I must have passed Café Merkur at least a hundred times and never noticed it. Which is weird, it’s a large place with three different rooms inside and a really large outdoor terrace. Vienna during the summer feels totally empty outside of the first district and so was Café Merkur on this Saturday morning. It was almost difficult to choose a table, when everyone was available.
terrace @Café Merkur
Our waitress was nice enough to extend the sunblinds, so we sat down next to the still cool building facade and ordered coffee. In my case the first ice espresso of the season.
coffee and juice @Café Merkur
Café Merkur offers a lot of Middle Eastern breakfast combinations, as well as classics like English breakfast. Just don’t expect anything too Austrian here. My friend opted for the Kurdish breakfast, while I ordered the Arabian combination. Talk about interesting combinations here!
The Kurdish breakfast turned out to be an omelette with pulled beef inside. A small dish of tzatziki, a piece of sheep’s cheese, as well as bread and butter completed the meal. Funnily enough my carnivorous friend deemed it too heavy on to the meat. Who would have thought that a time would come that he craved vegetables? It does look a little bit mighty for breakfast, so if you are not planning on chopping wood afterwards, maybe order something else.
Kurdish breakfast @Café Merkur
The Arabian breakfast was exactly the right combination for this warm morning. A combination of cold spreads which included hummus, baba ghanoush, tzatziki, sheep’s cheese, a falafel, and stuffed wine leaf. Everything tasted home-made, such a difference from the usual stuff one can buy at the Naschmarkt. I especially enjoyed the falafel and the smoky flavor of the baba ghanoush. It was delicious and just what I needed on that warm summer day. No wonder they eat that in Saudi Arabia.
Arabian breakfast @Café Merkur
But I am wondering how I would feel about this on a fall day, when all I crave is a warm breakfast. That might not be the right thing then, especially since I usually love an egg for breakfast. But Café Merkur has now been noted by me and next time I am in the area I will not pass it, but rather enter. Yours, Pollybert
Café Merkur
1080 Wien, Florianigasse 18
Tel:+43 1 9905413
Email: info@cafemerkur.at
Mon-Sat: 09:00-24:00, Sun: 09:00-22:00
http://www.cafemerkur.at/
