Madai

Review

That is bitter

The Trattoria Triestina on Ludwig-Hirsch-Platz was really great. The location with this wonderfully quiet little square right next to the Karmelitermarkt, the small menu with authentic Trieste cuisine and a great wine from the Posip grape variety - I drank there for the first time. The problem: you never got a seat. On the one hand, because authentic Trieste cuisine has many friends in Vienna who quickly became regulars here; on the other hand, because the opening hours were - well - a bit of a matter of luck and the regulars obviously had the better connection. I managed it at least once, but I also know people who gave up. Now it has been taken over by three people who leave pretty much nothing to luck, because they are absolute professionals: Marion Baumgartner and Philipp Agostini worked for a long time in the management of Motto Event Catering, Sebastian Schot actually came to Vienna as a sound engineer, but then turned his passion for cooking into a profession here, worked for Reinhard Gerer at Bisamberg and ended up running the kitchen at Motto Catering for six years. And because the first two come from South Tyrol, Schot from Berlin, and they all love Viennese food culture just as much as Italian, the basic culinary theme of their Madai was - in Italian roughly "really?", "really now?" - "From Rome to Vienna". - "From Rome to Vienna." Which is great in itself, but Schot also makes an insane amount of food himself, the pasta for lunch, for example, or the grilled vegetables for the antipasti, because it's really no effort at all, says the Berliner. And it's great: there are a few different small dishes every week, the Madais dream that people will just come and get whatever is available, but we won't be that Italian for much longer. And because that's part and parcel of an aperitivo bar, there are some wonderful amari and bitters on the menu: 16 different ones, from the well-known to the more exotic ones like Braulio, Montenegro and Zucca Rhabarbo to the really rare ones like the dry as dust Amaro Dell'Erborista.
Last week we had a rather fine zucchini salad with pine nuts and bright orange sweet potato and peach cream (€ 5.80), a piece of corn-fed chicken breast with extra-crispy skin, white beans and roasted tomatoes (€ 8.40), and the braised pork cheek with a mighty sauce, white polenta and grilled fennel slices was a real delight (€ 7.90). And on Saturdays, by the way, they serve porchetta - the terrific pork belly stuffed, rolled and fried with rosemary - homemade and sliced warm into fresh panino ... See you on Saturday! Summary: One of the most charming restaurants in the second district is getting a new lease of life. With amari, small dishes and homemade porchetta. Madai, 2nd, Große Sperlgasse 6, Tel. 01/890 17 46, Mon-Fri 11-23, Sat 9-23,

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