360° Ocean Sky

Review

I look at the top of your head

Architecture critics are outraged by the new addition to the Haus des Meeres; cultural workers are shocked that Lawrence Weiner's highly visible memorial against war and fascism from 1991 at the top of the former flak tower has simply been removed; city planners are irritated by the fact that the new, glass façade design defies all heritage protection. You walk through the park construction site in front of the Haus des Meeres. The elevator shoots up above Mariahilf, and just when you think it should be at the top by now, it shoots up even higher. Then you get out and I have to admit, at that moment you no longer have the arguments of the architecture critics, the creative artists and the city planners in your head. It's insanely great. Everything is close, Vienna is completely manageable, you seem to be floating in the middle of and high above Vienna, eye to eye with the swifts, who are testing their aerodynamic limits in exuberant maneuvers, just below the clouds. The sun then sets at half past eight, a great spectacle ... The Haus des Meeres already had a café called Ocean Sky on the roof before, it opened in 2013, practising both culinary and visual irrelevance, people were there for the terrace. The current 360° Ocean Sky is more on the gas - it's big, uses a charmless but at least modern hotel restaurant design with wooden floors, leather diner benches, bucket chairs and funny, indirectly lit fish on the wall that make it impossible (reflection) to look out of the panoramic windows after sunset. Which is a bit of a bummer, but there is also a covered outdoor area. What do you cook in an Ocean Sky on the roof of the House of the Sea? Seafood, mussels, seaweed, delicious sardines, fine dishes with dashi, tender dishes with bonito flakes, spicy dishes with fish sauce? No. There is Instagram-worthy creative cuisine that remains in the background in terms of taste: Carpaccio of eggplant, a plate with unseasoned slices of eggplant, fried mushrooms, lots of berries and garlic ash, looks great in the photo (€ 12.50), a beef tartare decorated with lots of leaves, raw quail egg yolk, pistachios and garlic ash again, but tasted like relatively little (€ 16.00). Or confit catfish from a Viennese farm in a bath of indifferent vegetable foam, supposedly fennel, and neutral baby vegetables (€ 25). Maybe you have to season a little more strongly this high up, like on an airplane. In any case, the view is something to remember. Summary: The Haus des Meeres has a new restaurant on top. From here you have a great view and can't see the Haus des Meeres. 360° Ocean Sky, 6th, Fritz-Grünbaum-Platz 1, tel. 01/587 14 17-45, daily 9am-2pm,

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