The Graz List
Five editorial picks, ranked by the only filter that matters: why you are dining.
Aiola Upstairs
The rooftop restaurant on the Schlossberg, looking down across Graz's red-tiled roofs to the Kunsthaus and the Mur valley — the definitive view in the city.
Der Steirer
The modern Styrian bistro on Belgiergasse that defined the city's new wave — pumpkin-seed oil, Alm-ox beef, and a Schilcher-heavy wine list served without ceremony.
Landhauskeller
The 1590 wine cellar under the Landhaus — Graz's most historic dining room, still serving classical Styrian cooking under the vaulted Renaissance arches.
Eckstein
The chef-driven contemporary kitchen on Mehlplatz — Graz's most intelligent tasting-menu option outside of the Schlossberg.
Parks
The park pavilion restaurant in the Stadtpark — bright, modern, garden-facing, and the Graz lunch of the design community.
Best for First Date in Graz
Intimate, conversation-friendly rooms. Impressive without being intimidating. The tables where first impressions are made.
Aiola Upstairs
The rooftop restaurant on the Schlossberg, looking down across Graz's red-tiled roofs to the Kunsthaus and the Mur valley — the definitive view in the city.
Der Steirer
The modern Styrian bistro on Belgiergasse that defined the city's new wave — pumpkin-seed oil, Alm-ox beef, and a Schilcher-heavy wine list served without ceremony.
Eckstein
The chef-driven contemporary kitchen on Mehlplatz — Graz's most intelligent tasting-menu option outside of the Schlossberg.
Best for Business Dinner in Graz
Power tables, private rooms, considered wine lists. Where the deal gets done.
Der Steirer
The modern Styrian bistro on Belgiergasse that defined the city's new wave — pumpkin-seed oil, Alm-ox beef, and a Schilcher-heavy wine list served without ceremony.
Landhauskeller
The 1590 wine cellar under the Landhaus — Graz's most historic dining room, still serving classical Styrian cooking under the vaulted Renaissance arches.
Eckstein
The chef-driven contemporary kitchen on Mehlplatz — Graz's most intelligent tasting-menu option outside of the Schlossberg.
The Top 5 in Graz
Our editorial ranking. A single punchy line per restaurant. Click through for the full read.
Aiola Upstairs
The rooftop restaurant on the Schlossberg, looking down across Graz's red-tiled roofs to the Kunsthaus and the Mur valley — the definitive view in the city.
Der Steirer
The modern Styrian bistro on Belgiergasse that defined the city's new wave — pumpkin-seed oil, Alm-ox beef, and a Schilcher-heavy wine list served without ceremony.
Landhauskeller
The 1590 wine cellar under the Landhaus — Graz's most historic dining room, still serving classical Styrian cooking under the vaulted Renaissance arches.
Eckstein
The chef-driven contemporary kitchen on Mehlplatz — Graz's most intelligent tasting-menu option outside of the Schlossberg.
Parks
The park pavilion restaurant in the Stadtpark — bright, modern, garden-facing, and the Graz lunch of the design community.
The Graz Dining Guide
Graz is Austria's second-largest city and, in per-capita fine-dining terms, probably its most underpriced. The UNESCO old town is a compact grid of Renaissance courtyards, 17th-century arcades, and the distinctive red-tiled roofs that give the city its photographic signature from the Schlossberg above. The Kunsthaus — Peter Cook's biomorphic 'Friendly Alien' — is the only piece of 21st-century architecture in the old town, and it sits across the Mur river from everything else.
The Styrian cooking tradition is the ingredient story. Dark-green pumpkin-seed oil (Styrian Gold, PDO-protected) finishes nearly every salad, soup and ice cream in the city. Schilcher rosé — a locally fermented, aggressively pink wine from the Blauer Wildbacher grape — is drunk with everything. Styrian beef (Alm Ox, pasture-raised in the Koralpe mountains) is the better-reared equivalent of Tuscany's Chianina. And the Käferbohnen (runner beans) and Kürbiskernöl combination on a slice of Jausebrot is the Styrian definition of a quick lunch.
Practical notes. Graz eats earlier than Vienna — lunch 12:00 to 14:00, dinner 18:30 to 22:00. Reservations are required at the starred tables but rarely more than three or four days ahead. Service is relaxed; tipping is 5-10 percent rounded up; the local dialect (Steirisch) is thick enough that menu Austrian will be more helpful than English in some places. Summer terraces operate May to September; the Schlossberg funicular is the correct transport for Aiola Upstairs after dark.
Neighbourhoods
Reservations & Practical Notes
For a deeper editorial read, see our ongoing Editorial coverage — including pieces on the Best Restaurants for Every Occasion, and our Impress Clients and First Date occasion guides.