beetrock

Kantine M 101
Mariahilferstrasse 101
1060 Vienna
Map

Even after our successful battle with the striking Hungarian railways and arriving to Vienna by Eruolines bus, failures awaited us. Our attempts to follow the footsteps of every Vienna Lonely Planet reader proved futile when starved, we arrived at a very closed Zum Alten Fassl. Supposedly a home to the best schnitzel in Vienna, the restaurant was possibly on a winter or vacation schedule. Traumatized and still hungry we wondered a couple of blocks up Margareten Strasse and stopped at a restaurant promising us bohemian and old beisl delights. As a miracle would have it, the place also offered the delicious dark Kozel beer that I hadn’t seen anywhere since departing Prague this summer. N had her much desired schnitzel, curiously fried into a coating of shredded potatoes and looking strangely like the potato pancakes that I make at home. I had a fish dish, that was semi good and semi healthy, but what made the food consumption experience ever so pleasant for me was the generous serving of lightly pickled cabbage.

At night, following the Lonely Planet again, we arrived at a not yet open Elektro Gonner. Our urge for beer brought us to the Gonner’s less pretentious neighbor – Kantine M 101. There, I got an opportunity to shine in my broken German and ask the waitress if the dish we picked as an appetizer was meatless. The short answer, and the part that I most clearly understood, was yes and we ended up eating delicious bread covered with melted brie, dipping the pieces into gooseberry jam. Overall, yay to off the beaten path Viennese food, but man, all those miles I’ve been running around Pest had to be doubled in order to conduct damage control on the flab.