| Location: | Strandbeisl Selbstverständlich |
| Website: | https://www.selbstverständlich.at/ |
| Address: | An der unteren Alten Donau 159, 1220 Wien |
| Status: | Open (last checked on 22 December 2025) |
| Eaten: | "Gebratenes Martini-Gansl ¼" (with white cabbage and bread dumpling), two beers (Zwettler Dunkles) |
I have seen restaurants starting their Martinigansl season late, I have seen restaurants finishing it far too yearly, but until now, I have not encountered a restaurant that finished serving geese mid-November just to start serving them again mid-December. It is a miraculous transformation of a St. Martin’s goose into a Christmas goose, and Strandbeisl Selbstverständlich has made that miracle happen.
Of course, the truth could be more prosaic, like the restaurant’s staff accidentally finding an unopened box of sous vide geese in the depths of a fridge. I am pretty sure about sous vide, by the way – the waiter mentioned straight away that I would have to wait 25 minutes for the dish, and this is roughly what it takes to finalize a precooked and vacuum-sealed bird. Not that I am complaining; on the contrary, sous vide dishes usually taste fresh and tender, incomparably better than those cooked and warmed up in a microwave.
As a proof, Selbstverständlich’s goose was excellent, a big step forward compared to last year. This time, the skin was satisfyingly crunchy, and the amount of fat below it was just OK. The amount of meat was generous, and both the texture and the taste of it were undeniably goosy. The goose itself was on par with the best ones I ate this season.
Unfortunately, the restaurant was for some reason determined to spoil the experience. The first mistake was serving the goose in a thick brown sauce that could have been OK for some game dishes (though I found its taste “aged,” to put it politely) but did not go well with goose meat. Unfortunately, as the goose was essentially swimming in the sauce, there was no way to avoid it. The white cabbage salad had an untypically high level of acidity, to the point that a few forkfuls of it caused me to cough. The salad included tiny bacon cubes, which were overcooked and therefore hard and salty, with the taste resembling smoked fish. The bread dumplings lacked any flavor, as did the sad dry herbs they were speckled with.
To the restaurant’s credit, the menu offered a choice of sides, so there is a chance that had I chosen the “classic” sides of potato dumpling and red cabbage, my experience would have been better. However, somehow I doubt that – generally, potato dumplings and red cabbage are even easier to screw up. Seriously, if I had to eat another Martinigansl at Selbstverständlich this year, I would have asked it served with some roasted potatoes but neither cabbage, nor dumpling, nor sauce.