The Real Griller

While in most Austrian restaurants’ menus spare ribs appear in the “Grill specialties” section, very few restaurants can actually afford real grilling. Grilling needs space, grilling creates a fire hazard, grilling stinks. A good microwave does not have all these problems.

Walters Mühle, on the other hand, does the grilling properly, thanks to its location in the middle of a field, away from the houses of those who might complain about the smoke. The location is, however, the restaurant’s main enemy: even though the huge 22^nd district of Vienna is notoriously short of restaurants, Walters is so far from the main streets that the only reasons to go there is if you live close by (like I do) or if you are looking for something special, like freshly grilled fish or spare ribs.

The ribs indeed tasted freshly grilled, reminiscent of the ribs at Strandcafé or Grill Ranch. The meat was quite tough and persistently stuck to the bones, so the best way to eat the ribs was to hold them with the hands. Probably recognizing that, the restaurant served the ribs with a huge knife – a potential murder weapon, really – which was very practical for cutting the bones off the rack but nearly useless at separating the meat from the bones. Without sauces, the ribs did not taste of anything except meat, and occasionally were not salty enough, which was an easy-to-solve problem.

Possibly inspired by Strandcafé, Walters Mühle served the ribs with white and red sauces. The white one was garlic-based and quite similar to Strandcafé’s. The red one, however, tasted like a spicy variety of ketchup – not bad, but needing more work to be anything special. In another nod to Strandcafé, the ribs came with roasted potatoes cut into thin slices, fresh onions and green pepperoni. Even the dark beer, Grieskirchner Dunkles, was of the same brand as served at Strandcafé.

Walters Mühle cannot boast a view over the Old Danube, but its prices are very reasonable, and there is never a problem of finding a table in its spacious garden. Most importantly, it offers a nice diversion from pre-boiled, pre-grilled and microwaved spare ribs that 95% of other restaurants are serving.