A shockingly bad experience that I would not have expected at any fine dining restaurant, let alone one with 3 Michelin stars. My wife and I came here looking for a grand conclusion to our trip to Vienna and were sorely disappointed. The food was mediocre and bland - only the amuse bouche, breads, and mignardises stood out. The cheese selection was good as well. The rest was completely forgettable. The service was absolutely amateurish. The entire dinner was a comedy of errors - I'll only mention the lowlights for brevity.
As soon as we were seated, we were surprised to find that there was no air conditioning in our section - it was a hot day and evening, about 85/29 degrees when we arrived. We try to keep an open mind and understand that the usage of AC is more limited in Europe, but after 30 minutes, I had to dash off to the bathroom and take off my undershirt in an effort to cool down - not something I should need to do at a restaurant of this level. However, we laughed it off, as long as the rest of the experience is good, we'll roll with it.
With no AC, the restaurant has the floor to ceiling windows open around the room, including right next to our table. The restaurant is in a park - what this means on a warm day like this is a constant stream of insects. There was almost no point in our meal that at least one bug wasn't on our table. Multiple ended up in our butter, I had to scoop them out - we made no stink about that. At the presentation of our second course, a bug landed on my food - the server had to stop the explanation abruptly and take the dish back to be remade (while leaving my wife's dish on the table, screwing up the timing for that course.) The situation peaked with the arrival of a massive wasp hovering at the ceiling. Imagine trying to enjoy your dainty sunflower course while constantly looking over your shoulder to see whether you're about to get stung. The staff did not attempt to do anything about the situation, and acted like the wasp wasn't even there despite multiple tables reacting to it. I had to let a server know. He dealt with it by bringing out a rolled up newspaper and attempting to swat it, causing us to have to get up from our table multiple times and stand awkwardly at the side of the dining room. After a few failed attempts, we sat back down, only to have another swatting attempt happen a minute later. This time he successfully knocked it down onto our table. We bolted again, as the wasp was still alive and angry now. At no point did anyone come over to apologize or offer us anything, we were ignored by all the passing staff. The wasp was finally caught and removed, and the head waiter pointed us to our table, with our half eaten food, as if to say "voila! you can resume eating" The whole thing felt absurd. They seemed completely unprepared for this situation despite the fact that they had their windows open on a warm day, with bright lights on.
At this point I asked to be moved to a different table, which they grudgingly did. There was no word of acknowledgement of the incident, they simply carried on service like nothing had happened. At just about any other low to mid level restaurant, a manager or head waiter would have at least given a word of apology, a comp round of wines, anything at all to try to salvage the experience - this is basic hospitality, but this 3-star restaurant could not be bothered. I explained to a server that we were not happy about this, and he simply said "I'm so sorry" and hurried off.
The service continued to be lackluster. My knife was dull and could not cut through the rib meat course. I asked a server for one with a serrated edge and she was confused by the request and told me that all their knives are the same, which was news to my wife, who was holding a serrated edge knife at the moment. We pointed this out, and the server inexplicably exchanged both of our knives for a pair of somewhat less dull but still not serrated knives. The time between the courses began to get longer as the staff started to avoid us (while fawning over the table next to us which was extremely complimentary to them and their service.) The 7 courses took nearly 4 hours - our reservation was at 8:30 and we left well after midnight.
At the very end, they brought us an extra (lackluster) dessert by way of apology, and I can't help but wonder why they would wait until the very end, instead of doing something to salvage the experience for us somehow at the outset. Outings to restaurants of this level and this cost should feel like they are special. You shouldn't have to sit for hours feeling like you've thrown away your €650 only to get a cursory acknowledgement at the end. We walked away feeling generally upset about the whole thing. Do not spend your money here. Vienna is a city with so many fantastic places to eat; this isn't one of them. read more