Oozing with oodles of old-world charm, Cafe Vienna offers all the allure of Austrian cuisine in the most unlikely of locations _ next to Tower Records at Lot 10.
Kaese spaetzle _ soft egg noodles with Gruyere cheese, sauteed onions, turkey ham, mushrooms & parsley. Pleasantly aromatic, with a herbal scent to balance the savory creaminess of the cheese. Gobble it while it's hot, since it gets soggy after 10 minutes.
Tafelspitz. Simmered beef brisket, with boiled potatoes, carrots & broccoli. Not the juiciest cut, but the horseradish cream gave it a nice, nippy kick, with a rustic feel that made it seem like the closest we'll get to Austrian cooking in KL for now.
Wiener Schnitzel. A hearty veal cutlet, ideal for satisfying masculine appetites. Impeccably made, with tender meat nicely coated in breadcrumbs and fried without an overdose of oil.
Stricken by a sudden obsession for all things saccharine, we demanded no less than six different desserts, kicking off with the Salzburger Nockerl, a sugar-dusted souffle with chocolate sauce. Not as light or airy as we had expected, but that's a minor quibble, especially since the desserts here only cost between 12 and 18 ringgit.
Germknoedel, a bun-shaped, steamed yeast dumpling stuffed with plum jelly & topped with melted butter & poppy seeds. Recommended for fans of fruity flavors, but beware: it's surprisingly filling, with a heavy, doughy texture.
Topfenpalatschinken. A complicated name for a fairly complex recipe _ baked pancakes filled to bursting with creamy custard, ricotta cheese & lemon. Mild-tasting, but in a positive sense, without any sharpness from the cheese or sour foulness from the lemon.
Satisfyingly crisp apple strudel. One of Julie Andrews' favorite things, as immortalized in song. Strangely, I haven't met anyone else so far who insists this is their most beloved dessert.
Sachertorte. Moist, decadently rich chocolate sponge cake, with a thin but luscious filling of apricot jam in the middle, served with whipped cream.
Kaiserschmarrn. Shredded caramelized pancakes with apple & plum sauce. Slightly stodgy and a little less fluffy than promised, but still a sweet treat. For better or worse though, this is somewhat similar to what Paddington House of Pancakes provides.
No place is perfect, of course. Cafe Vienna's fatal flaw _ an accursed corkage charge of RM70. Naturally, we were forced to opt for the outlet's Chilean Cono Sur Merlot instead.
Cafe Vienna,
2nd Floor, Lot 10.
Tel: 03-2141-7858
Desserts overload! I thought my sister is the only one who would eat desserts like this!!
ReplyDeletedessert overdose!
ReplyDeletenever thought much of this place..certainly always looks dead..
Oh my. SIX desserts? You gluttons. :P
ReplyDeleteHaha....
you pig! i bet you are HUGE now.. uh-huh:P
ReplyDeleteKäsespätzle!! It's my fave Austro-Bavarian dish ever. Used to eat it nearly every day for dinner in Munich when my friends would allow me to get away with it. Germanic yumminess in every mouthful, I tell you! :D
ReplyDeletei can bet that u either wrote the dessert names somewhere or you took picture of the menu. NO WAY u can remember the complicated names by look. hehehe... wow 6 desserts huh, now im liking u even more. hahaha (not a declaration of love kind of way) =D
ReplyDeleteWow...desserts to the max! and such unpronounciable names too ;-)
ReplyDeletemichelle: heh, i don't really have a sweet tooth, but all these desserts sounded too good to resist! :D
ReplyDeletejoe: yeah, it seems to be 90 percent empty on weekday evenings ... but still worth checking out! especially if u want a calm, peaceful place :D
j: there were actually another three or four more desserts which also seriously tempted me! :D
ciki: did u say 'pig' ... are u still fantasizing about the roast pork at ad hog? :D
lfb: home-made ones? that's a lotta carbs and cream to be wolfing down at night! but i guess it helps warm the body for those long, cold winter nights ... though i'm sure there've been yummier german things that u've had in your mouth. ahem :P
augustdiners: heheh, i bet i still misspelled a few of the dessert names though! but awwwwww, i like u too, okie. mutual affection :D
pureglutton: ya, i mispronounced everything while ordering! thankfully, the service crew is trained to pronounce all the names correctly :D
Not home-made ones lah. We just ate it at the nearest pub (yes! pubs!) or restaurant.
