Tag Archives for schwedenplatz

Embassy of the Currywurst Republic

No joke. We have a Currywurst Embassy in Vienna. And believe me it is so much more fun than any other embassy in Vienna. At my first attempt to come here I failed miserably. Smart me! I didn’t check when the place was open. So I was standing in front of a closed imbiss stand.

Close to Schwedenplatz is the Currywurst Botschaft – Embassy of the Currywurst

But I learned from my mistake and knew that it is only open when there is good weather around noon and then in the evening from around 5:00 p.m. and since the last days were horrible weatherwise I took the first chance today when the weather was better to come here. First, I was not sure whether I really liked to come here since I was pretty hungry and just a sausage might not be enough but then I decided that I am too curious I just had to come.

And believe me I did not regret it. To be honest the portions are not complete meal size. Of course, you should not expect that from an imbiss stand – this is a place for having just a snack. When I arrived there were not many people – actually there were only three including me. The guy behind the counter – yes, he was definitely German and I am sure judging by his accent he was from Berlin. He didn’t look too happy but was not unfriendly. I am not sure maybe he was the owner. The prizes are decent. If you take the curry wurst (sausage) with fries and one beverage you pay around 8 Euros.

The prizes are not low but you get really good quality

For me it was the curry wurst with fries and the berlin sauce. It took some time till the food was ready. This is not the good part here. The good part is that the reason why the food took longer was that the guy was making fresh french fries. I think they don’t even use frozen potatoes but fresh ones. And for that I was definitely willing to wait. In the end it was just a few minutes and the result was really yummy crispy fries. Also the curry wurst was delicious.

I took the sausage with the berlin sauce and the fries

I only had currywurst once before so I don’t have that much options to compare that to but it was really great. I mean you hardly get real curry wurst in Vienna. They usually give you fake currywurst. Here at imbiss stands if you order it you get bratwurst with some sauce that is more ketchup than anything else and some curry powder on top. But this was really good and I am sure when I am close to Schwedenplatz and feel like having sausage I will certainly want to come back here. Maybe then I will try one of the other sauces – either Bochum or Sylt – but I loved the Berlin one a lot. And when I left I thought: “Actually, now I can use some more.”

Info: Currywurst Botschaft, close to Adria Wien close to Schwedenplatz and Salztorbrücke, there is no phone number and neither fax nor email, this imbiss stand is seasonal and only open during the summer; opening hours are at good weather conditions from noon till 2:00 p.m. and from 5:00 p.m. till 10:00 p.m., I haven’t found any Facebook page or acutal website eventhough they have the http://www.wurstbotschaft.at on the posters pinned to the imbiss stand

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Anything but Sacher Torte

No, us Viennese don’t go to Demel and probably not that much to the Café Sacher either. And there is the traditional café where you get all these traditional cakes for which Vienna is somehow famous and there is an alternative – much nicer, much more for people that like to have a nice piece of cake at a cosy place.

Close to Schwedenplatz there is a nice little cake shop – the Fett und Zucker

Yesterday I wanted to visit this one restaurant at Rotenturmstrasse which I hadn’t visited for some time and which I loved a lot. It is a Chinese restaurant which served not this transfusion Asian food but the owner tried to offer really great food like vegetarian chicken and so on. Turned out that this place changed considerably. The nice owner was no longer here instead there were two faceless waitresses. You probably know that when you go to a restaurant and the waitresses don’t relate to the restaurant at all. They are just there to make their job. Some even go that far that they don’t care much whether you are here or not as long as they get their pay check. And so after having some rather disappointing lunch I had to get something to cheer me up again.

Since I was at Schwedenplatz already I thought I just walk over the Salztor bridge to the 2nd district and go to Hollandstrasse. There is a little shop close to the Karmelitermarkt which opened a bit over a year ago and which is just the idea of a few people that love to bake cake and sell it.

And so from the beginning this place was a hotspot for the young people – mostly students. In summer they just sit outside in front of the shop but the interior is quite lovely and individualistic as well. When I last visited the shop it was not quite finished, there were tons of people and hardly any space.

The interior of the Fett und Zucker – where probably no chair is like the other

The one serving me I guess she was one of the owners. She was really nice when I got the cake and did not insist that I pay immediately but told me I should make myself comfortable, eat my cake first and pay whenever I am ready. Of course, as always I did not know what to take at first. Fortunately they have a menue and it turned out that they not only offer cake like when they first opened the shop but also other things like breakfast and salad as well. Still, I had to get a piece of cake. Remember: depressions because of my bad lunch experience. So I decided for a poppy seed cake with plum jam and something that tasted like a vanilla cream. It was a glutenfree cake.

