Last week I finally made my way to Das Kraus after having heard so much about it from friends. Dinner is a set menu of six courses, a shorter version with four courses is also available. The meal can be accompanied by either wine or tea, but I ordered a beer to start with.
Das Kraus @Vienna
The restaurant has a cozy and comfy feel. Our table was the one in the so called ‘tea salon’ at the end of the dining room, with couches and chairs placed along the wall. The furniture invites you to sit down for a while and just relax, but the service brings you right back into dinner mode, because once it starts there is no stopping.
dining room @Das Kraus
Besides the six courses there are also two amuse gueule and petite fours at the end. Although Das Kraus is a high end restaurant that has earned itself a Michelin star, you will not leave its premises hungry. The menu lists three ingredients for each course and that is all in way of description. So all explanations come at the table, which makes the whole thing hard to grasp while you stare at a miniature dish. Sometimes the explanations were so long and detailed that I was wondering where all of that fit into the dish.
We started the meal with a shot of chicken consomme, with a strong hint of celeriac, a char tartelette, and a quarter of a Brussels sprout. The chef and his sous chef explained a lot more while serving this introduction to their meal, but I cannot remember everything that was said. In a way it is as if my brain shuts down the moment a plate of food arrives in front of me. I can see what I eat, or at least remember the main ingredient, but the rest just passes me by and becomes background noise. The most memorable of the three was the tartelette with raw char. The shell was thin and crunchy and the char worked well with whatever kind of mayonnaise sauce was underneath. I gobbled it down in one bite and was excited for what was to come.
first amuse gueule @Das Kraus
Next up was the bread course with whipped tomato butter, thinly sliced bacon from Höllerschmitt, homemade kimchi, and bread from Meinklang. The bread was still warm, so it must be baked or at least warmed on site. The kimchi was strong, it has been fermenting for a while. The bacon was superb, lots of meat and little fat, but full of flavor. The butter tasted sour to me. The tomatoes left their mark only in its acidity, but I missed any subtle tomato taste. Most of all the butter tasted of margarine, as it happens when you whip it. Not sure why this is still a thing, it’s plain awful.
bread, butter, bacon, and kimchi @Das Kraus
The first course of dinner was pear, mole, and Jerusalem artichoke. The steamed pear was painted with blueberry sauce, topped with fried artichoke, and accompanied by mole. I loved the deep and intense flavor of the mole, so much so that I used a piece of my bread to soak up any lingering drop from my plate. The pear was good, but I cannot tell you any distinct flavor about it. It was basically just there to give the mole a reason to shine.
pear, mole, Jerusalem artichoke @Das Kraus
Next up was char, tomato, and pumpkin. The confit fish was absolutely lovely, especially in combination with the tomato foam. I enjoyed this very much. The pumpkin was cut up in minuscule cubes, steamed and what not, and topped with pickled or marinated or raw pumpkin ribbons. You get my drift. This large plate with its small dish contained so many different types of cooking processes and ingredients that you cannot remember everything unless you ask again and again what is happening on the plate, which kind of ruins the mood for everyone else.
confit char with pumpkin @Das Kraus
As intermediate course deer liver with watermelon and radish was served. The funny part is that I could not remember eating that and I also did not find a picture of this dish on my phone. I was sure I had not eaten it. But it turned out that I had simply blanked it out, because I did eat it and at the time also enjoyed it. It was a liver mousse, more like the typical Jewish chicken liver pâté, but done from deer. It was served with watermelon essence and char caviar, roasted hazelnuts from Piemont, and watermelon radish. But here I am still struggling to picture it without visual support. I remember the mousse and really liked it, but the rest is forgotten.
The next course of porcini, miso, and verbena was the most interesting of the evening. Porcini ravioli in a mushroom dashi with lemon verbena. This combination was absolutely divine and a revelation. So much flavor from this humble vegetable. The verbena provided a lovely contrast and a much needed lightness to the earthy flavors of the mushroom. My favorite course of the evening.
porcini ravioli @Das Kraus
porcini ravioli with mushroom dashi @Das Kraus
We were on to the main course with pork, cabbage, and beer. The pork belly had been painted with apricot jam and the meat was juicy, tender, and full of flavor. The fatty part was all these things as well and therefore hard to digest. As great as juicy and tender sounds, when it comes to the fatty part, that is not what you want. The skin showed up puffed, which was nice enough. A regular crust would have done it for me as well though. Puntarelle was also on the plate, quite bitter, and maybe there to cut through the grease of the meat. I liked this vegetable, but it was a bit too much for me here and not really what I needed with the pork. The cabbage hid in a rice paper roll on the side and was not going to be renowned, it felt lackluster next to the strong flavor of the puntarelle.
pork belly with cabbage and beer @Das Kraus
The accompanying sauce was sheer perfection at least and definitely elevated the dish.
pork belly with sauce @Das Kraus
‘Omas Apfelkuchen’, grandma’s apple pie, was the first dessert course. Brown butter crumble was hidden under apple compote, surrounded by apple foam made with alcohol free Frizzante, and a large quenelle of apple ice cream on top. This course was more like a palate cleanser with weak apple notes and a refreshing taste. The crumble was a bit hard and did not even soften with the compote on top.
Omas Apfelkuchen @Das Kraus
The cheese course was a small square of cheese toast with Vorarlberger Bergkäse, turnip ketchup, and homemade pickles on the side. The toast was super buttery, delicious in a way, but also very rich after the already rich meat course. I loved the ketchup with it, but it was the pickles that stole the show. Not acidic enough to cut through the grease of the toast, however so good that I would have liked to bring a jar home.
cheese course @Das Kraus
The final course was lemon, carrot, and Sansho, which is a Japanese pepper. This little carrot cake was a pleasing end to the meal. The lemon cream between the biscuit halves was delicious. I cannot say that I would have detected any carrot notes if not for the obvious slices placed on top. Also the pepper flavor was not noticeable for me, and until just now I did not even know what Sansho was. Probably it brought everything neatly together, but maybe not. I could not tell.
carrot cake @Das Kraus
When we thought that all was eaten and done, the kitchen brought out two plates with petit four. A simple bread pudding with fig jam and a slice of port wine fig on top, as well as a chocolate praline in the form of a car. The chocolate was tasty, filled with ganache and apricot. The bread pudding had been torched to get some roasting flavors and if I had not known that this was supposed to be dessert, I would have thought it a piece of meat. I did not enjoy the bread pudding at all, unfortunately it was not the best bite to conclude this meal.
petit four @Das Kraus
Overall it was a lovely evening, more due to the company than the meal. I have noticed of late that I am quite tired from all the chichi when it comes to food. Often the dishes are so complex that it needs a chef to explain what is on the plate, when in reality there is just a bite sized something in front of you. I prefer simple food, well executed, with less frills and more substance. And let us be honest here, going for dinner that is not cheap and then getting pork belly as main course is a contradiction in itself. Yours, Pollybert
Das Kraus
1020 Wien, Große Pfarrgasse 7
Tel: +43 650 2170119
Email: reservierung@daskraus.at
Wed-Sat: 18:00-24:00
https://daskraus.at/
