Ebi 7

Review

I'll make you iPad, shrimp

Photo: Heribert Corn It was clear anyway that the new Mariahilfer Strasse would not be teeming with individual start-up eateries offering experimental gumbos, French brasserie dishes and other minority culinary delights. Dots, Freiraum, Akakiko and the Brandauer beer bar appeal to a very broad public, and the burger, donut and pizza outlets are doing very well. Four weeks ago, a restaurant opened above a Mahü drugstore that is also committed to the greatest gastronomic hits of the 1980s and 1990s. Ebi - Japanese for prawn - started with this concept six years ago in Leopoldauer Straße, where it runs a huge restaurant with a buffet and Buddha figure, and which should work so well that the move into the city center seemed plausible. In Mariahilfer Straße, too, they tend to play the big card, Ebi 7 seems almost endless, a large area along the window front, largely black with natural wood tables and pseudo-Eames armchairs, an open kitchen area the size of a fitness studio, then another restaurant area. Plus Alexandra Stan & Inna, feat. Daddy Yankee, yes, loud, and around 120 excited guests watching "The Big Bang Theory" generation on a weekday evening. Wow, it really seems to work here. You are asked whether you know what "all you can eat" means anyway (namely that you have to pay two basic prices of €18.95 each for two people, and not just one, which is often misunderstood ...), there is a tablet computer at the table where you place your orders according to a system that is easy to understand, twelve at a time.
And two minutes later the duck in spicy soy sauce arrives, it looks different from the photo, tastes like something from the all-you-can-eat buffet, sweet, spicy and dry; then two xiao bing dumplings with minced meat and wild garlic, okay, the gyoza with pork filling are also reasonably okay for being frozen. The tofu is smothered in garlic sauce, the doughy sesame prawns are not worth it, the wakame seaweed salad is overcooked and the half lobster is unfortunately a completely dry, tasteless affair, not worth the €5.50 surcharge. Salmon sashimi is a good standard, the shogun roll with duck, spring onions and teriyaki too sweet, tempura roll also sweet, but at least filled to a crisp, ebi roll with prawns and salad okay. You'll be full, yes. And you feel like you're in an airport restaurant somewhere in the world. It's not nothing. Summary: The latest version of all-you-can-eat - looks like a real restaurant, serves like a restaurant, but tastes like a buffet. Ebi 7 7., Mariahilfer Str. 112 Tel. 01/522 10 18 www.ebi-vienna.at

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