On special occasions I go to God’s own country (the Burgenland, naturally). This time it was my parent’s wedding anniversary – reason enough to (re)visit Gut Purbach, a restaurant run by Max Stiegl who is famous for his offal and lamb/goat dishes.
The restaurant is located in a very old building, situated around a rather big yard (must be beautiful in summer to sit outside). You can see how it was renovated with a lot of love for detail, but still slightly modernizing it. The style of the restaurant is very casual and friendly, very open. On entering the chef was chatting with guests and friends and the friendly waiter offered us drinks.
So to start with the table setting:
I LOVE mini rolls so much 🙂 Especially good was the homemade boar sausage!
So to start:
The tartar clearly was too cold, which was a shame because the taste of this beautiful fish didn’t come out fully. The horseraddish-ice-cream on the other hand was fluffy and interesting, a good contrast to the fatty fish.
The soup was just amazing! The beans were surprisingly intense and their mellow taste was countered exquisitely by the salty and very fishy anchovies. The fennel pollen was a beautiful twist, that made the dish very delicate.
Maybe the most thrilling dish, since it’s one of Stiegl’s specialities and the tripe comes from his own lambs. The tripe had a very distinctive (but NOT at all unpleasant!) taste, perfectly supported by the slight salty touch of the mussels and the fruity taste of tomatos. Only the grana was a bit too much, since it was also young and not best the quality (the one I use with the tons of spaghetti I eat…). Less but older cheese would have been better here.
Then we had a refreshment: Sorbet with sparkling wine – a nice twist to wake up 🙂 Evidently I was so sleepy already that I forgot to take a photo though…
The main course was a lamb shoulder in a beautiful gravy toghether with smooth herb puree. Very tasty, not much to add here 🙂
Well…this excellent restaurant is not the place for sweets. The chocolate roll („roulade“) was way too sweet for me, also the pickled fruits couldn’t change that. I would have prefered cheese, but they didn’t have any in stock 🙁
This beautiful menu was accompagnied by great local wines, many of them from the winery of Gut Purbach itself. The wines were brought to us by a nice and friendly young sommelier and brought out the best of the beautiful food.
A really remarkable restaurant – especially because they are specialised on local products (e.g. meat from their own animals) and try to use their animals from head to tail, so preserving also very old specialities. For this quality the price was very good too – you should calculate approx. 75€/person.
