A Jause in the Dark

Location:Herbeck
Website:https://www.facebook.com/herbeck.wien
Address:Scheibenbergstrasse 11, 1180 Wien
Status:Open (last checked on 15 August 2015), but the Brettljause is no longer on the menu
Eaten:„Brettljause vom Bauer“, one beer (Weitra Bräu), cucumber salad, espresso

There can be different reasons why a restaurant would open its garden but leave the outside lights off. Saving electricity is an obvious explanation. Preventing the customers from seeing what they are eating is a less likely motive, but I wonder if in Herbeck’s case it was not the key one.

Not that there was anything particularly scary in this Brettljause; rather, there was surprisingly little of anything. Some pretty standard Speck, a few slices of undeniably good Schweinsbraten, and, best of all, a bit of hard cheese that had some taste – but all of this was barely enough to give justice to the picked cucumber and plenty of mustard mixed with onions that the Brettljause was served with. The only surprise was a small bit of flavorless pork jelly that somehow found its way onto the plate and hid under a salad leaf.

With more variety (and I am speaking of twice as much at least), Herbeck’s creation would have been strongly above average. It may not come from a farmer (“vom Bauer” in its name means a nearby butcher’s shop), but the Schweinsbraten and the cheese did not taste at all industrial. The way it is, however, this Brettljause is overpriced, quite pointless and rather ugly – if you manage to see it, that is.

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