Steirereck in Stadtpark. Our experience of fine dining in Vienna, keenly anticipated and very high expectations. All dressed up. A short taxi ride past Viennese going home from work. Across a nearly empty canal and through a tree filled park. An imposing building; hard to believe it was a former dairy. Up some steps, across a courtyard overlooking the park and into a horse-shoe shaped room. Large bay windows looking out onto the park providing alcoves to break up the space. Imposing cream ceiling covered in elegant and decorative plaster leaves in the same colour. Reddish brown patterned carpet. Good sized square tables covered in white linen. Comfortable, wooden, red fabric lined chairs. Black suited male waiters bustling about.
The wine cart appeared and we were offered a wide choice including aperitifs, champagnes, Austrian sparkling white wine – we had the latter. Next came a small offering – four orange balls that looked like cumquats with translucent short orange stalks resting on something brown. Delicious. Not cumquats. The waiter named something we didn’t know and came back to tell us that the English name for these was gooseberries. The brown was a mixture of things including elderberries. Next we were given four small red shapes on stalks – smaller than cherries. Cold and refreshing. Then a small kebab like mixture of shapes and tastes presented on a little metal skewer. Our final amusement bouche was a tiny sandwich off carrot and apple – not that you would have known that from either look or taste.
Next we were presented with individual white square slabs on which had been sculpted lines of butter, a dab of green that was a dry pesto flavoured spread, an orb of walnut butter and lines of a sesame seed spread that looked like honey. A work of art. This was followed by the bread cart. A cheerful young man took great pleasure in outlining all the different types of bread he could offer us. Beer bread, double baked sour dough, black pudding bread, walnut, olive, spring onion . . . On it went. The black pudding one was soft and mild, the others beautiful hard bread which I love. But I was determined not to fill up on bread so ate sparingly despite the allure of the butter slab.
We selected the degustation menu of seven courses with matching wines. We had a choice of two options per course, and wines were selected for us accordingly. We had the option of choosing anything we wanted from both sides of the menu – degustation and a la carte courses. Very flexible (unlike in Australia).
Midway through the meal, a visit to the bathroom was in order. Amazing experience. Completely at odds with the formality of the dining room here was a fun, out there experience, bold colours, weird shapes. Something out of Doctor Who. I tentatively put my hand into the middle of a flower shaped receptacle. Liquid soap descended and the four spouts of the bright yellow basin came on simultaneously. Startling but good fun and effective! On the way to and from passed a wall of awards won by the restaurant including San Pellegrinis Best in the World in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
Our experience exceeded the high expectations I had. No photos – vetoed by family. There are beautiful photos of various dishes on the restaurant’s website – also displayed on the walls on the way to the bathroom. Worth a look – very beautiful. Meal all the better for focussing on food not pictures.
Here are my seven courses. We were given little explanations of each dish, to read while we ate, and to take away so we could remember. Great idea. We had matching wines as well – but no take home cards explaining what they were, so I can’t remember the details. They were mostly Austrian but with a couple of French ones thrown in – all terrific!
Gillardeau Oyster with Yellow Courgette, Brown Russian Cucumber, begonia and Fennel Pollen – a single, very large oyster gratinated with courgette, salted lemon, vermouth, parsley and brown butter, you still tasted the sea, but enhanced by these other flavours. Garnished with begonia petals. A spectacular dish.
Golden and Chioggia Beets with Shisho, Hazelnuts and French Sorrel.
Mountain Trout with White Aubergine, Turnips, Black Trumpet Mushrooms and Purslane – a combination of tiny red and gold beetroots, some baked in rock salts, others raw, accompanied by a hazelnut puff pastry filled with herbs and toasted hazelnuts with a fermented beetroot juice and camelina oil sauce. Intense colour and flavour. One of my favourite dishes.
Braised Veal’s Tongue with Rhubarb, Salted Plums and Nasturtium – two medallions of tongue braised with beer, whiskey, salted plums and rhubarb, delicious flavour but I remain unsure about the texture of tongue! Decorated with nasturtium flowers.
‘Mountain Trout’ with White Aubergine, Turnips, Black Trumpet Mushrooms and Purslane – my card tells me this is a forgotten trout variety, served raw with an apple and horseradish leaf purée, lovage oil and marinated purslane. Another favourite dish.
Venison with Sweetcorn, Chanterelles and Apricots – I was struggling a tiny bit by this stage and didn’t finish this course but I think it was my favourite dish of the evening. A neat Iittle loin of venison, with orache – not sure what that is except it is green and was wrapped around my perfectly cooked meat. It was accompanied by a perfect little cylinder of corn, the walls of the cylinder being intact kernels shaved from the cob – amazing. There was a fermented black bean and apricot purée and sauce of venison and grilled sweetcorn jus with chickweed oil. So good!
We then had a cheese course. Our third cart for the evening. Hard to choose. I picked Austrian cheeses – goat, sheep, brie, a hard cheese. An Austrian white wine complemented them all. Despite best intentions I couldn’t finish the plate.
Plum and Gem Marigold with Curd Cheese and Roseval Ice-cream – my desert was delicious but not as delectable as the raspberry one the others chose. Beautiful small plums marinated with gem marigold, warm plum and apple juice, plum juice with red wine, port, orange and vanilla. It was accompanied by something called Roseval potato ice-cream which amazingly tasted somewhat like potato. Was just a bit heavy for me after what had gone before. Decorated by orange gem marigold petals.
We had arrived at about 7.15 and left, tired, replete and happy at about 11.15. Here’s a happy me on the way out.
A great night out in Vienna. You can check out some of the dishes the restaurant is famous for here. Our courses looked just as pretty.
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