Timon Jakli

After a busy day last week I had a Tuesday evening free (yay!). So driven by boredom and appetite I dropped by a place I’ve wanted to go for a long time, the Restaurant Vincent which has received a lot of praise from critics lately. There was no big risk involved, since it is round the corner of my flat…

First impression: The interior is rather weird, everything kind of dark with colorful paintings. This evening it was quite empty, I had the room alone with a couple (watched them flirting all evening, hehe).

Restaurant Vincent Interior

The service was good, especially the maître/sommelier Mario Raaber made a great effort to ensure I have a good time, giving a lot of Information on the products and being friendly in a nice Viennese style….

The covert was salted butter (ok) and bread (ok).

The covert

While studying the menu, I quickly realised the most awkward thing about this place: The music! Whoever chooses the music must be a great musical lover. So all evening I heard a rather loud selection of musicals and classical music in musical style. Starting with “Don’t cry for me Argentina” going over to “Time to say goodbye” and ending with “O Fortuna”. Whatever.
I went for the young gourmet’s menu – a real value for money choice: For guests up to 29 years, they offer 4 courses for 29 €. (In this special case he offered me something in between the normal evening menu and the young gourmet’s menu for a slight surcharge.) Additionally I took a wine accompaniment.

So to start with the amuse gueule:

Pumpkin leaves stuffed with dried fruit on pumpkin chutney

A lot of pumpkin, but a very fresh and fruity start into the evening!

Parfait of goose liver with pistachios and kumquat

This course had a LOT of goose liver (please, no ethical discussion here…). The pistacchio was nice, but together with the sweetness of the liver a little bit too much. The idea to counter it with the sourness of kumquats was good, for me there could have been more of them though.

Waxy yolk on cream of cauliflower, with baked and raw cauliflower and char caviar

A LOT of cauliflower here. I’m no particular fan of cauliflower, but this dish was thrilling. The waxy egg was shere perfection and it was interesting to explore the different tastes and textures of raw/baked/steamed/creamed cauliflower. Wouldn’t have needed the char caviar though (the eggs had an unusual hard shell), but it gave a nice touch.

Veal (low-temp-cooked and stewed) with smoked polenta and celeriac

Main course!!! The veal was – oh my god – perfect. Especially the low-temp-cooked one was incredibly tender. The stewed part had mustard seeds and a very dark, dense sauce that was nice with the smoked polenta.

Blackberry mousse with beetroot ragout

The pre-dessert (interesting concept!) was a bit weird but fun: Sweet and sour and fruity and vegetal at the same time.

Winter landscape: Frozen nougat with nutmeg ice-cream, sesame-foam and fir-foam

The actual dessert was nice, though I didn’t like the sesame foam (seemed to be a little bit burnt). Best thing was the fir-foam, actually tasting like the tree which was a beautiful sensation.

After all, I spent a very nice evening with nice food and very good wines (the maître mister Raaber brought out real pearls!). In the end I payed 60 Euros, a very good deal for that kind of high-end dinner – so go there, have fun!

Being in India, we read of this famous restaurant Bhukara. Bill Clinton (knowing a great deal about oral pleasures) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (a fellow Austrian so to say) were also there – so why not go there for our last day in India. So be it. Reservation via telephone was nice and comfortable, also on short-term.

First of all, Bhukara is a hotel-restaurant. So you have to go to ITC Maurya, a luxurious hotel in the diplomatic district of Delhi. Kind of strange taking a tuktuk there, but anyways. I admit, I don’t like big hotels and the atmosphere is rather strange – playing posh with a bunch of Indiana Jones lookalikes running over the place. Whatever.

The restaurant looks nice, though the seats are not made to keep you there for hours. The personal is helpful, our wish to change table was not taken the wrong way…

The stone age look is kind of fun, the open kitchen seems to be state of the art. I loved watching the nan-guy preparing a super-naan, that is unbelievable huge and costs 1300 INR, serving 6 persons at least with a diameter of approx 60cm!

The service was fairly ok, though I’ve seen better service (more attentive at least) in this price class. They offered fresh water to drink and a warm towel to clean the Delhi-dirt off your hands and face. The cover consisted of Papadum and some kind of chili-sauce…

Bhukara is definetely a meat place – they have vegetarian dishes, but nobody seems to order them. The meat is amazing – one of the best grilled meats ever. Very tasty, grilled to the point and marinated super-perfect, makes you lick your fingers to savor the taste as long as possible. You eat with your hands (there the giant napkin, that is acutally an apron, comes in handy), no side dishes – just meat and bread. Like the concept

So we took tandoori chicken and peshawri kabab (pieces of lamb leg):

As you see, the portions where quite huge
The Desert (rice pudding with cardamon) was beautiful – driven by greed, I forgot to take a picture…

The prices for food were OK, the prices for drinks insane (15 Euros for a glass of average Australian red wine !!). We finally paid 3000 INR (approx. 50 Euros) each….

But the best story at the end: I went to the toilet. As I came out there was a servant, opening the tab and regulating the temperature for me. I go to the bassin, he asks: “Soap sir ?”. I nod, hold my hand under the dispenser, he presses for me. I was my hands, he waits with the paper towel, smiling at me…..Indian hospitality at it’s best.