Some days the whole point of going into town is dessert. Not a meal with dessert at the end of it, just the sweet thing itself, eaten standing up or on a bench or at a tiny table in a lane where you can hear the church bells.

Innsbruck is small, which means the good sweet places are all within about fifteen minutes of each other on foot. Strudel in the old town, knafeh two streets over, gelato on Marktgraben, a pistachio cake in Wilten. You could do the lot in an afternoon, though you probably should not.

Seven places, and what to order at each.

FOOD X TREND DOLCE

Dessert With the Inn Running Past

The sweet side of Food X Trend, tucked into the Markthalle down by the river. The kitchen next door has built its reputation on treating tradition as a starting point rather than a rule, and the dessert counter works the same way.

The tartufo pistachio is the one people come back for. Take it out onto the terrace, where the tables face the Inn with the mountains behind, and you have one of the better fifteen-minute breaks available in this city.

Markthalle, Herzog-Siegmund-Ufer 1–3. Monday to Saturday, closed Sunday.

BAKLAVA CAFE

A 4.9 Rating and Nowhere to Sit

Six hundred reviews and a 4.9 average, which is the kind of number that usually belongs to a place with twenty seats and a queue. This one barely has seats at all, and it still holds it.

The knafeh in the Nablus style is the order, warm and cheese-pulling and not as sweet as you brace yourself for. The baklava is entirely vegetarian, and the Arabic coffee with cardamom belongs alongside it. In summer the hot chocolate becomes irrelevant, but in January it is one of the best four euros in Innsbruck.

Stiftgasse 4. Daily until ten in the evening.

STRUDEL CAFE KRÖLL

The One Everybody Walks Past and Should Not

Hofgasse is the lane you walk down on the way to the Goldenes Dachl, which means half the visitors to Innsbruck pass this door and only some of them go in. The strudel selection goes well beyond apple, and the case at the front tells you everything before you have read a menu.

Order the classic apple, warmed, with vanilla ice cream. Ask for it warm specifically, because it makes the difference between good and very good. Dogs are welcome, it opens at seven, and it is open every day of the week including Sunday.

Hofgasse 6. Daily, seven until half six.

THE COOKIE CLUB

Cookies Named After Cities

Thick, soft in the middle, baked fresh every day, and named after places: Vienna for the Biscoff one, Tokyo for matcha, Paris for red velvet, Buenos Aires for the Bueno. It is a gimmick and it works, because the cookies hold up.

Raspberry and white chocolate is the sleeper pick. Seating is limited and it gets busy in the afternoon, so a box to take away is often the smarter move.

Maria-Theresien-Straße 38, with further locations in the city. Open seven days a week.

KARAFFU

The Pistachio Cake, Obviously

The cake counter is the real reason to go: pistachio, chocolate cherry, lemon poppy seed with raspberry, chocolate banana. The vegan options are not a token gesture, they are among the best things in the case.

Pair it with the strawberry matcha in summer. And a share of the profits goes to educational projects in Zanzibar, which is a nice thing to know while you are eating your second slice.

Leopoldstraße 9. Open daily, Sundays included.

PEINTNER FROZEN YOGURT

Build Your Own, on the Main Street

Plain or mango yogurt, three cup sizes, and a topping counter that runs from fresh berries through cookies and sprinkles to pistachio and chocolate purees. Portions are generous enough that the medium is a meal.

It sits right on Maria-Theresien-Straße with the Nordkette at the end of the view, which makes it the easiest sweet stop in the city to build into a walk. When you want it less sweet, stick to fruit and dry toppings rather than the syrups.

Maria-Theresien-Straße 7. Daily until ten, Sundays from eleven.

GELATERIA LAGO DI GARDA

Proper Italian Gelato, Open Until Eleven

Creamy, fresh, and closer to what you get south of the Brenner than most gelato this far north. Chocolate and pistachio are the reliable order, and the flavours are made in-house rather than scooped out of a tub with a plastic sign in it.

There are two branches, on Marktgraben and on Burggraben, and both stay open until eleven at night, which in Innsbruck makes gelato an after-dinner option rather than an afternoon one. Bring cash.

Marktgraben 23 and Burggraben 21. Daily from eleven in the morning until eleven at night.

HOW TO WALK IT

Start at the Markthalle with a coffee and something from the Dolce counter. Walk into the old town for strudel at Kröll, then two streets to the Stiftgasse for knafeh. Come out onto Maria-Theresien-Straße for frozen yogurt or a cookie, and finish at the gelateria on Marktgraben. That is a full afternoon and roughly one and a half kilometres.

When it is Sunday, most of this still works: Kröll, The Cookie Club, Karaffu, Peintner and the Marktgraben gelateria are all open. The Markthalle is not.

Follow @innsbruck_insights for more of the good stuff around town.