Deix’s Goose

There was an extremely talented and slightly controversial Austrian cartoonist Manfred Deix (sadly deceased in 2016), who became famous for portraying his compatriots in very unfavorable ways: obese, unattractive, unwashed, with crooked teeth, etc. His way of representation even received a name, “Deixfigur”, which ended up in German dictionaries. I love his paintings, especially those where people seem to have animal features. Whenever I meet an Austrian looking like a rat (which happens more often than is statistically plausible), I cannot help thinking of Deix.

I have no clue if Mr Deix ever visited Restaurant Musil (though I would not be surprised if he had), but the characters I met there today looked as if they had just stepped out of his paintings. They were grotesque, jolly, very Viennese (in the nicest meaning of this word) and spent the whole evening reading jokes off their Instagram feeds and laughing wholeheartedly.

Restaurant Musil, the winner of last year’s goose award, is a true Viennese institution, where you can meet personalities that are hard to find in the first district or even within the Gürtel. The restaurant is often commended as one of the best places to eat a Martinigansl, and that is evident by a number of certificates on the wall, though of course I was slightly upset not to see a mention of GooGoo 2024 anywhere – which is the only award that matters. Anyway, I find it a nice move to start a new goose season by re-visiting the winner of the last year’s award, and I am happy to report that Musil is still amazing. By the way, today was the first day it served Martinigansl, so at least in theory, I got my hands on the freshest goose possible.

Just to introduce some novelty, this time I took the “traditional” red cabbage instead of the white one that I prefer. The red cabbage was lukewarm and slightly sour and would have been somewhat annoying as a standalone dish, but as a complement to the meat and the bread dumpling (open as I am, I did not risk ordering a potato dumpling), it was perfect. The dumpling was good – not having much taste by itself, it was perfectly suited for absorbing some of the very tasty goose jus.

As for the goose itself, it was very expertly prepared, resulting in a consistently crispy skin, a very tender meat and a total absence of unnecessary fat. Instead of a wing, I got a leg this time, and – because of goose’s anatomy, I suppose, – my first bites were slightly disappointing. To be clear, there was not much meat over the bones, and the meat that was there was quite salty. Some people would have found it too salty, I am sure, but for me, the amount of salt was still OK. As I was eating, the portion was becoming smaller at an alarming rate, which raised another red flag: is it really worth the 35+ euros that I was paying for it?

The size doubts were resolved pretty quickly, however, as I could find plenty of meat around the main bone. The saltiness level went down as well, encouraging me to mix the meat with the jus, the red cabbage and the dumpling. The combination was faultless. The dish was so enjoyable, I would have loved it to be 25% bigger, but this is just a wish and not a complaint. Honestly, I was not as impressed by Musil’s goose as I was last year, but it is still one of the top places to eat Martinigansl in Vienna. The price is quite steep, but, on the other hand, it can save you the cost of the entrance ticket to a Deix’s exhibition.