Tag Archives for 1st district

Beetroot Sorbet? WTF?!

Actually no. My first reaction was not that mean. It was rather that of pure curiosity. Veggies as ice cream – something you hardly get in Vienna. I know of goat cheese ice cream at Eis Greissler. But here at Lepantos they pretty much have just the alternative flavors. Here tangerine-lime is already very conservative. And so this place calls its ice cream exceptional.

It is truly a place to enjoy extraordinary ice cream. The Lepantos at Ballgasse in the 1st district

It is a rather new ice cream parlor at the centre of Vienna close to Kärntner Straße. It is situated in a narrow side street close to the Steffl department store. And so as soon as I found out about it I had to go there. In the end: Vienna is currently a ice hot spot. You have to have everything that is somehow connected to ice: Frozen yogurt, bubble ice tea and now veggie ice sorbet.

So when I arrived at the place there was this one guy. It turned out that he was pretty friendly. First he thought I was a tourist with my camera and started talking in English to me. As soon as I answered in Viennese German it was clear that I was not a tourist. First he asked me if I’d like to have some ice cream. I answered with yes and said it was pretty hard to decide with all these atypical ice cream flavors. There were two flavors with alcohol (one was with cherry and vodka and I can’t remember the other one) and then there was the caramel with sea salt (the sea salt scared me off though – I have to admit) and of course the beetroot one. So I asked him whether I could try the beetroot ice cream. Hm, it was yummy.

The beetroot ice cream is certainly something completely different but don’t be scared it tastes just fine.

With this success at hand I decided to take the medium size which means you can choose three flavors. The cup you get is not very large but ok. I decided for the ginger honey one first and of course the beetroot. As a third one I took the tangerine lime sorbet as it was really hot and I needed something to cool me off. To eat the ice cream I chose one of the comfortable chairs outside. Fortunately there was shade so it was not too hot.

I took the ginger-honey, the tangerine-lime and the beetroot sorbets.

But it seems that it was still hot enough. Because the sorbet was melting pretty fast and since the cup was rather small the ice cream decided not to stay inside the cup for too long but made its way down to the table. So my mission was to eat fast which was not that difficult as the sorbet tasted really nicely. A bit sweet but not to sweet. The beetroot is really something yummy although I would not want to eat it every day. I still like the good old chocolate ice cream once in a while. The ice cream is not too cheap either as the medium size cost me 3,80 Euro. Compared to that: in regular ice cream parlor it is around 2,50 Euro for three scoops. But in this case I would rather compare it to the frozen yogurt places which are somehow in the same price range. In the end: you are not eating any ice cream but exceptional one. And for once in a while it is something really cool to get especially since they are regularly changing their flavors and I have heard of cucumber-wasabi ice cream already. Hm. Maybe the next time.

Info: Lepantos (http://lepantos.at), 1, Ballgasse 4; phone: +43/(0)650/340 75 96; email: office@lepantos.at; opening hours: Mo 2:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m., Tue – Sat. noon – 8:00 p.m. , Sun 2:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.; you can reach the place by getting off at Stephansplatz and walking toward the Steffl department store then going inside and walking right to the other end to exit the store at the opposite site and there is already the Ballgasse with the Lepantos in front of you

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Vietthao: A Family Restaurant

From the outside it does not look particularly spectacular and compared to the other fancy restaurants in the first district it is not spectacular on the inside neither. It is a simple restaurant. When you enter it the first thing you notice is this retro photo of a young Asian couple. The Asian waiter talks to you with a perfect Viennese dialect. Touchez, I like!

Vietthao: a Vietnamese restaurant at Karlsplatz close to the Secession

At the beginning I was kind of suspicious. At the door they have the menu and I was kind of shocked at first. There they wrote prices like twenty euros etc. And I was already disappointed – also with myself because going for lunch on a Saturday always means you miss out on the lunch specials. “Shall I really go in?” was what I asked myself. In the end, my first impression was that it must be expensive. But then I decided now that I had come here for the restaurant I will take the chance and try it.

So I entered and noticed the interior – very simple, nothing special. Fortunately, the music was not this usual Clayderman music adapted for the Chinese something. I got the menu from the waiter. I know quite a few Vietnamese restaurants in Vienna. As a matter of fact I like Vietnamese food a lot. But on this menu I found lots of different food which you can hardly find in other restaurants. So I had a hard time with choosing what I wanted – well mainly for the starter since I knew immediately what I wanted for the main course and that was the fish.

Vietthao: as a starter I chose the summer rolls with pork and mushrooms

The reason why I was unsure about the starter was that they were not too cheap but then in the end they offer real good stuff like summer rolls with shrimp – this always means higher prices. Eventually, I decided for the summer rolls with pork and mushrooms as I was going to take the fish as a main course.

And let me tell you: the starter was delicious! Together with this red spicy peanut something sauce it was great. It was so delicious that I almost did not care about my dish manners. For the main course I had to wait a bit. This because there motto is that they prepare everything fresh. But that was ok for me since I was not in a rush. And of course, I could see what the others had. On the other table they had pho – also something I like. But then there was the big moment: the fish arrived.

The gilt-head bream was just delicious – excellent with the zucchini and the mango

It was soo delicious. Together with the fish came mango and grilled zucchini as a side order and of course rice, which was, fortunately, already included in the price. The size of the meal was just right and I was filled afterwards but not stuffed or felt to have eaten a bunch of stones.

This is definitely a great Vietnamese restaurant in my inofficial ranking of the best Vietnamese restaurants in Vienna this ranks very close to the top. So, I can truly recommend that restaurant. As it is close the many main Viennese attractions like the Karlskirche or the Naschmarkt it is a great option for a nice lunch or dinner.