The cakes are really simple somehow but just so yummy. Here the poppy seed cake.

Like with all cakes you get here they tell you whether it is a vegan cake or lactose-free or whatever dietary information you need. That is really cool. I know of hardly any place in Vienna where you get vegetarian cake on purpose. And so I think this place is really a tip for all of you who like to get some nice vegetarian or vegan cake. They also have a changing selection of cakes also depending on seasonal fruits or whatever they like to bake.

I think this place to be really nice. Far from the over-fancy cafés where you get a piece of cake which turns out to be a chunk of sugar cause it is so sweet.

Info: Fett und Zucker (http://www.fettundzucker.at), Hollandstrasse 16, 1020 Vienna; phone +43/699/116 60 092; mail office@fettundzucker.at, I don’t provide you with the opening hours here since they are different in summer and winter, I guess it is best if you visit their homepage to the find out about them, no credit cards

And so my motto was?

No, it was not one of these scandals in Vienna when they build something new – but almost. The mission was: the twincity liner – a boat that connects Vienna with Bratislava – needs to get a proper harbour and with that came not only a big new construction at the Donaunkanal (Danube Canal) but also a new culinaric destination – the Motto am Fluss.

The Motto am Fluss (= motto at the river) is both a restaurant and a café. And the café is on top of this building right at Schwedenplatz. And so the other day I was thinking of getting some lunch and I was thinking the weather was not too bad so lets go for some outdoor location and I decided for the café as they serve daily lunch specials.

And let me tell, before I continue with talking about food, if you have not climbed the stairs you do not know how great the view is from top and I truly recommend going up there and if it is just to take a look because you can see from the centre of Vienna right to the outskirts of the city. When I first did that I did not expect it.

There is a marvelous view over Vienna from the top

As soon as you reach the top you’ll find the café which is kept more in a Provence mediterranean style. As for the price range I would say both the restaurant, which is one level below, and the café are at the higher end. But you get something for your money.

From the terrace you get a fantastic view over Vienna but in summer there is hardly any chance to get space.

For the lunch special there was the choice of either soup or entry salad and chicken and the other main course was asparagus risotto. I am not so much of a risotto fan and to some extent I was suspicious about the chicken too. It said lemon chicken and I do not like artificial lemon flavor. Did I make the right decision to go here? Well, first order something to drink. I look around somebody at another table got some red soda with mint in it or what was that green leaves inside? That was may guess. So, I searched for it on the menue. You know, I could have asked too but speculated that it was the raspberry with carbonated water. Well, wrong guess. It was red but no green leaves inside. But anyhow.

Raspberry Syrup with carbonated water is something very typical in Austria and of course also Vienna

But back to ordering food – in the end, that was what I came for. Even though I was suspicious about the chicken I was really curious about the watercress soup – and who knows maybe the chicken is ok. It had pine nuts with couscous … yes, I love pine nuts. So, I took the meal with the soup and the chicken.

The soup was green – very green. But it was nice except that it missed some salt. Maybe watercress does not have much taste to begin with and better too little salt than too much.

The watercress soup was ok - at least I know now how it tastes

But then came the highlight. The one course that I was suspicious about before it turned out to be the absolute highlight. I have hardly ever had such awesome chicken before. Of course, in the end I should have known – I love cooking myself and know that if you marinate something with real nice lemon it tastes awesome. But this topped my expectations. The chicken tasted wonderful. The idea to leave the green onions whole and to just saute them is something great. And of course, the couscous with the pine nuts gave the extra kick.

The lemon chicken with the green onions and the couscous with pine nuts was the highlight

And even though the weather turned out to be pretty called while sitting outside on their terrace to have my lunch I did not want this meal to get finished. It was really great. And my motto now is: I will eat whatever they got on the menue even if I am suspicious because, in the end, fortunately I am wrong.

Info: Motto am Fluss, Schwedenplatz 2, 1010 Vienna; phone  +43/1/252 55  –  10 (restaurant), +43/1252 55  –  11 (café); mail restaurant@mottoamfluss.at, cafe@mottoamfluss.at; opening hours (daily) 6:00 p.m. – 2:00 a.m. (restaurant), 6:00 p.m. – 4:00 a.m. (bar), 8:00 a.m. – 2:00 a.m. (café); credit cards accepted