Prior to our Europe trip, I did some research on all the Michelin Starred restaurants we may possibly come across as we cross European borders. Unfortunately, due to our limited budget on our trip this time, I sat on my hands and only booked one - Steirereck im Stadtpark in Vienna - a 2 starred restaurant featuring at number 11 in the list of the world's top restaurants. They also have a more casual restaurant downstairs called Meierei... but... why not go for the real thing?
Stepping into the restaurant, everything just felt nice and in place. Nothing was out of order. The decor of the place was stunningly elegant and everything - the table cloths, candle holders, all the way down to the way the waiters placed your cutlery - seemed to be in perfect order.
(Their toilets, however, takes on a different style. Each bathroom is like an artwork or like a mini amusement park. Lights flash on and off as you step in different positions of the room, each element is brighly coloured. The water comes on and off automatically... makes you feel like a kid again! It's something that is better experienced than read so you gotta try it for yourself!)
Prior to being presented with the menu, we were given a range of different snacks and amuse bouches from the kitchen. The first of the many was this thin crispy wafer cracker thing. Really thin. Really crispy. Lightly salted and seasoned. Like a bread stick but not...
The next amuse bouche was some little (heirloom?) tomato thing with more tomato stuff inside... (fuzziness kicking in) ... it was just very sweet, refreshing and extremely tomatoey in flavour.
Another amuse bouche was some sweet corn thing. It looks like the end of the corn cob (the bit that you don't usually eat) but it was crazily corn-tasting, crunchy and kind of refreshingly sweet.
There were also frozen grapes. The outside of these were really icey
cold and as you bite into it, it's kinda like a super sweet and
refreshing grape sorbet. Not bad.
Another amuse bouche was this purple sweet potato chip. It came on a sweet potato and was wafer thin yet came with that normal (sickly) sugary sweet potato taste (yes - I'm not a big fan of sweet potato).
Last amuse bouche was this fish thing with thinly sliced pumpkin. All I remember was that the fish was really good - smooth, silky and flavoursome. Can't really tell you much more than that :)
After all the amuse bouches, the real stuff came out. We had decided on
getting the 7 course tasting menu. There's two options for each course,
which is perfect - as it meant we could order all the options between
the two of us. Hubby also got the matching wines, resulting in our side
table being swamped with really fine crystal glasses, all of different
shapes and sizes.
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| wine glasses |
Most restaurants tend to offer complimentary bread. Maybe 2, maybe 3 different types? At Steirereck, you get a whole
cart full of breads to choose from. The bread sommelier was pretty awesome and remembered EVERY SINGLE type of bread one the cart.
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| bread cart |
From the crazy big selection of bread, Hubby opted for sourdough, cheesey bread, bread with olives and... some other one. I chose the double sourdough (and yes, it did taste different from the sourdough), bread with bacon bits, and pretzel. This pretzel was crunchy on the outside but really really really soft on the inside. Best pretzel I've had to date (better than the German giant pretzels).
The butter that accompanied the bread likewise caused a "ZOMG" feeling. There were perfect sour cream butter lines (absolutely perfectly strait) which covered the square disk, with some shaved parsley butter flakes and some mustard/sesame seed things? I'm not sure, but this is pretty amazing butter :)
When the food starts, it's like an absolute explosion for
my taste-buds and my brain. There's so many complex flavours, textures
and processes in each course, it was absolutely crazy! Luckily, every single dish comes with it's individual menu card, detailing all the ingredients (and the origins of the ingredients) of everything on your plate. It is crazily overwhelming for our vacation brains~
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| Porcini with yellow pepper and lettuce |
First off, there was a porcini with yellow pepper and lettuce. The porcini was sauteed with brown butter, porcini marinated with basil, lemon and parsley, as well as marinated raw porcini. To accompany all this porcini was celeriac yoghurt, marinated celery, lettuce hearts in yellow pepper juice, and yellow pepper emulsion. Topping all this was super thin walnut crisps.
My first course was a 'Schwarzauer' mountain trout with melon, cucumber and borage. The orangey mountain trout was seasoned with line salt and tasted really fresh and subtly sweet. There was steamed as well as raw honeydew melon on one side of it. Steamed honeydew was a bit weird and odd... but quite sweet nonetheless. On the other side of the trout was cucumber pickled with verjus, ginger ale and white balsamic vinegar. Lettuce paste with basil oil, acacia honey and cayenne pepper made up the black inky sauce (I think) and there were bits and pieces of fermented mung bean sprouts and marinated borage.
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| "Schwarzauer" mountain trout with melon, cucumber and borage |
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| Golden and Chioggia beets with shiso, hazelnuts and French sorrel |
Second courses... hubby had the golden and chioggia beets with shiso, hazelnuts and french sorrel. I believe this was a good dish. The puff pastry was hazelnutty and puffy and light and was filled with herbs.
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| Marrow with sweet potato, tomato, almonds and lavender |
My second course was the marrow with sweet potato, tomato, almonds and lavender. There were two types - grated marrow with Scottish lovage, pepperocini and toasted almonds, and marrow marinated with lavender, acacia honey, mustard seeds and lemon juice. The little packages felt like it held a million tastes! The almonds were also unique. They were really young green almonds which was unripe, more juicy, less crunchy and kind of jelly-like ish. Wierd ish.
