Cucina Ballerini

Review

Surprise al Tonno

A small restaurant in the rather shabby district of Hernals. According to the website, it is open at lunchtime, but this is a mistake and unfortunately he has no idea how to correct it, says Riccardo Ballerini. In English and Italian, he hardly speaks any German. And yes, it is true about the opening hours until two or four o'clock in the morning, because his sister-in-law runs a pub a few doors down, and when that closes late at night, he might be able to serve a few drunks, says Ballerini. His pub is loud and not particularly pretty, and the billing computer doesn't work.
Doesn't sound too appealing now, does it? But it is. Because Riccardo Ballerini has been serving Sicilian cuisine in the former chocherl on Bezirkshauptstraße for a few weeks now, the likes of which you won't find anywhere else in Vienna - and Sicilian cuisine can be pretty great, I might add.
Ballerini was already many things in his former life, ran a kind of private dinner pop-up with his brother in his garden near Trapani for a while, then did something similar in Vienna and worked for an Italian delicatessen importer in recent years.
The menu at his Cucina Ballerini is small: a few antipasti, a few pasta dishes, a few salads, a few main courses, plus a daily menu that depends on what's freshly arrived from Sicily or what Riccardo finds at the Brunnenmarkt.
However, the main role is clearly played by tuna, which is available raw, fried, smoked or as bottarga (salted, dried, pressed roe), or pesce espada, the swordfish.
The "Sea Lion Dish" starter variation includes all the antipasti highlights, such as polpo salad with mussels (delicious!), a terrific caponata, two polpette (meatballs) made from swordfish neck with tomato sauce, two bruschette, a bowl of braised swordfish with capers and caramelized onions (oida!) and a bowl of tonno tartare made from artichoke cream with pomegranate seeds.
It's all extremely good and afterwards you're quite full (€ 30 for 2 people). Pasta is still a must, for example spaghetti with tuna bottarga and cherry tomatoes, great (€ 12) and then there's the seared tuna - a special dark, thin muscle strand - on sea asparagus with an extremely good fennel, orange and olive salad. There was definitely no more room for it, but before the valuable tonno goes into the garbage can, it's better to eat it (€ 18).
Summary:
You don't really expect it here, and suddenly you get the best Sicilian cuisine with a focus on tuna in a tschocherl.

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