Sharing with Myself

Location:Mariahilferbräu
Website:http://www.mariahilferbrau.com
Address:Mariahilfer Strasse 152, 1150 Wien
Status:Open (last checked on 2 November 2021)
Eaten:Martinigansl (half a goose for two persons), two 1/2 beer (Stiegl Goldbräu), an apricot schnapps

It has always been in my plans to revisit Mariahilferbräu. Over the past years, this rather tourist-oriented restaurant has served me increasingly tasty geese, culminating in 2019, when the crispy and tasty “goose for two” nearly made it to the top spot. My 2020’s visit on the last day before the lockdown was quite a disappointment, however, because a) no goose was available, and b) when I finished a beer and went to the first district to look for an alternative goose, I almost ended up in the middle of a terrorist attack.

Fast forward to 2021. Now I’m here again and happy to see “Goose for 2” written on a blackboard by the restaurant’s entrance. I walk in, sit down, ask for a beer and a quarter of a goose and am told that only a half of a goose is available. It’s a “Goose for 2,” after all.

I suppose other, more intelligent people would have left at that point or ordered something plainer, like cevapcici. I, on the other hand, simply heard myself saying “OK, bring me a half, I am hungry” (I wasn’t) before my brain could properly assess the situation.

Thus, some 20 minutes later, a visibly amused waitress left me in front of a leg and a breast of a goose, two huge Knödels and enough red cabbage to feed not two, but four people. It was then that my brain finally caught up and instructed me to ignore the dumplings and the cabbage and concentrate on the core part: the goose.

Frankly spelling, everything apart from the goose was ignorable anyway. The dumplings were nearly inedible – very sticky, flavorless and even incapable of absorbing the sauce. The cabbage was OK to provide a bit of variety and make the dinner look slightly less barbaric, but it was not a great cabbage. Even the sweet chestnuts were boring, making me crave for an apple with berries. I don’t think Mariahilferbräu ever impressed me with the side dishes, and today it certainly didn’t.

That didn’t matter actually, because the merits of the goose started to demonstrate themselves immediately. It was meaty, quite fat in a good way, delicately spiced (I swear I could taste rosemary although I didn’t see it), and well-salted even deeply inside. It was a very good goose: the two years’ break between my visits didn’t affect it negatively.

Well, the skin could have been crispier. Had they kept the bird under a very high temperature for another five minutes, they would have grilled the skin better and likely earned an extra point. It also bothered me slightly that the breast/wing part of the goose was twice as tasty and twice less fat as the leg. If you visit the restaurant with a good friend, make sure the friend gets the breast. When dining with other people, make sure you keep the breast for yourself.

Which raises the question: if I got my half-goose already cut into two pieces, what had prevented Mariahilferbräu from serving me a quarter in the first place?

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