Oh, the House of Beers… The House of 100 Beers, when I visited it for the first time in 90-something. The Bombers’ Pin-up beer, of which I still keep a can, sells for 15 euros on eBay this days. I wish I could see their old menu again and check if they had any Belgian Trappist beers at the time. God, how naïve and stupid I had been.
Those good times are over, of course. Now the restaurant keeps about 10 beers on the menu, and frankly I don’t care what they are. The only reason I came back was for the sake of tradition, as walking from Baden to Mödling used to be a major undertaking in the past, and the Haus der Biere was the ultimate final destination. I remember eating a lot of warm sandwiches there and never finding them good. I remember revisiting the restaurant for some spare ribs many years later and leaving unimpressed.
Time has not been kind to the Haus der Biere, and I have to say that its spare ribs are still substandard. There is no marinade to speak of here; the taste was meaty, but with no association with pork, beef or whatever. The ribs were also full of tiny bones – probably a residue of careless cutting – which endangered my teeth and required more care than I was ready to devote. The ribs also featured a lot of oil, meaning that holding them by the hand was all but pleasant, and considering that the meat stuck to the bones, not very efficient.
Of the three sauces provided, only the red one, with a smoke-y taste of whiskey, was any good; the garlic and the cocktail sauces were highly industrial. I quite liked the taste of pickled onions, however, and the mixed salads I had ordered to accompany the main dish ended up being better than the dish itself.
While visiting the Haus der Biere still holds a part of nostalgia for me, I have to admit that there is very little to recommend here for a casual visitor. There are certainly better places in Mödling to visit.
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