After a delightful breakfast (despite the cold food) at Liebling im Volkstheater, I figured the garden would be a great spot to meet in the evening for drinks. Traffic in the area is low at the moment, the shrubs provide some privacy and at the same time necessary shade. While the bar inside looks enticing, it’s the garden which interested us the most.
bar @Liebling im Volkstheater
illuminated garden @Liebling im Volkstheater
The evening menu is short and offers only cold dishes in tapas size. It also lists whipped butter. Honestly, that almost made me gag. Why is that still served? It’s so awful!
But let’s move on to the food. We ordered the beef tartar, the asparagus carpaccio, and the red beet hummus. I started with the beef tartar. Hand cut beef in perfect size with all condiments and flavors around. Mustard caviar, estragon mustard and ketchup, pickles and onion cubed, and pickled red onion on top. It looked delicious except for the whipped butter on the side.
Beef Tartar @Liebling im Volkstheater
While it looked great I felt that there was something missing taste wise. A certain kick that you usually get. Also, even though it is a attractive presentation, once you mix it on your plate it looks like a mess. So why don’t they prepare it in the kitchen? They might even have noticed that the dish lacked something. Besides the obvious, real butter for the toast. Overall, it was okay though. Just not great.
The white asparagus carpaccio was a great idea, well executed, and it looked enticing. We weren’t sure about the light brown glob on top, but it had a distinct nut flavor. So this must have been the promised hazelnuts from the menu. The bigger slices underneath the strawberries were Navette (may turnips for non-chefs). It’s obvious at first glance that this was a very small portion. I loved the flavor! Really too bad that there was not more of it on the plate.
asparagus carpaccio @Liebling im Volkstheater
The red beet hummus aka Ferment on the menu was a symphony in pink. The pickled vegetables had intense rose hue and the olives and the fried oyster mushrooms just blended in. My friend liked it a lot and finished with some bread, that has to be ordered separately.
red beet hummus @Liebling im Volkstheater
All in all Liebling im Volkstheater has some really interesting dishes, I really think the kitchen has the potential for something great. The garden is lovely even though the chairs are not so comfy that you want to spend ages here. Service is very nice, it just needs to work on its efficiency. Definitely a place to watch! Yours, Pollybert
Liebling im Volkstheater
1070 Wien, Arthur-Schnitzler-Platz 1
Tel: +43 1 52111667
Email: volkstheater@cafeliebling.at
Mon-Sat: 09:00-24:00
https://www.instagram.com/cafeliebling_im_volkstheater/
