| Location: | Cafe Restaurant Pan |
| Website: | http://www.cafepan.at |
| Address: | Kaiser-Ebersdorfer-Straße 330, 1110 Wien |
| Status: | Open (last checked on 6 June 2026) |
| Eaten: | "Pan’s Spareribs," three beers (Zipfer) |
There is a prison just across the road from Café Restaurant Pan. I don’t know if the inmates’ cell windows actually face the restaurant’s shady garden, but if they do, the sight of huge portions of spare ribs being delivered to customers should, in theory, make the criminals regret what they have done and, well, not do that again.
If any of the inmates are actually reading this, let me tell you: there are plenty of good reasons for leading a crime-free life, but Pan’s spare ribs are not one of them. In the quantity vs quality balance, the restaurant has clearly chosen to go the quantity way. The portions are truly enormous. Not only were there two full racks of ribs on a wooden board, but they also contained more meat than I had remembered seeing on spare ribs since a long time. Meat and fat; quite a lot of fat, in fact. In the typical Austrian fashion, the ribs must have been pre-boiled to make the meat tenderer and reduce the preparation time. Unfortunately, the later grilling failed to burn out the fat, and I found huge lumps of it. Good if you like fat, of course. I certainly don’t.
Judging by a reduced pork taste, the ribs had been marinated, but by someone who does not know much about marinating. I could feel the flavor of lemon, for example, which is OK for marinating chicken, but tastes strangely on pork. The two supplied dips were of the most generic cocktail sauce + creamy garlic sort. The cocktail sauce was untypically sour. The garlic sauce hardly tasted of garlic and was thus very boring. A bit of cabbage salad was a welcome addition, but the baked potatoes were unexceptional, having a slightly unpleasant sweet flavor.
If you are very, very hungry, like pork and are not choosy in your food, Pan’s spare ribs may be just the right thing for you. You will leave super-full or – as many customers I observed did – carrying large bags with leftovers to feed you and your loved ones on the following day. In my opinion, had Pan served a single rack of ribs for 20 euros instead of two for 30, that would have made a better dish. From my own experience, I got fed up half way through the second rack and was very happy when the waiter eventually took the dish away from my sight.