Rinderwahn

Review

Emergency measure: Burger

Photo: Katharina Gossow The concept with which the Huth family opened the Gasthaus zum Stadtkrug in early 2014 seemed ideal: the discreetly renovated ancient vault with the atmospheric lambris, which had already been used for the most absurd gastronomic experiments in the past 25 years, was finally run as a genuine, good city restaurant where you could get first-class schnitzel, good boiled beef, a fried chicken marinated in buttermilk, great goulash and homemade Leberkäse. You would think that the restaurant around the corner from Kärntner Straße would be as successful as the Brasserie Lipp on Boulevard Saint-Germain in Paris.
But it wasn't. The Kärntner Straße clientele has changed dramatically, we are told, and nowadays only 20 euros are spent on a meal, so home-style refinement was the wrong choice (it's surprising that the Weiße Rauchfangkehrer diagonally opposite, one of the most expensive restaurants in the city, is still full, but please). Which is why the Huth family decided to turn the venerable Stadtkrug into a burger restaurant with the dubious name of Rinderwahn. Yes, burgers - the same thing that everyone has been doing for three years anyway. They studied concepts and consulted an advertising agency, and the result is surprisingly similar to the "Said the butcher to the cow" on Opernring: a variety of burgers, craft beer, gin and tonic, salads, cheesecake, white tiles with a butcher's look on the wall and these snappy slogans.
"Cattle eat grass: fully vegetarian", "What the farmer knows, he eats", "I want a beef from you", "Once upon a time there was a beef. And off". With all due respect for the good things the Huth family has already done in Vienna, but slogans like that make my skin crawl. Vienna's gastronomy doesn't deserve slogans like that, but whatever the case, since the burger concept was introduced, the place has been going like hotcakes, they say, with 400 burgers a day and every table occupied more than four times. The bacon burger "Bacon Charlie" wasn't bad, the 250g meat patty was on the neutral side, but very juicy, the fries with a "homemade" look and far too soft in the American style (€ 13.80), "Crazy chicken" with grilled Cajun chicken fillet without any particular flavoring was also juicy thanks to avocado, grilled onion and plenty of pickles (€ 12.80), the salad alias "rabbit food" (hahaha, I'm breaking off ...!), the classic chopped mix, which comes with various toppings, such as grilled goat's cheese slices with onions and peppers (€ 10.80). Not bad at all, everything is so mercilessly mainstream that success seems almost inevitable. Too bad about the goulash and the fried chicken marinated in buttermilk. Summary: No, it's not over yet, the next wave of burger restaurants is coming. Here, for example, in the good old Stadtkrug, and it still works. Rinderwahn 1, Weihburgg. 3 Tel. 01/512 09 96 Mon-Sat 11.30-24 h

More in American
Food & Drink in Vienna