DO & CO Hotel

Hotels don’t really get any more well-located than this; DO & CO stands right on the Stephansplatz, at the top of a modernist landmark building, overlooking the 12th-century Stephansdom cathedral, and a stone’s throw from any number of the cafés, restaurants, high-end shops, not to mention the theatres, opera houses and museums that make Vienna the de facto cultural capital of Europe.

Founded on the back of a successful restaurant and catering company, DO&CO is a very confident first step into the hospitality world. This is contemporary luxury of the new school, where exclusivity trumps ostentation — with just 43 rooms, it’s on a much more intimate scale than last century’s palatial grand hotels. And yet it’s very much up to their standard in the creature comforts department: rooms are spacious, beds massive, almost imposing, showers copiously jetted and ruthlessly efficient, and the plasma screens, while smaller than the vast picture windows overlooking the Stephansplatz, are not smaller by much.

A hotel founded by a catering concern would have to have an impressive restaurant, and this one does, serving traditional Austrian fare alongside a sushi and sashimi bar that’s anything but token, and even an upscale version of Turkish döner kebab, all served in the top-floor dining room, with a bird’s-eye view of the cathedral’s mosaic roof from the terrace. If there’s anything missing (spa, gym, extra restaurants) it’s a function of the hotel’s smallish size — there’s nothing lacking that central Vienna can’t provide, and it’s a small price to pay for DO&CO’s rarefied luxury.