Mohngoose

Location:Mohnwirt Neuwiesinger
Website:https://www.mohnwirt.at/
Address:Armschlag 9, 3525 Armschlag
Status:Open (last checked on 23 October 2022)
Eaten:"Waldviertler Weidegansl mit Knödel und Preiselbeerapfel," a beer (Zwettler), a Melange, "Mohn im Hemd"

True to its name, Mohnwirt specializes in dishes made out of poppy seeds. Besides, it holds an enormous and somewhat creepy collection of very similar hand meat grinders, literally hundreds of them. It is also one of those surprisingly big and well-maintained restaurants with great service and high quality food that one can accidentally discover in the deep Austrian countryside. They stand in the middle of nowhere, are devilishly hard to reach, yet seem to be very popular among the people who come across them. Judging by the size of the parking lot outside Mohnwirt, we are talking about plenty of people.

I had ordered the goose the day before, but was still very surprised by the speed at which it arrived at my table. The beer came half a minute after my order; the goose was delivered half a minute later. It was almost too fast – as if the cook wanted to get the goose out of the kitchen as soon as possible. Of course, more likely, the goose was prepared punctually for my arrival, but bringing it so quickly inadvertently created a completely unnecessary stress. It was not supposed to be a fast food restaurant, after all.

Yet the very first glance at Mohnwirt told me that its Gansl could be good, and it did not disappoint. The goose was very well cooked and must have been a nice healthy bird to start with. It was neither a big nor fat bird, though, so my enjoyment of the crispy skin and (mostly) tender meat did not last as long as I would have wanted. I could have easily eaten 50% more without finding the portion especially huge. I was even glad that I had taken a cabbage salad as the side dish instead of the customary red cabbage, for the salad had tiny bits of Speck in it, thus increasing the total quantity of meat. The potato dumpling was a poor compensation for the lack of meat, simply because its highly wobbly and sticky texture was not my thing. If your views about good dumplings are different, you might like it, but for me it was almost a waste of plate space. On a positive side, the dessert – containing lots of poppy seeds, of course – was superb and very heavy, filling my stomach to full satisfaction.

The goose portion could have been bigger, but at least the price was fair. Possibly, the recent price surge that hit Viennese restaurants has not yet spread into the countryside. For the price/quality factor alone, I would recommend you visit Mohnwirt but, preferably, convince someone to drive you there in order to save on gasoline.

3.5

Goose
Cabbage
Dumpling
Size
Atmosphere/service
Value

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