Next up was the pan-fried Reinake with baby artichokes and Jerusalem artichoke flowers. The artichoke was really yummy. The pan-fried reinake was cooked to perfection and had a really nice flavour and texture. There were also roasted and ground macadamia nuts to top it all off.
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| Pan-fried Reinanke with baby artichokes and Jerusalem artichoke flowers |
My fish was the Danube salmon, which was marinated with balam vinegar,chilli and carrot juice. Again, cooked to perfection with amazing texture :) Accompanying the fish was steamed broccoli (cooked with camomile tea and brown butter) as well as lumps of broccoli (sauteed with nasturtium root, horseradish and camomile). Crunchy black rice was sprinkled on top.
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| Danube salmon with broccoli, black rice and camomile |
Like all the dishes thus far, the veal was another plateful of flavours and textures. The veal's tongue was braised with beer, whisky, salted plums and rhubarb. Really tender. Steamed pak choi, potato beignets, nasturtium flowes, mint, maca herb, and preserved green rhubarb also featured.
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| Braised Veal's tongue with rhubarb, salted plums and nasturtium |
I had possibly the best bone marrow I've had to date. Really really awesomely smooth and really really tasty marrow. Sooooo good. Came with steamed young tree spinach, spinach and potato gnocchi poached in buttermilk, baby white radishes marinated with balsam vinegar and beechnut oil, tree spinach tips, verjus and brown butter sauce, marinated tree spinach and golden brown super thin potato tuille. Yes - brain explosion!
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| Tree spinach with baby white radish and bone marrow |
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| Venison with Sweetcorn, chanterelles and apricots |
Hubby's main for the night was the venison. The venison loin was wrapped with orache. Next to the super tender slab of meat was an impressive sweetcorn biscuit, sauteed chanterelles and sweetcorn. The little green herby things are chickweed and chickweed oil was splayed throughout the dish. There were also some preserved apricots, fermented black bean and apricot puree throughout.
I picked the roast and braised guineafowl as my main. There was a crisp sesame and linseed slice with the crispy guineafowl skin. As you may see, there were slices of summer truffle and marinated watercress next to the protein. The less visible elements were the broad beans, long beans and fine beans, sauteed oyster mushrooms, 'crystal apple' cucumber (cucumber originally from New Zealand), and sweet-sour pickled pearl onions. The sauce was also really yummy - guineafowl jus with wholegrain mustard and tarragon oil.
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| roast and braised guineafowl with mustard, beans and summer truffle |
I chose to have a cheese plate rather than two desserts. BUT... it wasn't just some cheese plate that came over. A whole cart full of cheese rolled over to our table - a cheese cart of TWO levels. Over 100 different cheeses! ZOMG~ No - I don't remember all the cheese on this cart. By this time, my brain was over-worked to such a state that I don't even remember the cheeses that I chose on my plate. All I remember is that one was a Camembert from somewhere and all the cheese were absolutely spectacularly deliciousness!!! :)
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| cheese cart |
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| cheese plate |
Hubby definitely should have chosen cheese too. This is probably the only fail dish of the night - the iced Pericon with medlar, bee balm, cucumber and blue gin. It was icey cold and quite alcoholy. This didn't sit too well with either of us - particularly hubby who was already pretty drunk by this time :)
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| Ice Pericon with Medlar, Bee Balm, Cucumber & Blue Gin |
Hubby's last dessert was the pandan cake with raspberries, white chocolate and coconut sorbet. Hubby really liked this. The pandan cake was really soft and springy. The raspberries weren't normal berries - they were raspberries filled with jellied fermented raspberry juice. The pandan ice-cream and the white chocolate and coconut sorbet were both gorgeously YUM. There were also ice-crystal leaves - ones marinated with raspberry juice and raspberry vinegar, and ones marinated with raspberry vinegar and stevia. It was not a bad dessert.
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| Raspberries with Pandan Cake, White Chocolate and Coconut Sorbet |
My dessert was even better! The warm 'trinitario' chocolate was amazing! Really smooth chocolate cream with amazing shortcrust tart bottoms. Coconut macaroon rectangles which are actually indescribably good Delicious pineapple sorbet and slightly less awesome pineapple salad. All up, this dish was superb! I wish I could eat it like every day!
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| Warm "rinitario" chocolate with pineapple-pericon sorbet & coconut macaroons |
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| Petit Fours 'Jewellery' |
Things had been extravagant at this dinner. Petit-fours were no exception. Instead of traditional petit fours, we were presented with a trolley of jelly and chocolate "jewellery" - rings, earrings, necklaces as well as gold nuggets. I have to say, I'm not much of a jelly/lolly person (I much prefer chocolate) so to me, these looked more awesome (and more playful) than it tasted. Definitely had the 'wow' factor though! :)
I have to say, Steirereck blew my mind away. All the dishes were amazingly complex and frankly speaking - kind of crazy. Exceptional food and great service. One of those 'once in a lifetime' experiences I think.
Ratings:
Food - 9/10
Service - 8/10
Ambiance - 9/10
Value for money - 8/10
Overall - 34/40
Steirereck im Stadtpark
Am Heumarkt 2A in Stadtpark
Vienna
Tel: +43 1713 3168
web: www.steirereck.at
