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At Plachutta
For everyone who isn't Austrian, or Viennese for that matter, the Plachutta restaurants won't be that well known. For all the others, the name evokes images of traditional Austrian cuisine coupled with loads of celebrities - A to Z - who love being seen there. And if you're lucky, you'll even end up on the walls of their restaurants or on their website.
Anyway, even though I've spent the better part of ten years in Vienna now, I never managed to visit one of their restaurants. I guess one of the reasons was that they're madly expensive. But recently I had the chance to visit Plachutta Hietzing with the prospect of not having to actually pay for it myself, and well, so I did.
Since I had published a review of a Zwiebelrostbraten at a less fancy place just a couple of days before, I decided to opt for another Zwiebelrostbraten, simply so I could compare and see whether all the talk about best Austrian cuisine and stuff was actually true.
And I must say, yes, it is quite true. First of all, when you're at Plachutta, you don't have one server. You've got two, three or four. I had shredded roast potatoes with my Zwiebelrostbraten and they weren't served on my plate. No, they were served in a tiny pan. Or pot. A tiny pot-pan. Anyway, they were served in that and a server came and put half of it on my plate, then the rest was put on a heating device in that tiny pot-pan thing. To keep it warm, of course.
And this actually happened with every meal. The minced meat got peas in a tiny pot-pan. The fish got potatoes in a tiny pot-pan. The fried chicken was actually served in a basket. And pieces of the chicken lifted from the basket onto a plate. By the server.
Now, I found that most peculiar. And even though it's a total waste of manpower, I still found it quite cute. I might have to get someone to do this for me at home.
But on to the important stuff. How was the Zwiebelrostbraten? Well, it was delicious. Very tender beef, neither too salty nor too bland, with very crisp onions on top and a good amount of broth for the whole thing to soak in. The shredded roast potatoes were equally well prepared, and came, of course, with their own server.
So yes, it is worth going to Plachutta, if only for the experience of having three people serving your meal instead of, you know, one. Finally, here's an image of above described Zwiebelrostbraten. I must admit, you can't really see the beef and it looks a bit, well, not that great, but that's mainly attributed to a lack of photographic skills.
At the canteen
I had lunch at Tommi Hirschs Kantine. It's a new canteen right next to work, which also doubles as the headquarter of a caterer. The food is always of outstanding quality, not just for a canteen. Sometimes though, since I'm a certified glutton, the portions are a tad too small.
What you see above is beef with apparently julienne vegetables, with a side of potatoes and very creamy spinach. That time, definitely enough for my gourmandian ways.
If you are ever in the 20th district, near the Friedensbrücke, go there. They have lunch till 2pm and are open for everyone.
Das Lercherl von Hernals - Viennese cuisine in pseudo cabin atmosphere
When it comes to Schnitzel or any other kind of meat, served either with potatoes or dumplings and lovingly called Viennese cuisine, there are a number places people swear serve the best food.
I am always wary, since my standards tend to be, despite their simplicity, harder to meet than others. What I want is a lot of food for not too much money. I know, I still think like a student, and in a way, I still am. Despite my huge paycheck. Anyway, the latest place I went to that served that Viennese cuisine was a place in the 17th district, called Lercherl von Hernals, where Lercherl is a diminutive of Lerche, and Lerche, you guessed it, means lark. Hernals, btw, is the proper name of the 17th district. As expected, the interior consists of heavy wooden chairs and tables, loads of ornamental woodwork and a waiter who looks like during the winter months he usually instructs people on how to ski. A ski-instructor, if you will. He was still quite the polite chap, though. I opted for a Zwiebelrostbraten, which is a slice of beef roast buried underneath loads of crispy onions, the whole thing, ideally swimming in a pool of gravy. Here's what it looks like:
Never mind the fact that you can't actually see the beef. It's buried under these loads of onions.While it was in fact quite a lot and very competitively priced, the beef was a bit on the stringy side. The upside to this is, that after all, I'm much more of a gourmand than I am a gourmet, so combined with generous gulps of their beer and total disregard for what a perfect piece of beef should be like, I absolutely enjoyed my visit to the Lercherl of Hernals. So if you want authentic Viennese cuisine that's not expensive and served in large quantities, do go there. As fair as I know, no bookings necessary.Augustin in Vienna - Eat well, lounge well
While I am very much into cooking my own food, going out and enjoying what others have cooked up for my consumption is something I'm very fond of as well. Of course, it does cost the equivalent of money, so if you don't have any, home cooking might be a better solution for you.
If you do indeed have scraped together enough dough to be able to buy yourself some food and drink, here's a place you should visit: Augustin. Set in a rather shabby part in a rather shabby district of Vienna (well, it's true. It just isn't really pretty, that district), Augustin is a great surprise. Not only does its exterior work hard on betraying the splendid interiour, the food is also quite delicious and plentiful.
Decked out in Biedermeier sofas, chandeliers, sturdy wooden tables and loads of candles, Augustin is as cozy as it can get. The fact that almost every night there's a chap playing the piano, only adds to the undeniable charm of the place. Foodwise I opted for nothing less than a Bauernkotelett (farmer's cutlet), which consisted of tender grilled pork, covered in loads of roasted onions, with fried potatoes, little cubes of bacon and pole beans on the side:
The only problem with the cozy interior of Augustin is, that sitting on a sofa as soft as the one we sat on, means, that your food sits somewhere on eye level, which makes it a tad difficult to eat (having been confronted with that dire situation myself, here's a trick that actually works: simply sit on a chair for the duration of the meal!). Here's just a small thing I'd like for the owners to do. Update your website! While I think your Bauernkotelett was worth every single cent I paid for it, advertising your food roughly three Euros cheaper than it actually is, may be frowned upon by people less lenient than me! Anyway, I absolutely recommend going to Augustin, especially round eight, when the pianist will be playing one of his tunes, while you, stuffed with most exquisite Austrian foods, can recline on a sofa with cigarette in mouth and beer in hand. Augustin is located in the 15th district, Märzstraße 67, a three minute walk from the U3 station Johnstraße:View Larger Map
