Plain Vienna

Review

It's slowly becoming insta

Photo: Heribert Corn Decisions about where we go to eat are influenced by a conglomerate of vegetative, social and cultural aspects, the aim of which is to satisfy hunger and thirst on the one hand, to achieve pleasure through good taste on the other and, of course, to be in places that serve social affirmation. Of course, over time, the individual aspects took on a different weight, taste soon outweighed hunger, the social factor overrode taste at some point ... And then suddenly there was Instagram. And suddenly food and drink took on a completely new role, a more or less abstract one, serving only very incidentally to satisfy hunger and thirst, individual tastes that were difficult to put into words were replaced by categories such as #yummy and #superdelicious, the social factor by euphoric collectivism. This led to a dramatic standardization of the previously Babylonian variety of gastronomy, Instagram disciples first ate/photographed #smoothies, then #avotoast and more recently #bowls. And sure, this may all sound like the culturally pessimistic whining of an old fart, but the fact that the popularity of a dish is now calculated by how well it can be displayed on a smartphone screen, how many hashtags you can attach to it and how many mentions it has on Instagram is just a bit depressing. Incidentally, #bowl has 2.65 million. A month ago, footballer Rubin Okotje and his wife, nutritionist Vanessa Okotje, opened a restaurant that meets all the hashtag requirements: large murals, tiled, open kitchen, chalkboard, breakfast, porridge, bagels and bowls. It's all there. And of course #sustainable, organic products from regional sources (such as avocado, salmon, lemon, pomegranate and rice), the great togetherness feeling of happy world improvement. And even if it's not that important, the food didn't taste too bad. Hummus with a bit of chili and coriander was a bit monotonous, but okay (€ 6.50), the "wild and meadow herb salad" never looked like a meadow, but was a well-assorted salad with a bit of a marinade, the smoked salmon went well with it (€ 9.-), the bowl with soft-boiled sushi rice, kaffir lime, cucumber, carrot, mango and a few pieces of chicken was pretty to look at and easy to eat (€ 9.80). The price of the two poached eggs on bread with baby spinach and hollandaise was perhaps a little cheeky (€9). Of course, I immediately took a few nice photos with my cell phone, which was made in China at low prices, and posted them on the international data octopus. #savetheworld Summary: A pretty new restaurant that meets all the requirements to be shared on social networks very often. Plain Vienna 9th, Bergg. 25, 01/310 29 62, Mon-Sat 10am-10pm,

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