Fuhrgassl-Huber Buschenschank

Hands-down the best traditional Viennese cuisine! I came because it's a winery/wine garden, I stayed because of the food. This is what is called, "Buschenschank" and the bundle of twigs over or on the door means that they are open to serve you wine, food, and laughter.

We sat downstairs in a rustic and cozy room, with servers in traditional garb, and had a real chalet-meets-public house experience. The tables are long and the portions are large. Then menu contains several types of schnitzel, but my favorite is "Surschnitzel", which roughly translates to "old-schnitzel" and it has been brine-aged. I also enjoyed Cordon-Bleu vom Huhn (chicken cordon bleu). It was battered and fried to perfection!

Add to that some of their amazing red wines (my favorites were Komoosition Fidelio Cuvée and Rebecca Cuvée) and you have an amazing, local experience.

Goodness gracious was this place great!

I had the pleasure of visiting this authentic Austrian Heuriger as part of a very large group - a physics conference was taking place in Vienna (where I happen to live, with a physicist), and thus we attended the dinner with the group. Our dining experience was undoubtedly different from that of most patrons, but I'm getting away from the point of this review..

At each table we had a bottle of sparkling water and a carafe of white wine, both of which seemed to be replaced pretty regularly as needed. The wine itself was pretty good, although I stuck mostly to spritzers to pace myself. We were also supplied with apple juice that I believe was made by the Heuriger, which was excellent - and this is coming from someone who normally does NOT like apple juice.

Onto the food... I think because of our large group size, we had several long buffets of food with many offerings, which is a bit atypical of Heurigers (but none of us were complaining). Some of the foods offered were: cucumber salad; Austrian potato salad; very thinly-sliced and lightly-battered and fried: cheese, zucchini, and broccoli. And of course schnitzel, sausages and cheeses of different varieties, semmel rolls, spinach strudel, Käsespätzle, some other type of cheese + broccoli casserole, and other salads that escape me now. And there were definitely a few other fried foods. (I think "lightly-battered-and-fried" was the evening's culinary theme.)

Desserts included moist (read: edible & un-Austrian/unauthentic) Sachertorte, apple strudel (without raisins!), Topfenstrudel (Topfen = similar to cream cheese), marble cake, and various other sweets that were spot-on. (I say "spot-on" because while Austria knows how to do pastries, it doesn't really know cakes (usually), unless you like really dry cake lacking in chocolate or flavor, in which case Austria totally succeeds at cake-making.) Suffice it to say that this place KNEW cake (at least on this night), and I liked pretty much every thing I ate and drank.

Definitely visit Fuhrgassl-Huber if you get the chance, and sit outside. The view of the rolling hills and vineyard at sunset is breathtaking, and the vines and grapes growing along the trellises surrounding the outdoor seating are equally beautiful and charming.

So, four stars overall, because when rating this place, the outdoor seating deserves 5 stars. The food is slightly above average at 3.5 stars - depending on the dish. Here is the full review:

- Schnitzel - good. I found the meat quality to be pretty consistent, however since they deep fry (instead of pan fry) the schnitzel, you can occasionally taste that the oil needed to be changed.

- Other meats by the pound - mostly good, if fresh out of the oven. Some cuts sit in the food warmer for an extended period of time, so they tend to be dryer and less than satisfactory.

- Cheeses - Fried emmenthaler - what's not to like. Other cream cheese varieties are good as well.

- Wines - love the Riesling!

- Dessert - good, but not great.

Service - probably the weakest point in the whole restaurant. Not really friendly or excited to see you.

Severely understaffed, rude, impatient staff, out of basic food items from the menu as early as 7 on on a Saturday. We had to go downstairs to fetch our own food because the waiter just wouldn't take our order and most of the things we ordered were not available. Never again.

Service isn't great by any stretch of the imagination, but the wine and schnitzel are both fantastic. Couldn't recommend this place higher if you're a tourist looking for a more authentic Vienna experience. Off the beaten path (three train transfers and a bus) but well worth it.

This is my favorite heurigen, any time of the year. Great food, nice people, and an amazing back garden. I take all my visitors here. They have a "mix teller" which is a good overview of everything they offer outside the buffet.