RESTAURANT GUZZI — Restaurant in Vienna

Tasty Austrian food in a cozy space. We had the schnitzel, pork medallions, steak, potato goulash, and a dumpling- like dish. All were decent - steak was a bit tough and didn’t have much flavor. Nothing to go crazy about.

Any positives of the food however were soured by an experience with a waiter. Firstly, one of the staff greeted us extremely warmly. Spoke to us gently, directed us to an ATM, went through the menu slowly while translating to English, and answered any and all questions. We felt welcomed, guided, and we appreciated his kindness. A great start to our visit to Vienna!

Another staff member wearing glasses, however, started bringing out our dishes. As tourists visiting for our first night, we all wanted to get a taste of traditional Austrian cuisine right away. Thus, we asked for extra plates in order for our group of 6 to share a taste of each dish. Not the craziest request, I would think!

The 2nd waiter proceeded to first, make a comment about sharing and laughing at the idea. Coming back with some dishes, after we had asked for plates, he blatantly refused, and stated that it was not tradition to share in Austria. Coming back a 3rd time with more food, he made sure to make a point to say that if we were visiting, we had to “follow OUR Austrian traditions” which means no sharing, apparently. At first we thought he was joking, but we did not receive any plates for the rest of the night.

As Asian American tourists, combined with signs on the wall specifically written in German and Chinese to indicate “ no cell phones”, this made for a very uncomfortable and negative experience. We questioned whether we had been disrespectful, but after discussing with Viennese locals, we had concluded that asking for extra plates was not an unreasonable request. Even if it was, the manner in which it was enforced was very strange and off-putting. I’d understand if this was a very upscale experience in which family style is a bit more frowned upon, but this felt like a mom and pop experience in which tasting the cuisine would be encouraged.

Food quality couldn’t save this experience, unfortunately, and was an unfortunate welcome to the country. Fortunately, we tried some other incredible places in the neighborhood during the rest of our trip (all of which graciously offered us...

Great traditional Austrian homecooking with daily rotating menus. It was our first night back in Vienna and this was one of the few places open on a Monday night that had classic Austrian food on the menu.

Unfortunately, I’ll have to levy most of my complaints to the service we got. I’ll be up front and say that the gentleman who I presume was the owner was very, very nice. He warmly greeted us and walked through the menu with us, translating every item to English and giving his personal recommendations. We loved him!

The server (who was wearing spectacles and had a scraggly beard and a full head of hair), however, was very oddly rude. As he brought out our food, we asked for plates to share the dishes, family-style. He outright refused, citing that this is a “traditional” place and told us, “If you are to come here, you need to operate by our traditions.” At first; we thought he was joking, but when he came back to bring out our last few dishes, he repeated himself, again saying that we had to abide by the house rules, and outright refused to give us plates for sharing.

For optics, we’re a Chinese-American family, and this interaction, alongside the signs in Chinese advising no phone usage, felt like a very unwelcome and racist microaggression against us. While I’m not sure if this was the server’s intention, he came off as xenophobic and demeaning, and I suspect he was judging us for sharing the plates family style (something that’s quite common in Chinese culture, mind you!). He did end up saying bye and thanking us as we left, so perhaps he meant no harm, but it was very awkward the entire night.

This really soured our experience at the restaurant, and it’s very unfortunate as we really enjoyed everything on the menu. Great food, but questionable service from the server despite the owner being so...

This place intrigued us for many reasons: their menu is handwritten in local language and it changes daily, they serve homemade traditional Austrian dishes, it's not close to the tourist area so it's for local people at local price, and there is a signage saying no mobile.

Once the kitchen opened at 6pm, the place started to become busy with local regulars whom the boss happily spoke to. We were sitting outside and the boss happily engaged conversation with us in English and he explained the dishes on the menu.

We ordered pork medallions in blue cheese sauce with green pasta, Carinthian cheese dumplings in butter with salad, a beer and a herbal tea.

The food and drinks came at a reasonable time. The drinks were standard. The dishes looked beautiful, were big in portion, and were flavoursome. We enjoyed every bit of it.

This has been one of our culinary highlights of Vienna. Thank you!

Note: cash only. There aren't many ATMs around so...