Info: Vietthao, Friedrichstrasse 2, 1010 Vienna; phone: +43/1/585 20 31; opening hours: Mon – Thu 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. & 5:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., Fri – Sat 11:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.; credit cards: Visa, Master Card; you can reach the restaurant by going to U1/U2/U4 Karlsplatz and then taking the exit Elisbethstrasse

Restaurant 2.0: It’s all about the Tablet

The concept is not completely new. And with that I don’t mean the tablet part but the part where you have a restaurant and you order small portions and by doing so you can order more different meals. That was many many years ago when a restaurant opened in Vienna called “Lustig Essen” (Funny eating translated). There were two restaurants of that brand in Vienna and they both had to close because it did not work out.

But the generation 2.0 should change all that and since Saturday, 31 March 2012 Vienna has its first tablet restaurant. The concept of small meal sizes remains the same but the difference is that you order everything with a tablet. That is probably the reason why this restaurant is called “Viereck” (rectangle – translated).

Restaurant Viereck close to U4 Stadtpark

And since I was curious I had to check that restaurant out on the first day it was open. My fear at the beginning: small meal sizes might result in me ordering more and then the bill would be much higher than if I would just eat one dish and have something to drink and then leave.

The interior is quite classy

But first impressions first. My first impression of the restaurant was: it totally fits the 1st district of Vienna. It is fancy but not snobbish (something I was afraid of before as well). The interior smelled very new. There is a ground floor and a second floor as well. On the second floor you have both dinner tables and a lounge part.

The lounge part of the Restaurant Viereck

Maybe because it was the first day you could feel the excitement among the team members of the restaurant. The owners are quite young – all at the beginning of their twenties. Something that amazes me. One of them got me a tablet and introduced me to the concept and how the tablet works. But as it is with tablets the handling was pretty easy to understand.

What they serve is mainly Italian style food. Whether it is authentic – I am not the one to judge. I would say not completely. The sizes of the meals are smaller than in regular restaurants so the prices are four to five Euros per dish on average. But as I said above: be aware don’t get fooled by these low prices – in the end you need to eat more to be full and then it adds up.

The advantage is that you do not need to wait for the waiter to order. You choose the dish you want on the tablet. You push the “Order” button on the tablet and then the kitchen/waiters know what you want to eat, prepare the food and serve it. And that is the part I definitely like. You are completely independent. Because: how many times do I sit at a restaurant trying to catch the attention of the waiter so that I can order? A hundred times at least. Here, you don’t need to do that. It is much more relaxed. It is also the case that if you are in a group not everybody needs to know immediately what he or she wants to eat but you can order whenever you feel like it. If you want to know more about the food you eat you use the “info” button and you can read how the dish is prepared and a little background story about e.g. Spaghetti Carbonara, which I find nice.

They don't serve regular coke but fritz-kola ... be aware that the caffeine content is much higher

So I was checking out the menue for drinks first. Ah: no coke, no regular soft drinks but great they have Arizone Ice Tea and some very interesting stuff to drink: there is rose lemonade for example. But fritz-kola made the race this time … something I really like. For the starter I decided for the bruschetta with tomatos and mozzarella and I took the optional garlic as well. I decided that I would first check out how big the portion was before I ordered anything else. The time I waited for the starter was decent and I heared the waiter running upstairs and there it was. It looked yummy.

Starter: Bruschetta with tomatos and mozzarella

I definitely liked the taste, the ruccola could have been fresher but ok. So I was thinking this little starter was definitely not enough and since they serve fish as well, and I love fish, I was browsing through that menue part. And I did not need to browse far since they had my favorite dish right on top of the menue – grilled calamari (I know this dish polarizes but I love it when it is done right). So I had to have that one. When they served it it looked as delicious as the first course. The calamari was grilled just right – we don’t want to eat chewing gum.

The grilled calamari were really yummy

And then of course I did something you would not do when eating Italian food I ordered the spaghetti after the main course. But that is the luxury you have here. You just order whatever you like and in what order you like to. So I had to have the spaghetti carbonara – a dish which is kind of a test case for me at restaurants: doing that dish right and that in the original version is for me a criteria whether this restaurant is authentic or not. I have to admit though that I am not an expert in Italian food but that is how I measure it. Do they make the sauce with cream or with egg as it is meant to be. And although it says on the menue that they use egg it was pretty much more cream than egg. But I should not be too critical. The taste was great especially of that grilled bacon on top.

Spaghetti Carbonara - there was thin grilled bacon on top and that was a highlight

After that three courses I did not feel hungry anymore. But I did see the mousse au chocolate variation at someone else’s table and so I decided I need a dessert and chocolate mousse is what I want. It came as white, milk and dark chocolate mousse each in one separate glass. The presentation was soo appealing I loved it.

The dessert: mousse au chocolate selection with white, milk and dark chocolate mousse

The white chocolate was a bit too sweet for me but the milk and dark chocolate mousse were absolutely great. It was the perfect final course for a perfect meal. This is definitely a restaurant I would come back to. It is also perfect if you want to grab a bite but are not that hungry to want to eat a lot. In the end I paid 20 Euros – yes, it was pricey as I expected but in the end you are not eating low-quality food here. So the price is definitely worth it and it is certainly not over-priced. And yes, I would recommend this restaurant to everyone who likes to meet with a group of friends and have a nice and relaxed evening because the tablet concept fits that very well.

Info: Restaurant Viereck at Johannesgasse 16, 1010 Vienna; website: http://www.4eck.at; mail: office@4eck.at; phone: 0043 1 997 44 788; Opening Hours: Mon – Thur 11:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., Fri – Sat 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m., Sun closed; all major credit cards; you can reach the restaurant by taking the U4 to Stadtpark the exit Johannesgasse and then walk five minutes on Johannesgasse direction city centre and there you find the restaurant at a corner on the left side of the street.