Restaurant Konstantin Filippou — Restaurant in Vienna

Ever since my first visit more than 5 years ago, Konstantin Filippou had been one of my heros of fine dining. I'm a nerd when it comes to food and together with my partner we frequently explore places all over the world. That evening with its almost brutal attention to detail, the opinionated, aggressive approach to a signature cuisine blew my mind and I still think back often, remembering how we left that place in positive disbelief whether something that perfect can even exist.

When we returned yesterday after all these years, it was one of these nights when we'd rather not have left the hotel. We had been looking forward to this for months, and everything started nicely, the amuse was brilliant, aperitif well suited.

Then a series of events unfolded that took away attention from the food. Which - important to say- was beautifully crafted and flavorwise very well executed (compliments to the kitchen!). To us, it maybe didn't feel as perfectly refined as 5 years ago - but that's personal taste and shouldn't matter here.

It all started with the wine. We ordered an aged bottle of white burgundy and when the server arrived found it to be a beautiful bottle, if maybe with a bit of "youthful aggression". Then I looked at the cork and saw they had given us a different vintage that was 4 years younger than on the wine list. "Honest mistake", I thought and talked to the sommelier who said "I should've let you know" and pointed towards the head sommelière, as if she was responsible. He owned up to the mistake later by saying they would offer us something nice later, she never did even mention it. This kind of mistake is not minor for a restaurant of this level, this is not a pizzeria that now serves the 2019 pinot grigio and forgot to update the menu. And to be honest, it left the feeling there could be intention behind that. Serving a different vintage can make a lot of a purchase price difference for the restaurant after all.

I don't want to go into detail about the rest of the night, there was a lot that went wrong, from a former guest's chewing gum under the table to missed orders, nobody asking whether we want coffee for / after dessert, rhythm issues in food service and the apology for the wine coming in form of a tannic, heavy red wine that was served in the middle of a very sweet dessert. But sometimes there's these black Monday kind of nights where everything goes wrong and our server and also the "junior" sommelier tried their best to keep us happy, so shout out to them.

What was really missing, was the feeling of coordination and ownership by a proper restaurant manager. Coming to our table, offering a proper apology and a mitigation is a basic standard in a 2 star restaurant when something goes wrong, even if the guests are unhappy without reason I've seen people go above and beyond. It's what great hospitality should be about.

The price for a night like this pays respect to artistic creativity, brilliant craftsmanship and last but not least a beautiful experience with flawless service. It's a wonderful evening of food theater if you wish. This night, we decided not to come back again. Our waiter was lovely, the sommelier owned up to a mistake, but the overall lack of ownership felt like this is a fading star.

And here's one last thing that brought this from 4 to 3 stars: over the course of the years I've never seen a toilet more disgusting than this in a michelin star restaurant. The only way to dry your hands was a box of cosmetic tissues and the toilet itself deteriorated to the displayed state over the course of the night, obviously nobody checked on it for more than 2 hours. Of course as somebody must've left it like that you would also expect more decency on the guest's side, but that doesn't free you guys from the task of checking.

Overall, dear Konstantin Filippou: this wasn't good. Maybe you should have a discussion about ownership with your senior staff. In any case I hope you pull your stuff together and come back to previous times' flawlessness, we'll keep remembering that...

Took my partner here for dinner (6 course with wine pairing) for her 35th birthday. I cannot emphasise enough how enjoyable our overall experience was and would strongly recommend to anyone living in Vienna or visiting the city. Restaurant experiences like the dinner menu at Konstantin Filippou in Vienna are very, very rare and should be cherished by anyone who is lucky enough to dine there.

FOOD We chose the 6-course tasting menu, but in reality it was more like 10 courses with several, sumptuous amuse bouches and 3 (!) deserts. I imagine the menu is changed quite regularly, but in our case we were treated to (though far from limited to) sea urchin, caviar, langoustine, unagi eel and many other delicious flavours. Sometimes surprising combinations on paper, each dish worked as well in their own right as they did in the overall sequencing of the dishes.

WINE Preferring the 'Journey through Austria' to the 'Journey through Europe' for some local wines to pair with the locally sourced food, it was an excellent selection. The pairings showed the breadth and depth of the country's winemaking, from strong Rieslings to more delicate orange wines from near the Hungarian border. I am far from a wine aficionado, but the explanations from the sommerliers were clear, accurate and right on-point to a layman like myself.

SERVICE Seamless, warm and friendly. I do not speak German, but this was not an issue for any of the staff who spoke flawless English and all oozed genuine charisma and charm. It was the eve of the Champions League final (big football fan!) between Liverpool and Spurs, and the waiter was able to converse in Jurgen Klopp's European footballing record as well as he could explain to us the finest details of the Riesling we were drinking in what I presume was his second, possibly third or fourth, language! And they made an extra effort to arrange a chocolate mousse for my partner on her birthday, which we loved.

SETTING The only slight concern I had in the run up to this dinner was that the aesthetics of the venue appeared quite dark for what was a balmy summer night inside. It couldn't have been less true. The decor and design was really quite beautiful: subtle, sleek, elegant and matching of the cooking style. There were perhaps half a dozen or so other tables, close enough to one another to give a nice buzz in the restaurant but far enough for you to feel the privacy of your own table. The restaurant is then only a stone's through from the old town to stroll through after with a real buzz and spring in your step!

If anyone from the restaurant is reading this, I would once again like to thank you for a special, special evening and wish you all the best luck in getting that final notch on the belt! You...

I recognize that opinions may differ, but I have to say that we had a hilariously bad experience here.

First, giving praise where it’s due—the courses were generally thoughtfully designed and executed. It’s a seafood heavy menu (~5 courses), but we didn’t mind that. Each course was very artfully arranged. Personally, I thought the bread—both during the bread/butter course and with the main pigeon course (pictured)—was the highlight. Unfortunately, I can’t comment on the dessert courses, for reasons I will get into below.

Word to the wise: if you plan on eating here, don’t make any other evening plans. We were seated at 6:30 and left the restaurant at 10:15—having skipped the 2 remaining dessert courses. Judging from the reaction of the manager when we asked for our check, maybe it was strange of us to leave dinner early, but we did so only after waiting a full hour after our mains had been cleared away for the final courses that never appeared. (I’ll admit, the service may have seemed especially slow to us because the dining area was also uncomfortably hot. It had been 92 degrees F/33 degrees C outside earlier in the day, and the restaurant was not air conditioned.)

Putting this aside, however, I think the crux of our negative experience and the reason why I felt the need to write this review was in the staff’s handling of our situation. After watching server after server walk by our table, we finally spoke to the hostess (who was the only staff member who we could flag down). We told her that, in light of how long we had been waiting for our next course, we think it would be best just to get our check. She responded that she would send over the manager. After several more minutes (at this point, well over an hour since our last course), we looked over to see the restaurant manager speaking to the hostess and gesturing angrily toward our table. When the manager eventually came to see us, he said nothing to us at all and produced only the 713 € check—with no reduction of any kind. To be clear, I do not feel that our decision to leave the restaurant after 4 hours entitled us to a reduced bill. However, in light of our communication to the hostess, I was expecting at least an explanation of the slowness of service or even an inquiry of our experience. The downright hostile demeanor of the manager reflects a lack of hospitality that I’ve never seen at a peer restaurant. No matter the fancy trappings of the meal—the fact that this is the way a 2-star restaurant treats its patrons is as surprising as it is...