Fat and Bones

When re-reviewing a Martinigansl place that I had visited some time ago, I like to come up with the main good or bad points that I was going to mention and then re-read my previous review to check whether those points were already present earlier. More often than not, not much changes between my visits, even if quite a few years have passed between them. Schönbrunner Stöckl, a tourist-oriented and Czech or Slovak-owned place near the Schönbrunn palace is a case in point.

They serve a goose that is quite big, surprisingly tasty and extremely fat. So fat, that one starts to question whether obesity was not the real reason for its untimely death. On the other hand, the taste is so good that the overdose of fat never becomes really disgusting. The meat is also very easy to remove from the bones, which allows efficient plate’s space management (providing there is an extra empty plate to drop the bones onto). What is a bit strange, however, is that there are quite a few thin and long bones popping up inside the meat from time to time. I am sure an expert in goose anatomy could offer a perfectly good explanation for them, but I certainly encountered many geese that were far less bony.

Unusually, Stöckl’s goose comes with two types of cabbage and two types of dumpling. While creating a bit of variety, it is a questionable practice in this case. Whereas the red cabbage was quite “normal” (read, not exciting), the white cabbage was so overcooked and soaked in the goose’s own sauce that it got the strange brownish color and the sour taste that are normally associated with the Sauerkraut accompanying Schweinsbraten. In the case of dumplings, it was the potato one that was “normal,” while the bread dumpling looked and tasted like, well, bread with the crust removed.

The above deficiencies aside, however, Schönbrunner Stöckl is an unexpectedly good place to have a goose, even this late in November. Maybe that is why I saw at least as many Austrians inside as tourists; it is quite a cozy restaurant despite its location.