Steirereck - Austria's best ranked restaurant

The Steirereck has 19 Gault Millau points (among 4 Austrian restaurants) and 2 Michelin stars (the only one in Austria now, after Austria was kicked from the list of countries to be reviewed on its own, due to low turnover of the Michelin guide, but Vienna being covered as a capitol of European countries). It is also ranked 30th best restaurant in the world by Restaurant magazine in 2009. Of course I had to go there despite its high prices (at least I found them pretty high before going there, but let's read on).

So we went there at lunch time on a weekday. There weren't many people, which I found quite pleasant as it makes your experience more unique. Anyway, there were many staff available, who were attentive and well trained, as expected. We (my dad, bf and I) looked through the menu and I was astonished to see that they offered a lunch menu for 'only'49€! Well, 49€ for 3 courses and 59€ for 4 courses (or I mixed up the prices and it was actually 10€ more, but surely not more than that, which isn't much higher than what you would pay at other upscale restaurants that lack such reputation). For the lunch menu you can choose things from their à la carte menu, and IMO you save quite a bit if you consider an artichoke salad is 18€ (despite their website claiming it's 24€), a main course is easily 25€+ and a dessert costs around 10€ or more.

However, I decided to have the 6 course menu for 106€, (there was also a 5 course one at 10€ less), if you're there already you gotta try their best... because the meals in that menu were different from the things on the a la carte menu.

So after we had ordered, we got the first amuse gueule (which was already partly eaten due to my greediness...): asparagus and carrot crackers with some other crackers I cant remember (on the right) lol.

Then came the second one: salmon praline, something I forgot, carrot jelly and cheese cracker with fig jam

Then a waiter with free bread came :D the housemade bread was accompanied by fresh butter,

Next Amuse Gueule is Beta Sweet Carrot as you can see on the cards.

Then I got cucumber with crayfish. Ok now I'll stop the bad translation and just let the images speak for themselves.

Artichoke salad from my dad

Wedding soup from by bf

Now comes a course of mine again. Cooked lamb tongue with amaranth and veggies.

Very interesting textures and flavors, loved it.

Fried cod with assorted veggies and fruit :D, never had fish of that same texture, amazing.

Deer with mushrooms and some kinda dumpling. Boy that meat was soft!

Too bad I already felt full by then XD but of course I ate it all ;D

My dad's main course: lamb, which was also heavenly soft like my deer. I don't know how they do it, but they do it damn well!

My bfs main course, classic Wiener Schnitzel with potatoes. Unfortunately he never tries exotic things :P

Here comes my first dessert.

Shaved ice from calpis (a japanese drink), coconut and lime, with slices of palm heart and peach garnished with pearl sago. As a "side drink" you get coconut flavored Ceylon tea, hot of course. Very interesting and tasty concept

My second dessert.

Pancake with some flower's stuff :D also yummy

Bf had to order something boring for dessert :P But the plum sorbet to his right was really delicious.

And finally we could choose a few pralines from a tray. The piece on the right bottom is jelly made from different berries, sooooo delicious, wished I could have 10 pieces of it XD

Now my favorite of all my courses? The cooked lamb tongue, even though everything was great. That dish was most interesting to me as it had the best textures to bite on. I'm a sucker for tongue and crisp veggies.

Verdict? 9.5/10, amazing service, amazing food, might get a 10/10 if they have lobster and oysters again :P

Just some DOTS pictures...

since I haven't posted them yet. It's been some time ago, but the pictures are better than my previous ones of DOTS :P and the sushi was still divine, especially since I had a large butterfish set. Oh well, I'd be a happy camper if someone would just hand me a fresh, dead butterfish to eat :D

Cool interior, as always.

Gotta love their simple but nice arrangement.

Free, yummy salad :O

Another one XD

A view of the bar.

Very nice lighting. My bf had spring rolls with that chili sauce, well, he was quicker than my camera.

That chicken stuff on pak choi :D kinda overpriced for that size but tasted good.

With some rice... and here comes the butterfish!!!

And a close-up of the yummiest fish ever... *drools*...*happy that my keyboard is covered*

Mangosteen in Vienna - Billa Corso

Yesterday I went to the not so new anymore supermarket Billa Corso. They had Mangosteen... I was eyeing those fruits since forever and only saw them on my last day in Singapore, in a huge net like 20 pieces... couldn't possibly finish them so I didn't buy them. Well, you can imagine I was over the moon when seeing Mangosteen in Vienna :D It was just an amount of 4 for 3,99€, oh well. Kinda expensive when you think about the fruit inside being so tiny, but oh well, for the sake of trying.

