Steirereck: Cutting-edge Cooking Methods
The restaurant Steiereck had always been on my wish list of visiting, but the renovation during summer delayed my trip till July.
Being the owner of the world’s 9th best restaurant (http://www.theworlds50best.com/list/1-50-winners/steirereck ) in 2013, and the 16th best this year, the chef Heinz Reitbauer is known for his ‘ground-breaking cookery techniques that are now inspiring other chefs around the world’, including cooking freshwater mountain fish char with hot beeswax.
I went for lunch in a rainy Viennese day, the restaurant sits nicely in the city park of Vienna, with big windows facing the greenery, and it also has a separate café / teahouse called the ‘MEIEREI’, popular for its ‘120 cheese varieties and freshly baked Viennese cakes and pastries’.
The lunch menu at Steirereck is a very good deal – 4 courses for €78 or 5 courses for €88, wine pairing is available too.
It’s worth mentioning that they have a choice of bread of more than 30 kinds, including ‘blood sausage bread’, which I liked the most.
However, the welcoming entries were a bit disappointing, given its high ranking on the best50 list – nice presentation and great concept, but pretty blank in taste.
Here my courses:
– CHAR with Beeswax, Yellow Carrot ‘Pollen’ & Sour Cream – the star dish –was a real star!
The fish was brought to the table raw, with a jar of heated beeswax of approximate 60°C, which was then poured to the fish on a square wooden plate, while the beeswax cooled down in room temperature, the fish got cooked; the procedure lasted about 20 minutes, then it was taken back to kitchen to be served properly in a plate. The whole process was very interesting, and the taste was even more amazing: the tender texture of the fish is somewhere in-between sashimi and cooked fish; the sour cream with cayenne pepper and lime dressing, the char caviar strewn with yellow carrot and quince vinegar ‘pollen’, and the yellow carrot and apple juice jelly infused with beeswax, accompanied the fish per….fectly, generating a sophisticated range of layers while complementing the gentle flavour of the char. Such a sensation of tastes…
– CRAYFISH with Spiced Parsnip Strudel & Limes:
Another sensation, the crayfish was poached in a warm crayfish stock, paired with milk ‘strudel’ infused with thyme and filed with a parsnip puree, macerated raisins and croutons – which, again, accompanied the crayfish perfectly while adding layers and completing its own flavours at the same time.
– Pogusch Lamb with Jerusalem Artichoke, Chanterelles, Banana & Daylily Shoots:
Fancy and nice, but lack of character for my taste – as if they were trying to make the lamb tasting less lamb… And when lamb does not taste like lamb anymore, why order lamb at the first place?
However, I prefer the fish/ seafood dishes to meat dishes here, where the art of moderation and gentleness is better appreciated – in the end, meats have to have their toughness and rough sides, they should not be shy.
– Selected Cheeses: good, large range of options indeed.
– Warm ‘trinitario’ chocolate with pineapple-pericon sorbet & coconut macaroons:
Also rather disappointing – together with the closing icecream. Too sweet, too strong fruity tastes, nothing in similar scale of the first 2 courses…
I think I understand how it has fallen to the 16th best from the 9th, but the profound and solid skill and talent of the chef is in no doubts.
I’ll come soon again for more fish dishes!
Price: €100+ per person.
Address: Am Heumarkt 2A / im Stadtpark
A-1030 Wien
Phone: +43 (1) 713 31 68