, straight out of the oven — the flavour is very different from one that's been sitting around, so if the place makes it fresh you can wait 5 to 10 minutes.
- Good cafés often have several kinds of strudel — ask for Topfenstrudel (cream cheese filling) as an option if you want to try something new.
#5 Vorarlberger Bergkäse
An Alpine cheese with EU protected designation of origin (PDO), made from fresh cow's milk grazed on high summer pastures, aged anywhere from 3 months to over a year. The flavour shifts with age: young cheese tastes sweet and milky, while long-aged cheese is rich with tiny salt crystals. Vorarlberg locals eat this cheese with bread for breakfast, or melt it into Käsespätzle — it's the ingredient that tells the story of this region best.
- The Saturday morning market in Bregenz has farmers from Vorarlberg bringing fresh cheese to sell, and you can taste before you buy.
- Long-aged (alt) is sharper, young (jung) is milder and better suited to anyone not used to strong cheese.
- It makes a good gift — vacuum-sealed it keeps for several weeks, and market stalls and supermarkets offer a range of ages.
#6 Lake Constance Whitefish and Perch
Fresh freshwater fish from Lake Constance, right on the town's doorstep — the best local food for anyone who wants something fresh you genuinely won't find anywhere else. Felchen (whitefish) and Egli (perch) are the two most popular kinds, usually fried in a thin batter or baked in butter with herbs. The fish is white, soft and springy, with no muddy smell and a delicate flavour that reflects the cleanliness of the lake. Good waterside places note the catch date on the menu.
- Places that say they use fresh Bodenseefisch (fish from Lake Constance / the Bodensee itself) charge more but are well worth it.
- In winter the catch is smaller, so it isn't always available — summer is the fullest season for the fish.
- Eat by the lake on a clear day — having fresh fish with a view of the water is an experience you won't forget.
Where to stay in Bregenz for this trip
A well-located hotel means less commuting and more sightseeing. Here are real, top-rated stays in Bregenz — compare Agoda · Booking · Trip.com in one click.
Hotel Schwärzler
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Grand Hotel Bregenz - MGallery Collection
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Hotel Weisses Kreuz
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JUFA Hotel Bregenz
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Tours, tickets & activities in Bregenz
Day tours, attraction tickets and travel essentials for Bregenz — book ahead on Klook with mobile e-tickets.
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Before You Pack
The good restaurants in Bregenz tend to be in the old town up on the hill and around the harbour. The best of them change their menus with the seasons — and if you see Vorarlberger Bergkäse or Bregenzerwald in the list of ingredients, that's the sign this kitchen cares about where its food comes from.