But here my misery (or rather having luck in a misery lol) starts: after leaving Billa Corso my friend and I spontaneously decided to go to McDonalds to chat a bit. Note, if we hadn't done so I would have gone into the subway and get back home in that creepy weather. But alas, we didn't. I got a cheeseburger and curly fries and decided to try the Mangosteen as a dessert. First I was wondering if the staff would let me eat my self-brought food in there, but after seeing there were so many people inside I could hardly imagine anyone would care (or rather see me). Ok, finished the McDo stuff and started to try (yeah, what a process) to open one fruit ö_Ö You actually gotta cut the thick peel open and then pull them apart. After a lot of cutting around with my tiny pocketknife on a McDo table my friend (who has already eaten Mangosteen before) pulled the thing apart and told me upon first sight: I don't think this is edible anymore. I had to take a closer look and was seeing MOLD! Inside the Fruit X_X Lots of it... oh noes. There goes 1€. So I decided to open another one since I absolutely wanted to eat one now. The second one was fresher looking from the outside and we were able to cut through it faster. But FML, another moldy one inside --_--

Now that was it, I returned the Mangosteen to Billa Corso and got back the 3,99€. Since the other Mangosteen in the store were already moldy on the outside I didn't want to take the risk again. I was so close to trying an apparent yummy fruit (had some Mangosteen juice in S'pore and some candy gummies here, all yummyness), but goddamn mold prevented it --_-- Oh imagine what would have been if I had discovered all this at home: first trying to decide whether the 3,99€ is worth it to get back to the city and once again back home in the dark, windy and freezing Vienna and then most probably taking this ordeal grumpily... so I kind of had luck. Or so

Oh well, be cautionous when trying to buy Mangosteen in Austria. I can't imagine that other stores would have a different/fresher source for them. If you do know one that has unmoldy Mangosteen please tell!

Rant over, next time you'll get something more pleasurable with pictures again lol. Just had to tell about my miserable recent experience.

Cupcakes in Vienna... @ Gerstner

I was astonished to find a local, traditional bakery suddenly offering cupcakes. It is Gerstner on Kärntnerstrasse, the main shopping street in Vienna's 1rst district. Of course I had to try some flavors and in order to justify buying more than 1 I talked my bf into eating one too, at least partially :D

So here we got a peach cupcake on the left and a chocolate one on the right. Let me tell you: both are delicious! The frosting is lightly whipped butter with some flavor, sooo not good for your health but sooo great tasting. The chocolate cupcake is filled with a bit of hazelnut paste (like Nutella) and the peach cupcake has yummy sweet peach pieces in the dough.

I have a slight preference for the peach cupcake, sind the whole thing goes together very well. The frosting isn't too sweat and the peach pieces add a flavor boost one piece at a time. Me likes :D As for rating: 8.5/10 for the chocolate and 9/10 for the peach cupcake. They cost 3 or 3,50€ I believe. However, I've never eaten an American (original, so to say) cupcake, so I can't really compare how authentic the Gerstner cupcakes are. If anyone has the knowledge please share!

Long time no see again :P

I promise I'll be posting more regularly again in the future :D I've been busy with an internship for 6 months that ended just some weeks ago. Now I'll have plenty of time to show you more food. What's coming up? Steirereck (yeah, finally went there), Mraz und Sohn (which is kind of a Steirereck Knock-Off IMO), Business Class of China Airlines and much more...

All-you-can-eat teppanyaki in Vienna

In the last couple of months I got to know 3 Chinese style restaurants in Vienna (you know, the westernized 'Chinese' food that doesn't even exist in China...). All of them with teppanyaki or mongolian barbecue until you can't eat anymore. They are:

- Banyan (in the 9th district) near WU Wien)
- Red Apple (in the 1rst district, near TU Wien)
- Bamboo (in the 4th district, not near any University :P)

Their prices are pretty close, I can only remember Banyan exactly: 9,80€.
While Banyan claims to have Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Malay food their selection is pretty average, not anymore special than other Chinese restaurants. I was pretty disappointed since I'm looking for good Thai and Malay food (the best Thai restaurant I found in Vienna is called Bangkok, the prices are mid high). Ok, enough bashing, the food itself is okay, typical all-you can eat plus the Teppanyaki with average sauces to choose.

Red Apple has a bigger selection of sauces, but they didn't really taste that differently from each other (went there with a couple of friends, so I could try almost all of them) and their 'super spicy' sauce was mild IMO.

The last one is Bamboo, which impressed me most with its dessert selection actually. The main dishes and Teppanyaki are average (even though you have a bigger choice of Sushi there, which doesn't really taste that great, but whatever...), while for dessert you can choose from fruits as well as a wide array of cookies (not typically Chinese...).

My verdict: Bamboo is the winner out of the 3, if I had to rate it I'd give it a 7.5/10, but in general these Teppanyaki-style buffets didn't really WOW me, KWIM? The sauces are mostly bland and the result is not too impressing. Could have done the same at home if I had that many seafood and veggies to choose from.

Next up is the vegetarian restaurant, this time with pics again!

Long time no see...

I haven't eaten anything exciting lately, thus the lack of posts. However, some days ago I went to an interesting eatery, organic, veg and cheap... will be posting pics and a review soon. In addition I had my third Teppanyaki style all-you-can-eat experience today... It was a restaurant called Banyan, the other ones are Bamboo and Red Apple. Stay tuned for detailed reviews.