Pauli Restaurant Brasserie Bar — Restaurant in Vienna

Paul is a new restaurant opened in March 2016 and already one of the best of Vienna. The restaurant has two levels, with a brasserie in the lower level offering drinks and tapas, and a full service restaurant in the upper level. The interior reminded me of an alpine hunting cabin with a modern chic appeal. The atmosphere is cozy and perfect for a romantic dinner or gathering with friends.

We started with an assortment of bread accompanied by three spreads. The first was a caviar butter, then a french bean paste and sauerkraut spread. I was pleasantly surprised by all of them. I was especially delighted that the sauerkraut spread was not strong, but actually reminded me of a sweetened white bean or chickpea spread.

Our soup course was a truffled mushroom cream soup. The aroma is apparent when the bowls are placed on the table, and I was instantly drawn into the woodsy, earthy tones of the soup. The cream was rich but did not overpower the flavor of the mushrooms. The portion is quite large for a soup course and could be enough for a light lunch.

There aren't many selections for vegetarians on the menu, but a note on the menu advised that vegetarian meals are available by request. Our waiter offered three dishes that all sounded amazing, and I chose the pasta with vegetables in a cream sauce.

The vegetables were hearty roasted tomatoes, with slivered carrots and yellow pepper served with baby spinach and soba noodles with a cream sauce. It was bright and colorful, the vegetables were fresh and still a little snappy which I enjoy. The cream sauce was also delightful and refreshing.

Finally the dessert was a chestnut and berry cream cake with beautiful flaky pastry and a smooth and buttery cream middle dusted with confectioner's sugar and cocoa.

The service was excellent and interactive. We enjoyed our waiter and the food was presented by the owner. I will definitely add Paul to my very short list of favorite...

My wife and I had reservations for 6:45pm on a Saturday evening. We were greeted promptly by the friendly hostess and taken upstairs to a table for two. Our server took our drink/food order and brought water to our table stating, “if you need another bottle just let me know”. Little did we know that it would be the last we would see of him for a very long time.

I had the parsnip soup for a starter and the pork sirloin for the main. Both were delicious. No issue at all with the quality of the food.

What I do take issue with was the incredibly slow and indifferent service. The food was brought to and removed from our table by the busboy. Our server did not bother at all to check as to how the main dish was. Contrary to his original comment, our bottle of water sat empty and there was no offer from our server, or any staff member for that matter, for a refill or replacement.

Our empty dinner plates sat on our table for over 20min. Our server did not ask us if we wished to order another drink or dessert. It was over 40min between visits from our server.

It was clearly evident that our server was serving a minimum of 11 tables upstairs. When he finally did return to our table I outlined our disappointment in the service and his reply was simply “sorry”. It was conveyed in a manner that indicated our opinion did not matter.

My wife and I have travelled extensively throughout the world and have dined in hundreds of restaurants. This is easily one of the worst we have experienced. The only reason the review is two star (instead of one) is due to the fine quality of the food.

While the food is quite good, why risk an evening of poor, indifferent service? There are hundreds of other restaurant options in Vienna. I would suggest you...

I think this is one of the most nice places I've ever visited. As you enter the restaurant you will find a small cava of selected wines and on the upper floor you will be seated. It's a small place but we were comfortable. The staff was super friendly and helpful on dish selection. We ordered for starters chestnut cream soup and for main the pumpkin Fregola Sarda and the Beiried à la beef roulade. Before having our ordered dishes the restaurant trited us with some amuse bouche which was delicious!! The soup was the most tasty dish I've ever tasted. Very unique flavors, textures and combination of ingredients. The beed was tasty enough and the most interesting combination was the potatoes cooked inside of an "salt" shell. With the pumpkin we weren't very thrilled about it, it was a dish that I could never imagine it could be existed. But very interesting in flavor, but not our style. Definetely...