Rondell – Café am Cobenzl

Review

Only Cary Grant is missing

The history of the Cobenzl is as long as it is confusing. There is a monastery vineyard, a sophisticated castle and park where Mozart stayed, an inventor and conjurer of diffuse "Od" life forces, an anti-aircraft battery, a refugee home and finally Hübner's Panorama Café in the 1950s.
However, because the café and restaurant were already pretty grotty, the town hall wanted the then tenant out, he wanted to stay, in 2017 he was evicted and demolished, in between there were a few pop-ups, future operators were introduced, then withdrew again. And in the end, there was once again the "Motto" powerhouse Bernd Schlacher. What sounds a bit like Herzmanovsky-Orlando has since last week turned out to be one of the most spectacular new restaurants in a year already rich in spectacular restaurants. And why? Because of its generous design. The Rondell am Cobenzl may look a bit like the previous kitschy place, but it has much more room height, the tables are generously placed, a raised round table in the middle, stylistically appropriate furniture at the panoramic windows, including fifties armchairs; an indirectly lit cake display case, stone floor, rubber trees, the surrounding terrace is a wet dream, a sparkling mid-century bar almost like a movie theater, grandeur grandiosa. Somehow you keep expecting David Niven, Claudia Cardinale, Peter Sellers and Capucine to come in and Fran Jeffries to sing "Meglio Stasera" ... I'm not quite sure whether I should be happy or sad that head chef Domenic Kreller is committed to modern rather than retro-inspired cuisine: autumn salad with pickled beetroot and black cabbage, braised beetroot with labneh and ginger-vanilla crumble - you can't really argue with that either.
The fried chanterelles, which were sturdily placed on the crispy sourdough baguette with cheese cream, were fine (€ 12.50), the two slices of fried organic black pudding came on slices of pickled celeriac, very good (€ 9.50). Rarely available, but delicious, was the braised "Fledermaus", a long-fibred, lean piece of beef rump topped with a kind of crispy beef gramme plus celeriac puree and chips (€ 18.50). If the staff also wore suits and the music was stylistically appropriate, it would be even better. But that would probably be too 50s for some people and they would end up thinking about banning abortion and abolishing gay marriage ... Summary: A new restaurant with a breathtaking view, great food and that part of the 50s that was really and undoubtedly great: the design.

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