The Gault&Millau Genussmesse brings an impressive cross-section of Austria’s fine-dining scene to Vienna for one weekend. But anyone hoping to experience a substantial part of it will need more than a healthy appetite. A Sunday filled with memorable dishes, considerable walking and the search for a decent alcohol-free pairing. I visited the 2026 Genussmesse on Sunday, sampling dishes from more than a dozen chefs while paying particular attention to what the event had to offer guests who prefer not to drink alcohol.
The sun is shining over the Ottakringer Brewery, and the atmosphere is relaxed. Despite the crowds, there is little congestion. Visitors can find their bearings and wander through the different areas at their own pace. The selection is enormous. More than a hundred chefs are scheduled to appear over the weekend, alongside winemakers, producers and other exhibitors.
Sunday’s program runs for six hours. On paper, plenty of time to taste your way around.
In practice, those hours need careful planning.
Two Hours, at Least on Paper
The cooking stations operate in two-hour shifts. The first group serves from noon until 2 p.m., followed by two further sessions. It sounds straightforward until you actually try to navigate the Ottakringer Brewery.
The event spreads across several levels and areas: Outdoor, Gold Fassl, Gerstenboden, Hopfenboden, Hefeboden and Alte Technik. Signs are provided, but I didn’t always find the routes intuitive. I only discovered one exhibition area after two women appeared at our standing table with macarons and I asked where they had found them. More than once, I stood at the entrance to a passage, unsure whether visitors were even supposed to continue that way.
Perhaps it’s easier on a second visit.
On the first, it costs time.
And time is valuable at the cooking stations. Long queues formed at several stands, particularly those serving meat. I decided against joining the lines for Figlmüller and Marcel Ruhm of DiningRuhm. Lukas Nagl from Bootshaus am Traunsee also attracted plenty of attention. At other stations, however, we were served immediately.
One of them was Ismael Faye from Vienna’s Xpedit. His salmon trout with fermented apricots was one of those dishes that made me wonder why considerably more people weren’t queuing for it.
Just how flexible those advertised two hours could be became apparent at the station run by Silvio Nickol and Florian Daube of Palais Coburg. We were waiting in line when, at around 1 p.m., an announcement came that service was ending and the station would be packed away. The session was officially scheduled to continue until 2 p.m. Unsurprisingly, people in the queue were unhappy.
At an event featuring more than a hundred chefs, running out of prepared portions is hardly avoidable. Changing stations also takes time and space. But visitors still face a problem: relying on the published schedule doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get to try a dish, even if you’re already standing in line.
With press accreditation, that’s easier to accept. Had I paid the regular admission price of €189, I would have been annoyed.
Not because I expected to sample every dish in six hours. That would have been unrealistic anyway. But because an advertised two-hour session can turn out to be considerably shorter.
The fact that several visitors mentioned splitting into groups to cover as much of their chosen programme as possible says quite a lot.
Anyone visiting the Gault&Millau Genussmesse specifically to experience certain chefs should plan their schedule carefully. During my visit, some stations closed well before their advertised finishing time.
When a Dish Becomes a Conversation
Yet the opportunity for direct encounters is one of the Genussmesse’s greatest strengths.
The chefs are genuinely present at their stations, plating and serving their dishes themselves. There’s rarely much time for conversation, though. Most of the work follows a relentless rhythm: plate, serve, next dish.
That makes the moments when a conversation does happen all the more memorable.
Michael Suttner from Das Linsberg had an entire tuna at his station. I stopped, asked questions and received explanations. These were exactly the kinds of encounters I would have liked to experience more often. Not simply tasting something, moving on and collecting the next plate, but understanding what was in front of me and why it had been prepared that way.
During my six hours at the event, I got the impression that many visitors had primarily come to eat. Hardly surprising at a food festival. For me, though, it was the conversations that made a tasting more meaningful.
Among the culinary highlights, alongside Suttner, were Vitus Winkler from Kräuterreich in St. Veit im Pongau, David Senfter from Ansitz 12 in Lienz and Christoph Mandl from Saziani in Straden. I also sampled dishes by Daniel Edelsbrunner from Kupferdachl in Premstätten, Johann Schmuck from Stainz, Christian Wöber from Restaurant Wöber in Tulln and Ismael Faye, among others.
