Volksgarten Pavillon

Review

Nam Prak People

Photo: Heribert Corn The Volksgarten Pavilion has already been mentioned here a few times, yes. You've also read about Matthias Zykan here, which is hardly surprising, as the artist, DJ and chef cooked at the Palmenhaus for ten years, designed the pavilion's culinary concept and installed an iron, black smoker there seven years ago, bringing the BBQ theme to Vienna.
Last year, Zykan spent some time in Bangkok, this year again, went there without luggage and came back with the permitted 25 kilos - mainly colorful plastic plates like those used in Bangkok's street food stalls, various chilies and a wide variety of dried, fermented fish. This year, the rather Texan smoker has been put at the service of Thai street food (it was supposedly used last year too, but I didn't catch that, sorry), making it one of the most attractive open-air dining options this summer. This is not least due to the fact that Zykan is not trying to copy Bangkok's street food, but to understand it. The decisive factor, he says, was the purchase of a really big mortar and pestle. The best example of this is a dark brown paste that he mortars from various fermented onions and fish, incredibly intense, which is served alongside marinated, pea-sized eggplants with the spicy Thai sausages from the charcoal grill (€10).
The special of the day, a tuna tartare, was probably also less about authenticity than an interpretation of the "Larp" theme, i.e. finely chopping everything, frying some of it and mixing it. The tartare with green coriander, roasted galangal, plenty of turmeric, onions and I don't know what else, was just so incredibly good (€ 19). The Thai burger is, of course, more of a concession to the Volksgarten as a party location, but the ribeye with sweet potato and corn on the cob, to be honest, the little jar of homemade chili-tamarind sauce is enough to spread that Thai feeling - a pretty successful Texas-Thai fusion on the one hand, and a fantastic steak on the other (€ 19.50).
We would also like to praise the delicious gai yaang, Thai chicken salad (€ 12.00), a wonderfully fresh, small Thai cucumber salad with ginger, onion and coriander (€ 3.80) and the charcoal-roasted oyster mushrooms with beet and Thai aromatics - you might want two of these (€ 6.80).
The idea is that you order it all together - quite authentically - and nibble on everything in a big group. Otherwise you'll have to come back several times, which is no mistake. Summary: The Texan BBQ smoker in the Volksgarten pavilion is smokin' Thai this year. Which suits the fabulous Heldenplatz location very well. Volksgarten Pavilion "Bangkok BBQ" 1st, Volksgarten Tel. 01/532 09 07 Mon-Sat 6pm-10pm

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