ReplyDeleteDarn, I miss Munich... Did you go to Germany during your recent trip? I recall not, but unsure.
lfb: ahh, the version at this lot 10 restaurant seemed decent ... so if u get a strong hankering for käsespätzle, u can go see if it passes muster (in fact, the dinner here was the one that u were semi-invited to!).
ReplyDeletenein, ich habe es nicht geschafft, deutschland zu besuchen. aber ich will, irgendwann!!!
Semi-invited? That is like, what? Only half of me was invited? (I shudder to ask which half..)
ReplyDeleteHahaha, which online translator did you use to come up with that? :P
lfb: your better half? wait, that would mean that ck had been invited. which wasn't the case here, i think :D
ReplyDeleteisn't google wonderful. all our needs (and more) fulfilled (and i'm betting the translation was spot-on) :P
Damn. I just walked right into that one, didn't I? :P
ReplyDeleteI love Google too, and let's just say, yeah I got what you meant, mein Freund. :)
lfb: wow, u picked up (and retained) a lot of words, huh ... the only ones i recognized were 'nein' and 'deutschland' (though in hindsight, i should have known 'ich' already, but i didn't)...
ReplyDelete"Ich"? Are you sure you don't mean "itchy"? I'm almost certain you'd be more familar with that word instead. :P
ReplyDeletelfb: but whatever do u mean? u're gonna make people, ahem, crabby with all these unfathomable innuendoes :P
ReplyDeleteDude, we are cross-commenting on so many posts on both our blogs, can you blame me for losing track of meaning and fathomableness? :P
ReplyDeletelfb: 'comment fatigue,' it's called, and it's quite a serious ailment. better check if your medical insurance covers it :D
ReplyDeleteProbably not. O woe is me!
ReplyDeleteP.S. Does your medical insurance cover it? I might need to switch, if so. LOL
Hhaha.. had quite a gd dinner there recently at YES YTL launch.
ReplyDeleteYea.. seems authentic enough. I dont mind a revisit. Thk god u didnt offer the tiramisu *shudders*
The food does look like something unique. and the best part was I can't even pronounce any of those names!
ReplyDeleteYou are not familiar with European cuisine i'm sure!!
Deletelfb: my excellent medical insurance covers all manner of blog-related ailments, including concussions caused by fainting over unexpected comments :D
ReplyDeletetng: heheh, don't remember seeing any tiramisu on the menu here! but yeah, it's definitely a worth a visit. too bad the mall is quite quiet inside, so business seems kinda slow...
eiling: yeah, the names are real tongue-twisters! if only we had an austrian speaker to explain them to us! :D
no.. but when are we going out for a meal:)
ReplyDeleteciki: soon ... very, very, very soon! (i hope) :D
ReplyDeleteAfter a couple of visits, i felt sure the fare was about average altho the decor ambience was 'authentic'. Somehow the Bosnia owner haven't the work culture like Austrians. Nyah I doubt Cafe Vienna @ Lot10 will make it through 2011. Bring back Societe?
ReplyDeletecorrection: not a Bosnian but an Austrian gentlemen.
Deleteanton: ya, i wasn't quite a fan of societe either though. wonder whether there's something amiss with the feng shui here, heh
ReplyDeleteYTL folks are Christians - doubt they would dab in fengshui ha ha... but seriously tho i think Lot10 had a positioning problem since PavilionKL came up altho i must say that Lot10 HUTONG IS A FANTASTIC RE-DO OF THE PREVIOUS FOOD COURT - SOMEHOW YOU NEED TO HAVE PORK DISHES TO ATTRACT THE CHINESE - halal chicken char siew?? U godda be kiddin man!!!
DeleteSociete formerly @ Lot10 serves up great mamak mee goreng, cantonese fried beef (superb quality) with hor fun in a delightful Parisienne cafe restaurant; don't know if the Societe @ Starhill (Relish Flr) is better or not!!
DeleteThey moved to Pearl Point Hotel Old Klang Road - now with a BeerGarden that serves non-halal dishes while the cafe serves HALAL food - and there is also a German pub to boot - better crowd, CHEAPER than it was at Lot10.
ReplyDeleteCan anyone tell me where did that Hong Kong Noodle House is? You know that restaurant that occupied the corner spot of Sg Wang entrance? now occupied by another Wat-d-heck-son!!!
ReplyDelete