Vienna, Austria

Steirereck im StadtparkThe trolley stops at the table, twenty loaves on the board

The trolley comes to a halt, the waiter in white gloves steps back half a pace, and twenty-odd loaves sit crowded on the wooden board waiting for a finger to point.

The restaurant stands inside the Stadtpark, with the Wien river running alongside, so the way in goes between the park's trees.

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PlaceVienna, Austria

StyleLunch and dinner menus

KitchenHeinz Reitbauer

BreadUp to twenty-five kinds

Bread first, then the menu

Vienna, Austria — Contemporary Austrian cooking in a park.

The first paragraph on the official site states the position: tradition plus new technique, letting good ingredients speak for themselves. Four things carry it — rare herbs from the roof garden, citrus from the Schönbrunn glasshouses, old varieties of vegetable that local people have mostly stopped growing, and whatever the Pogusch farm sends in season. Those four decide what appears on the menu, and they explain why the same dish changes shape when the season turns.

The bread trolley opens the meal. Twenty-odd kinds at lunch, up to twenty-five at dinner. Four are baked in house: blood sausage bread, a large lye pretzel, a gluten-free potato loaf and a lavender white bread, the lavender growing on the roof. The rest come from seven bakeries in and around Vienna.

The room sits in the Stadtpark and the trees are what the windows look into. Lunch opens at 11:30 and dinner at 18:30, Monday to Friday only. Birgit and Heinz Reitbauer are the two names on the homepage.

A black-and-white photograph of a chef in glasses leaning over the stove in a black apron embroidered with the word STEIRERECK, two chefs in tall white hats behind him, a stainless steel counter and a steaming pan in the foreground — Three cooks at the stove, in black and white

A round table by the window laid with a white cloth, a waitress in a black dress leaning in to set a plate, a seated guest in a dark suit looking down, a glass water bottle, two wine glasses and a small white vase of pale purple flowers on the table — A round table by the window, laid for lunch

A shallow wooden crate on wet soil holding white aubergines, one round aubergine striped purple and white, purple-skinned radishes, a metal tray of podded broad beans and a few green tomatoes, with red-handled secateurs resting in the corner

Purple and white in a wooden crate

The crate carries a single layer: three or four white aubergines, one round aubergine striped purple and white, a few purple-skinned radishes, a metal tray of podded broad beans and several green tomatoes still in their papery husks. A pair of red-handled secateurs lies in the corner.

Inside a glasshouse, a narrow soil path running to the far end with vegetables waist high on both sides, broad leaves on the right and vines climbing strings on the left, the tips of the leaves turning yellow

One soil path through the glasshouse

A narrow earth path runs the length of the glasshouse to the far wall. On both sides the vegetables stand waist high, leaf pressed against leaf, the vines on the left climbing strings, the tips of the leaves turning yellow.

In the evening, rows of white plastic polytunnels in a field, a sheet of black plastic spread flat and weighted on the grass, cloud hanging low and a thin line of warm light in the distance

Poles and cloud

In the evening the polytunnels stand in rows, white plastic throwing back the last of the light. A sheet of black plastic is spread flat on the grass and weighted down, and the cloud sits low over the field.

A black-and-white photograph of a man and a woman inside a glasshouse looking up at vines hanging from above, the woman reaching for them with one hand and holding a small square wooden box in the other

Route

Out through the park afterwards

Lunch at 11:30 leaves the afternoon long enough to walk on into the old town. Dinner from 18:30 ends late, so nothing early the next morning. U3 and U4 both stop within walking distance, and the park is a loop of its own.

A room that curves

The dining room runs in a curve, and pale wooden battens climb from the floor to the ceiling along the whole wall, following it round. White curtains fall to a terrazzo floor. The tables are round and laid with white cloth, and beside each one stands a smaller round table, half the height, holding the water bottle and the glasses.

The windows are large and the park is directly outside them, so light comes in through leaves and lands on the white cloth, on the glassware, and on the wooden board of the bread trolley as it comes past. Nothing on the table is under a lamp at midday.

Bread before the menu

There are two menus, one for lunch and one for dinner, and the entries change with the season. The technique is new; the base stays local, with the roof herbs, the glasshouse citrus, the old vegetable varieties and the farm's produce moving through the kitchen a season at a time.

Before the first course comes the bread. Andreas Djordjevic, who runs the trolley, has a habit of scoring three small crosses into the underside of a dark loaf with the tip of the knife before cutting it, a rule he took from his grandmother. Which bread arrives is decided by the guest, and his part is to hand over the knife.

Also worth knowing

When it opens, how to book, and where to leave the car.

Monday to Friday

Lunch opens at 11:30 with the last reservation at 12:45. Dinner opens at 18:30 with the last reservation at 21:00. The restaurant closes on public holidays.

Six or more

Larger parties do not go through the online form. The reservations team answers the telephone Monday to Friday between 8:00 and 18:00, public holidays excepted.

By underground

U3 to Wien Mitte or Stubentor, U4 to Stadtpark. From any of them it is a short walk into the park and across to the door.

By car

Am Heumarkt has short-stay parking, and there are garages at the Hotel Intercont and the Hotel Hilton nearby. Cars can pull up at the entrance to set people down.

With children

Children from the age of six are admitted to the dining room. Anything about younger ones is left open on the official site and worth asking about directly.

Address and telephone

Am Heumarkt 2a im Stadtpark, A-1030 Wien. The telephone number is +43 1 713 31 68.

Putting a meal here into a trip

Two services, five days a week, one trolley that decides how the meal begins.

Cuisine

Austrian cooking, with one menu at lunch and a separate one at dinner. The dishes change with the season.

Booking

Online through the official site. Parties of six or more go by telephone to the reservations team.

Hours

Monday to Friday only, lunch from 11:30 and dinner from 18:30. Closed on public holidays.

Dress and diet

No dress code is listed on the official site. The kitchen works from the roof, the glasshouses and the farm, so say what you cannot eat when booking.

Plan this into a journey

Tell us the dates and who is travelling, and we can talk through whether a Vienna lunch or dinner fits the days around it.

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