Sperling im Augarten

Review

By the baroque sea

Kastanienallee, a lucid baroque palace in the middle of a 52-hectare park. An insanely great location, and normally such places in Austria are home to training centers, meeting rooms for bank managers or something else inaccessible. Not here in the Porzellanmanufaktur in the middle of the Augarten. There has been a restaurant here for nine years, but it has never really done so well. There may be many reasons for this: too much investment by the first operator, too little communication by the second, perhaps also because people in Vienna believe that there is certainly a training center inside. Since last Friday, however, two men have been at work here who have experience with difficult museum locations as well as in dealing with difficult museum administrations: Andreas Sael and Aurelio Nitsche run the café in the Lower Belvedere, the restaurant in the Upper Belvedere and even once had a guest appearance at the Mumok, in addition to their Sievering restaurant Hill. "We can do a lot, but we're bad at coming up with names," says Nitsche, which is why they not only had the somewhat staid design adapted by outfitter Derenko, but also the bird name - Joseph II supposedly released sparrows here. The two-month break gave them time to think, says Sael, and for the conviction to finally cook exactly as they always wanted to: small portions, can be combined as desired, the best ingredients, few conventions, good taste as the only requirement.
In this respect, the vegetable dishes are also the most exciting element on the menu, with items such as vanilla white cabbage (€ 3.50), sugar carrots with tahini and almonds (€ 7.90), langos with tomatoes (€ 5.20) or braised eggplant with garlic and rosemary (€ 4.50). If you want everything, you absolutely have to try the beet, which Nitsche first boils, then cooks in the oven and then combines with a reduced beetroot sauce and sour cream - just as good as red (€ 11). Or the sautéed oyster mushrooms from Hut & Stiel from Vienna with braised, sweet borettane onions - it's meant for sharing, but you'd hate to give it away, I'm just saying (€ 7.30). The meat menu is small and good, adventures and risks are avoided here, but what's on offer is prepared beautifully. The pork belly is cooked sous-vide for around five hours and then properly grilled - soft as a spoon on the bottom, crouton-crispy on top. And no pointless side dish, bravo (€ 12.50)! A take-away program with ice cream, smoothies and snacks for park picnickers is being considered, but won't be available until next year. It's good that you can eat out again. To sum up: a dramatically great location, which hasn't necessarily been an advantage so far. The design is conventional, the food all the better. Sperling 2, Obere Augartenstr. 1, Tel. 01/997 72 66, Mon-Sat 9-22, Sun 9-18,

More in Restaurants, Taverns, Inns
Food & Drink in Vienna