I pride myself of knowing Vienna quite well (after all, it is a relatively small city to learn), but occasionally my searches for St. Martin’s geese take me to the areas that I did not know existed. The location of Restaurant Musil is a case in point. Getting out at Hütteldorfer Strasse underground station (which I had never had to use before), I walked up dark streets for almost half an hour, periodically consulting Google maps on my phone. Strangely, after a few residential buildings, I started to pass by military barracks, with barriers and guard posts blocking their entrances. I never though Vienna had so many military zones. As I was approaching the restaurant, barracks got replaced by signs pointing to various hospitals. The inhabitants of the 14th district must be quite a sick bunch, for they have more hospitals than any other district of Vienna.
As I reached Musil, I commended myself for having reserved in advance. A few groups were approaching the restaurant together with me, and there were already quite a few people standing inside by the entrance door, waiting to be seated and generally blocking the movement of waiters to and from the kitchen. My table happened to be just next to the entrance, so I had the chance to see the whole chaos of a popular restaurant’s operation, with trays of empty plates and glasses continuously making their way to the kitchen, and waiters shouting orders and taking new dishes to customers in what seemed like an endless flow. Every few minutes, a waiter would stop by the bar to take a sip of beer, just to rush away again.
Chaotic as it looked, the service remained efficient and never unfriendly. Whenever my beer mug became empty (which it did thrice), it took mere seconds for a waiter to notice and ask for my further wishes. The goose, on the other hand, took between 20 or 30 minutes to arrive, but in goose-preparation business, I consider delays a positive thing.
Musil’s goose was, however, more that a mere “positive thing.” It was, put simply, one of the best geese I have eaten since deciding to exclude Schiefer Giebel from future reviews (for that tiny Heuriger has become unbeatable). Actually, the similarities between Musil’s and Schiefer Giebel’s geese were multiple. Like the long-time winner’s, Musil’s bird had a delicious crunchy skin as well as tender and juicy meat. It was also perfectly salted: the skin was more salty than the meat, but not excessively more, and the meat had just the right small amount of salt to prevent it from tasting bland.
Unlike Schiefer Giebel, which always serves its Gansl with traditional red cabbage and potato dumplings, Musil gave me white cabbage with bacon (which I like infinitely better) and a bread dumpling, which not only absorbed goose jus very efficiently but also had some pleasant taste of its own.
Restaurant Musil may be a distant and unobvious location, but if you want a quality Martinigansl, you can simply not ignore it. It is extremely Austrian in terms of atmosphere and service though, so if you are looking for white tablecloths and exquisite ambience, you better look elsewhere, but for a great “gutbürgerlich” cuisine, Musil is nearly perfect.
P.S. Leaving the restaurant and taking a few steps in the direction of where I thought the nearest tram could be, I noticed Schutzhaus am Ameisbach, the place where a few years ago I ate good but very oily spare ribs. Thus, the area was not completely unfamiliar to me, after all.
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