Ten months later than intended, yet still in time for the new goose season, I am pleased to announce the winner of my totally unofficial, subjective and therefore rather worthless GooGoo (“good goose”) award for the best Martinigansl of 2024. The only thing I can promise is that the choice this year, as in all the years before, is not bought-off – not because I am incorruptible, but because for some reason, despite this site being online for 15 years, no restaurant has ever approached me with a bribe. Not even in the form of a cold and sticky Erdäpfelknödel.
To keep it short for those in a hurry, the winner is Restaurant Musil in Vienna’s 14th district. Tricky to reach, chaotic and extremely Austrian, this jewel of a restaurant will not offer you chandeliers or elegantly decorated tables, but its experience stretching over five generations ensures a top-notch roast goose, having a lot in common with the magnificent birds of Schiefer Giebel (which I continue to faithfully visit every November but do not write about, having run out of words of praise years ago).
In retrospective, 2024’s Martinigansl season was unusually long, starting in early October and finishing past-Christmas. Despite falling sick in the middle of it and wasting almost three weeks as a result, I still managed to eat 16 portions (that is four full birds for arithmetically challenged). In 2024, the price of 35 euros per portion has definitely stopped giving an impression of a rip-off, becoming a fair average; anything under 30 euros looks like a bargain now.
I am happy to confirm that my old favorites, Klein Steiermark in Vienna and Romantik Heurigen Oleander in Burgenland continue to be very reliable. Both offer high-quality birds, and I feel they even became better compared to the last time I had tried them. Oleander, in addition, presents an excellent value for money, as long as you can find two or three friends to share a “family goose” with you. Sadly, Gmoa Keller, which had been another highly reliable location (though not as brilliant as the above two) disappointed this year, unexpectedly delivering a rather tough goose. The dish looked great, receiving more likes on my Instagram page that any other goose this year, but did not taste as good as before.
2024 brought two positive discoveries: Brigittenauer Stadl and Jedlersdorfer Alm, both in Vienna. Both restaurants serve big, tasty portions with no compromises. Unsurprisingly, they are very popular among the locals, so a reservation is recommended (for Musil, by the way, it is an absolute must). Now that the highly advertised Stuwer opened a new restaurant in the first district, I gave it another chance, but left unimpressed by the goose’s taste, though fascinated by its appearance, resembling something out of a horror movie.
As yet another confirmation that Martinigansl should only be experienced in the eastern states of Austria, my foray into Oberösterreich to try goose at Rathlucken Hütte resulted in a big disappointment. Adding onions to Martinigansl is a really, really bad idea. A lovely hut, though.
This was nothing compared to the disaster of Wia z’haus Lehner in Linz, however. Having served me a dry bird with hardly any meat on its old bones, this otherwise pleasant restaurant totally missed the second chance I gave it and is now firmly in the PooGoo (“poor goose”) category.
Happy Gansling!