It’s impressive how many different culinary approaches can be experienced side by side in just a few hours.
But there was another question accompanying me through the brewery.
What about drinks without alcohol?
Plenty of Wine, but Alcohol-Free Is Still an Afterthought
How well does the Gault&Millau Genussmesse cater to people who don’t drink alcohol? During my visit in 2026, the selection was considerably smaller than the wine offering. Yet some producers demonstrated that sophisticated alcohol-free pairings can offer far more than water or lemonade.
Anyone looking for wine at the Genussmesse won’t have to search for long. Winemakers are everywhere.
I wanted to approach things from the opposite direction and asked at almost every winery: Do you have anything with 0.0% alcohol?
Most replies were simply no.
Sometimes the answer was: Yes, we do, but we haven’t brought it.
Among the wineries I approached, only a handful offered something more interesting. On two occasions, I was even given samples of unlabelled experimental products, drinks still in development that may never reach the market.
Those encounters in particular suggested that considerably more is happening behind the scenes than visitors can see at the exhibition stands.
At Weingut Gerhard Deim, I tried a sparkling grape juice that I thoroughly enjoyed. Szigeti’s 0.0% sparkling wine also convinced me. Schlumberger had brought an alcohol-free option as well, although that one wasn’t to my taste.
The point isn’t that anyone attending the event would have to go thirsty without alcohol. Water and conventional soft drinks are readily available.
What interested me was something else: an alcohol-free pairing given the same consideration at the table as wine. It’s precisely this question that I explore in my series No Compromise.
Obsthof Retter offered an example of how that could work. Rather than presenting a single alternative as a token gesture, the producer offered an extensive alcohol-free range. I particularly enjoyed the pomegranate and quince drinks from the Edition Sommelier collection. I also tried a shrub, another reminder of how naturally complex flavours can work without alcohol.
Grieskirchner also offered alcohol-free beer.
The overall picture remains striking. While wine is treated as an integral part of the culinary experience, alcohol-free alternatives still have to be actively sought out at many stands.
At the same time, the Genussmesse demonstrates that things are changing. There are excellent finished products, producers offering entire alcohol-free ranges and experimental drinks still being poured from bottles without labels.
Perhaps the most exciting part isn’t what’s already on the table, but what’s only just beginning to take shape.
Plenty to Discover, If You Know Where to Look
Despite my criticisms, the Genussmesse offers an extraordinary opportunity to experience an enormous variety of cooking styles in just a few hours.
The industrial character of the Ottakringer Brewery provides an excellent setting. There are plenty of places to sit, the staff were consistently friendly, and despite the number of visitors, the atmosphere remained pleasant throughout Sunday.
Is the Gault&Millau Genussmesse Worth Visiting?
Yes, if you want to discover a wide range of culinary styles in a relatively short time.
However, anyone hoping to experience specific chefs or dishes should plan their visit in advance. The routes through the venue and the fact that some stations close before their published finishing times can otherwise mean missing out.
One small practical issue kept coming up, too: where should you leave a used plate or glass? For an event centered around tasting, bins and collection points were surprisingly difficult to find.
In the end, though, what remains is the feeling of having seen and tasted a great deal.
Visitors who simply want to wander around can do exactly that and will find something interesting wherever they go.
Those with particular chefs or dishes on their list should approach the Genussmesse almost like a short travel itinerary: study the program beforehand, account for walking distances and decide on priorities.
Perhaps even bring friends and split up.
The fact that this advice already seems to circulate among visitors is both a compliment and a criticism. The selection is so extensive that a single day barely feels sufficient. At the same time, advertised serving times should be reliable enough that visitors don’t have to plan strategically just to taste the dishes they came for.
The Genussmesse offers an impressive demonstration of the diversity of Austria’s fine-dining scene.
On the plate, certainly.
And slowly, things are becoming more interesting in the glass without alcohol, too.
You just still have to ask for it a little more often.
