May 1st was Vienna’s national spring holiday, few of my top restaurant choices were closed for the holiday. The restaurant + bar Österreicher in MAK (Museum of Applied Art) was one of the few businesses that opened. In fact, we haven’t had proper Viennese dinner yet.
We sat at the patio area and…
It had a electronic ceiling window that opened up whenever the temperature got too hot (often opened too late though ^^;;).
We found out later on the bill that, the breads + condiments were 2.8 Euro each (they gave us three portion for three people).
Also on the bill: the utensils (& this table paper) cost 3 Euro each person. O_0 It’s definitely one of those wide eyes O-shape mouth moment. The wine Small Hill White 2007 & Merlot 2006 were fantastic though.
Their menu is divided into two section: Traditional Viennese and Modern. We tried both.
From the traditional appertizer menu: Cream Soup of “Marchfeld” Asparagus. Wow! The Cream soup was incredible – it’s light, foamy, very delicious. Clear Beef Soup with Liver Dumpling. The dumpling taste… very livery. I would prefer it to be smaller in portion.
Modern Appetizer: Roasted Filet of Rabbit on Tarragon Polenta. Very good. The meat was tender and love the sauce. Their modern menu seems to have strong influences from French cuisine.
The Main Dishes:
From the modern menu: Crispy Pike-Perch on Preserved Potatoes. Fantastic! The fish was perfectly cooked. The sauce was creamy and light, very flavorful. The cucumber added a refreshing taste. The potatoes are good too. Very filling.
Also from the modern menu: Cheeks of Pork with Green Asparagus and Emperor’s Pudding. Soft and deeply cooked with flavors, very good.
Traditional menu: Zwiebelrostbraten, a pounded strip steak with Viennese onion roasted with sautee potatoes and mustard pickle. The traditional dishes were clearly different: the plating is non-dressy, color is monotonic and it’s all hearty meat/fried dishes. Very beefy, meaty and heavy.
Other than cakes, Austrian have other desserts as well. Modern Dessert: Iced “Malakoff Torte” on Egg Liqueur Sauce. It’s the Austrian almond tart in iced form. The flavor is quite similar to Tiramisu. Very tasty.
A guidebook recommended the modern side more, I agree. It’s a very pleasant meal (very good wine!) until the bill came and reveal all those ‘hidden fees.’
Österreicher im MAK
Stubenring 5, Wien 1., Innere Stadt, Wien
Tags: fashionable, Vienna
Maybe they charge for the service/tax etc in the form of table paper/bread? Other restaurants may not charge all these extra things but they probably just charge you more for the meals or wine to make up for it. I think the total is more important~.
It is weird that they stuff you up with a meat ball from the beginning…
The dessert looks amazing!
Oh no, the waitress carefully pointed out to us that “Tax/Service not included” ^^;; I guess it’s a designer restaurant inside an Applied Art museum (which include utensil design), the bowls/utensil are saids to be all designed by famous designers too. I guess I’m spoiled by American too, too much entitlement expecting water, breads to be ‘free’ (and unlimited), haha it’s not the case in Europe, I read about it already but the ‘utensil fees’ is definitely a first. ;D
can you say no to the utensils so you don’t have to pay for it? (￣○￣;)
being a cheapsake, I can definitely do without the paper! haha oh my gosh~~
We try to justify “maybe the utensil fees include that electronic roof window that open and closes” too