"I loved this Rosewood… it's the best hotel in Vienna and I even checked out the slightly newer competition (Mandarin Oriental) on the other side of town, so I feel qualified to say that.
It’s location is perfect… exactly in the part of town you want to be in… on the best shopping street yet close to churches and cathedrals. Really pretty much everything else you want to see is within walking distance (though Vienna’s central city is surprisingly large due to the grandness of many structures).
The hotel is made up of three or four buildings that were combined and you can kind of tell from the slightly unusual layout and elevator locations… but it’s very well designed. There are no amazing views from most rooms due to its low height which matches the surrounding buildings… but they did upgrade us to one of the nicer, almost corner rooms (thanks, Celine!) looking at St. Peter’s Church and the adjacent street and it was much appreciated. Apparently, Mozart briefly lived in one of the buildings that make up the hotel, but no one is sure which one. We later found out he apparently also lived in almost every nearby building at some point.
The main hotel entrance is directly opposite St. Peter’s (and just two blocks from St. Stephan’s Cathedral). There is also a side entrance on the opposite street next to a Jimmy Choo store. You are greeted by the bell staff and walk into an always empty atrium filled with modern art, then take the elevator up a floor to the front desks, where you are seated while checking in. The lobby next door was barely used by anyone during our stay but the very helpful concierge (Gregory was ours), who has a desk there.
Check-in was quick and actually fun and we got a very stylish, large room with its own sitting area. (A small suggestion: add felt pads to the chair legs as the wood floors were a little scuffed… not a problem for us but I feel bad for the nice wood). There was a separate toilet room with a sink on one side of the entry hall and a large bathroom with big tub and a huge shower opposite it. The shower was amazing but I would suggest smaller shampoo and lotion bottles… they looked good but were heavy and I was a bit worried about accidentally dropping them on my feet. We never used the tub but it was big. The only issue we had (and it was minor) was the overly complicated lighting, but that seems to be a thing in new hotels all around the world. I would like the lighting designers to experience the complications when these mostly unintuitive set-ups are used by guests for a few years. Our curtains would have kept opening and closing themselves forever had we not figured out how to stop them.
The decor is modern, elegant and really beautiful throughout the hotel. You feel the excellence of the design in every space. The best part was the large, glassed-in rooftop restaurant/bar and the second, smaller bar above it. Lots of locals hang out up there, which is always fun to experience in a new city.
The restaurant staff was very friendly at both breakfast and dinner and the food was great. I had truly excellent wienerschnitzel two nights. Other than my mom’s, it was the best I’ve ever had. Alas, the middle night we got an order that had obviously been cooked for someone else… we should have sent it back. The modern restaurant is a great counter-point to the historic hotel… and it’s all seamlessly tied together. The second bar above the restaurant/bar looked inviting and we walked through it but never used it. There’s not much of a food menu up there, and I get why. It’s quite spectacular-looking… half indoors, half out… it’s really a scene on a weekend for locals, even in chilly weather, with panoramic views almost over the rooftops.
Other than the lobby, which we didn’t use, the hotel is rather compact. The gym was very nice and nicely equipped but alas, there is no pool or room for one. This really is a smaller, boutique hotel that feels bigger than it is.
The location is very central and next to all the luxury stores you can name (not that we entered one) and a really upscale grocery store (Julius Meinl) that’s worth visiting just to see the fancy older dressed-up locals in pearls shopping there very expensively. Fabios, an upscale, pricey Italian restaurant directly under the hotel but that has no association to it, is really good for upscale people watching (they have a patio on the street so you can walk by and take a good look). We were tempted to try it but liked dining up on the hotel’s roof too much (we also read some of the reviews about service and they seemed somewhat believable). Also within a half-block is a classic Viennese restaurant Zum Schwarzen Kammel (the Black Camel), which looked especially inviting and was always, always crowded. It is probably the most authentic-looking cafe I’ve seen in Europe because it IS very authentic… parts of it date back to 1618.
What made this Rosewood special, beyond its impeccable style and ideal location, was the staff. They were exceptionally nice, friendly, welcoming and often a lot of fun. A few people to mention by name: again, Celine at the front desk, who helped get us our great room and was genuinely delightful; friendly Natalie, who showed us to it; Rafaela, our sweet server from Greece; Ricarda, another server who was really nice and fun, too; Edina, the super charming host at dinner; cheerful Teep at breakfast; again, concierge Gregory, who was very nice and extremely helpful with our train tickets; and Angela at check out. The housekeepers seemed sweet, too. Every encounter with every employee was pleasant.
The Rosewood Vienna is so nice we were happy just to hang out at the hotel even though we were surrounded by a world-class city. We’d venture out for a few hours every day to see the sights but looked forward to coming back to our spacious room with a St. Peter’s view and having dinner (and breakfast) up on the roof. It’s that good a hotel and restaurant. It made our stay in Vienna as perfect as it could be and I highly recommend it."
A Tripadvisor traveler review
Jun 07, 2026
