The Bank Brasserie & Bar — Restaurant in Vienna

Been here for the first time yesterday to meet with a good friend for dinner.

The location is simply stunning with a wonderful, warm lighting scene. A perfect contrast to soften out the dominating marble.

As you enter the restaurant you are welcomed by a hostess who takes care of your jackets. She will also guide you to the table from where on the waiter services you during your stay.

We decided to have a cocktail as an aperitive and so the waiter sent us one of his colleagues from the bar. The recommendation, description of the cocktails and service from the young barkeeper were on point.

We skipped the starters and ordered the mixed grill for two. Bread and butter is served before your meal arrives. This contained two spicy sausages (really good ones), 4 slices of flank steak medium, two about 5 cm (aprox. 2 inches) thick pieces of saddle of venison medium-rare and a half of a very young (can't remember the breed) chicken. Size of a pigeon I would say - looked nice and was juicy but nothing special compared to a regular chicken. For the price of 78 Euros without side dishes I felt this was quite overpriced. 50 would have been much fairer for this dish. We ordered Belgium fries and mixed mushrooms with hazelnuts as sides. Both good but quite pricey at 5 Euros each - especially the fries. The 3 sauces that come with the mixed grill are outstanding! The red wine sauce matched the venison excellently and the sauce Béarnaise was on of the best I ever had.

Our young but ever so skilled and well trained waiter helped us to choose a good glass of wine and could answer all our questions on the selection. The wine is stored in two big coolers with 8 doors each. 4 on ground level, 4 where the waiters climb up to on a ladder. Spectacular to watch! I can really recommend to try the "The Bank", a wine exclusive to this restaurant. It is listed as a white wine, but is indeed an orange wine. Really surprising taste that I will remember for a long time, won't reveal anything more, you got to make the experience yourself and won't be disappointed.

At the end of our stay we went to the bar to enjoy a cocktail again. There are some signiture cocktails exclusive to this restaurant and the barkeepers will help you find the perfect choice for your taste.

We spent about 210 Euros in total at the restaurant and bar (incl. tips) and 20 Euros each for parking at the "Garage am Hof" which is 4 Euros for each startet hour. The Garage is clean and you have service staff there but man, 4 Euros an hour, really?

Overall we had a great evening and enjoyed the athmosphere and ourselves. The food was really good but noth worth the price - that is why I rate this restaurant with 4 instead of 5 stars. It is OK if you spoil yourself from time to time but you can get higher quality food in Vienna at much more affordable places. Don't get this wrong please, the food was really good and we liked it both, but it was simply overpriced.

Special thanks to the staff, which is excellent and had a big role in making this an evening...

I was quite intrigued before coming here. The restaurant operates in what used to be a bank building. You might expect an overwhelming interior with all the marble and grandeur—especially if you’ve seen older bank interiors—but that’s not the case here. It’s tastefully done. We decided to give it a try, and we were very pleasantly surprised.

Quick tip before I dive in: if you're coming for the food, definitely book a table - it gets busy at times. If you're just after drinks, you should be fine without a reservation.

A few words about the setup and the entrance. As you walk in, a staff member greets you and checks your reservation - standard stuff. But the first impression? Very positive. Shouldn’t that always be the case? 😊 Well, life has its surprises, but not here!

The restaurant is spacious, and the interior has been beautifully adapted from its banking days. It leans toward a gently fancy style - elegant but not over the top. One detail I really liked: the chefs work in the open, right in the middle of the space, with two visible stalls. If you’re seated in the right direction, you can watch them in action, which adds a nice touch of charm and liveliness. Food is served at tables toward the center, while drinks are handled closer to the bar. The spacing between tables is generous, so you can enjoy a proper conversation without feeling cramped.

Now, the food and drinks. We started with cocktails - one of them a non-alcoholic mojito. Both were spot on. While sipping and soaking in the atmosphere, we admired the thoughtful design transformation. The waiter who served us was excellent - attentive but not intrusive, helpful without hovering.

For starters, we had French onion soup and beef tartare. The soup portion was generous - I'd almost call it a main! And it was full of flavor. As for the tartare, we’ve had it in other places, but this one? A king among tartares. You couldn’t taste the rawness of the meat - it was incredibly smooth and refined.

For the main, I went with an Austrian classic: schnitzel. It was executed to perfection - thin, crispy, and not a trace of excess oil. It came with baked baby potatoes and cucumbers salad, a perfect pairing. I couldn’t finish it all, though - the soup had already claimed some stomach real estate. Even if you try to stretch it, the stomach has its limits 😉.

This place is definitely staying on my list for when I...

I’ve often visited this restaurant for lunch, as its central location in Vienna makes it a convenient spot for business meetings. Since I was generally satisfied with the service during those lunches, I decided to book it for a special anniversary dinner — and that turned out to be a huge mistake.

It honestly felt like I had walked into a completely different restaurant that night. The level of service and overall atmosphere were shockingly worse.

Let me explain. I made a reservation well in advance and mentioned that we were celebrating our anniversary. I also asked for a cozy and romantic table — not a complicated request, especially for a loyal customer.

When we arrived, the manager seemed confused and irritated while searching for our reservation. After several minutes of frowning at the screen, he informed us that our table wasn’t ready and asked us to wait “just a few minutes.” Those few minutes turned into 40 minutes of standing around.

When we were finally seated at our supposedly “romantic” table, we couldn’t believe our eyes. Our table was squeezed between one with a huge dog lying under my chair and another with a large family and loudly screaming kids. The restaurant really outdid itself in creating a romantic atmosphere for regular guests like us.

But that wasn’t the end of it. Once seated, we waited another 30 minutes without anyone approaching us — no drinks, not even a glass of water offered. At that point, we stood up, thanked the restaurant for their “wonderful” treatment of loyal clients, and left.

We ended up having a fantastic evening elsewhere — in a much better restaurant in the city center — and paid about 30% less for a far superior experience.

If you value respect for customers, good service, reasonable prices, and quality food, I strongly suggest avoiding this place — at least in...