Steirereck

The modern exterior of this restaurant reflects, not only the natural surroundings (literally), but also the contemporary twist on Viennese classics that come from its kitchen. There is a passion for ingredients that shows through on every plate. Head chef Heinz Reitbauer manages his own farm and obviously spends time nurturing his relationships with his other suppliers. We spent an afternoon here for lunch in the heart of Vienna’s city park during a lovely holiday trip to the city famous for its food and winter festivities.

Dressed minimally for the holidays, there was still excitement in the air as we sat anticipating our multi-course lunch. The building allows for lots of room between tables and has several carved out dining spaces so there is privacy yet openness. The meal began with some bubbly paired with what the chef accurately calls his starters: “Roundtrip Around Austria and Furthermore”. From there we had our appetizer courses. I had the marinated courgette with orange blossom and Mexican pepperleaf along with roasted spelt seedlings with dehydrated courgette, pistachio and brown egg chili on a base of grilled courgette-pistachio cream all topped with garum-cured mountain trout and dried egg yolk. This was paired with a Weingut Martin Muthenthaler Vergelt’s Gott Gruner Veltliner which was fresh and green with flinty notes. My husband had the Lake Neusiedl smoked and flamed eel with winter carrot glaze. Served beside a layering of black kale and Meyer lemon cream with soured buttermilk; crispy black kale; Oxheart carrot, black kale and ice crystal salad marinated with hemp oil; pickled small onions; and winter carrots braised with smoked eel, ginger and cape gooseberries. His eel was served with a 2013 Weingut Straka Alte Reben Weiss, a cuvee from Pinot Blanc and Welschriesling, fermented and aged in large oak barrels. Dense and finely aromatic with a long-lasting finish. Very mineral.

Next, our second courses arrived. Mine was the Viennese specialty of venison fawn offal cooked with onions, root vegetables, gherkins, capers, anchovies and mustard. Steamed yellowfoot chantrelles and wild broccoli were added as well as two steamed runner bean-emmer-buckwheat strudel. Paired with another Austrian wine, this one a Roter Veltliner from Martin & Anna Arndorfer. It had notes of ripe yellow fruit, dried apricots, and spicy honey. My husband’s second course was a Wiener Saftgulash: slow-braised Alpine beef cheeks with peppers and spices served with toasted bread and leek roulade and pickled red and yellow peppers and shallots. His dish was served with a Piedmont Nebbiolo. The grapes come from the famous Valmaggiore cru, a patch of old vines on an almost vertical slope.

My main course for lunch was wild duck breast roasted on the bone. Wild duck gravy and cream of roasted chervil roots and star anise share the plate. Duck leg confit with onions, cape gooseberries and majoram, topped with red cabbage braised with Uhudler grapes and thyme. Cape gooseberries preserved in versus and fermented rose-apple lemon topped the cabbage and confit on the second plate. My husband had the national dish of Austria: Wiener Schnitzel: thin breaded and pan fried veal with roasted baby potatoes with butter and parsley. Both of our mains were served with a 2010 Montes Folly Chilean Syrah. The deep ruby red wine had notes of blackberries, blueberries and plums that came through on the palate along with a velvety mocha finish.

I would be remiss to not mention the staggering selection of both bread and cheese that are on offer here. It is almost overwhelming and one cannot possibly try them all, nor would you want to as you would never have room for the rest of your meal. They were very good about bringing around the bread trolley whenever they sensed you were low on your bread plate. Unlike the bread, which the server gladly listed with a studied ease, the cheeses were too plentiful to list. It is said that there are close to 120 different kinds (there were more in the two drawers as those were the soft and stinky varieties).

The cheese monger was happy to assist with creating a perfect plate for each of us and paired them with a 2002 Jos. Christoffel Jr. Urziger Wurzgarten Riesling Auslese. With notes of apricot, peach, jam and honey, it paired beautifully with our cheeses.

On to dessert, where I had the huckleberry souffle inverted onto plate adored with orange-Isabella grape sauce and marinated and slightly dried grapes with candied citrus. Served with sesame-orange sorbet and Isabella grape sorbet. This was paired with a 2005 Sao Jorge Malvasia Madeira from Vinhos Barbeito. The single-cask wine had a honey palate with citrus balance. My husband chose the crispy deep fried crepe with Japanese medlar and violet jam and powdered candied violets. Served with strawberry mint, lemon verbena and violet petals marinated with violet syrup and medlar juice and medlar kernel and violet ice cream. His dessert was paired with a 2012 Hans Tschida – Angerhof Muskat Ottonel Schilfwein. This Austria muscat was sweet and exotic and paired beautifully with his crepe. Sommelier Rene Antrag knows his stuff as that was true with all our courses and wine pairings.

One of the finishing touches of our extravagant lunch was the Viennese cookie cart where, buried in powdered sugar, were hazelnut and walnut crescent cookies. The server fishes two out and plates them with more powdered sugar. In addition to these, two plates of little cookie bites as well as a full tin of thumbprint cookies was brought to the table with our cappuccinos. They trusted us with the tin of cookies as they had to know how full we were at that point. I will even admit that we left a few bites on the plates although we really didn’t want to!

You can see the strong Austrian roots running through the chef and this restaurant. It is a true celebration of a city and its food. There are not many places in the world where food takes on the name of the town it is from and Steirereck honors that distinction.

Steirereck, Am Heumarkt 2A, (in Stadtpark), Vienna, Austria; Tel. +43-1-713-31-68; Reservations recommended; Mon – Fri 11:30AM – 3:00PM, Evenings from 6:30PM.