Steirereck

Steirereck is a fine-dining restaurant in Vienna’s Stadtpark, set in the Meierei, a former dairy pavilion on the bank of the Wien River. The Reitbauer family from Styria opened it in 1970 in the third district, and it moved to the park in 2005.

Heinz Reitbauer, son of the founders, leads the kitchen, while his wife Birgit runs the dining room. The old pavilion gained a modern extension of glass and steel, and the restaurant upstairs looks out over the trees of the park. Downstairs, the Meierei serves breakfast and lighter dishes, with a long choice of Austrian cheeses and dairy desserts that recall the building’s first use.

The cooking is Austrian at its root and uses produce from close at hand. Herbs grow in a garden on the roof, citrus fruit comes from the imperial orangery at Schönbrunn Palace, and much of the meat and many vegetables come from the family farm at Pogusch in the Styrian mountains, where the Reitbauers run a second inn. The kitchen also grows forgotten native vegetables and fruits that rarely appear in shops. Its best known dish is char cooked in beeswax, brought to the table in its wax shell and served with pollen and yellow carrots.

A bread trolley with many kinds of bread baked in house goes from table to table, followed later by a cheese trolley built around Austrian farmhouse cheeses. Steirereck has appeared for many years on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list and belongs to Les Grandes Tables du Monde. The Reitbauers also publish S Magazine, with stories about the growers and makers who supply the restaurant.