Donau is located on a side street and has no sign indicating its presence; a friend and I walked past it at first while we were looking for it but quickly realized the door in the wall led to a dark (but creatively lit) space pulsing with chill beats.
We got there super early (around 9PM), and the place was empty--as one expected on a Friday evening that early. To our surprise, and to our wallet's delight, 9-10Pm was happy hour that night; cocktails were 1/2 off. We both ordered long islands; usually I can't taste the alcohol in a long island, but the bartender had fixed us up with a generous amount of alcohol. Our bartender was dressed in head to toe black, including black skinny jeans, with a mop of shaggy dark hair; he floated around the bar looking more the part of a tortured artist than a bar tender, but he did fit the grungy-in-a-hip-way atmosphere.
By midnight, the place was pretty packed with people. Groups of friends sat along the walls in faded yellow movie theater seats, around the bar in the center of the bar, and stood in clumps, chatting with heads cocked sideways and a drink in hand once all the seating areas had filled up. I didn't get the sense that this is a bar that gets raucous or overly crazy; the crowd was tame even when the bar filled up--this was in stark contrast to the bars we visited in Budapest.
The music was good, but nothing too special. There were a few cool trap tracks dropped; luckily no dupstep or pop. Nothing really memorable though.
Donau would definitely be a place to frequent if I lived in Vienna! Definitely check it out if you're in the city. read more