Figlmüller in Vienna

The famous Figlmüller, founded in 1905, offers the unique-sized Wiener Schnitzel, which I had a chance to taste during my recent stay in Vienna.

 

 

The restaurant is located near Stephansplatz, the city center, in the court yard of a small side street. We had difficulties finding it, although it is quite simple. From Stephansplatz, go through the Dom Museum and you are standing in front of its entrance. It doesn’t look so evident, does it?

 

 

If you are coming from the other side of the city, you have a better chance to recognize the court yard where it is located because the entrance has more advertisement.

 

 

The restaurant, being a traditional Wiener Beisl rustically decorated, provides a pleasant and friendly atmosphere. The service personnel is friendly and responds promptly to the customers’ requests.

 

As everyone else, I have visited this restaurant with the purpose of trying out their highly-advertised Wiener Schnitzel. Upon my arrival, I was surprised by the very long line of people waiting to get in. Some of them were standing there in the line for over an hour already, even if hopeless to get a table, because all were reserved.

Luckily, I have reserved a table three days prior to our trip to Vienna so we encountered no problems entering the place. We were seated in the winter garden near the entrance, where unfortunately all the hungry people waiting in line were watching over us like hawks. This made our stay slightly awkward.

 

 

For anyone planning to visit Figlmüller, I highly recommend to make a reservation of a table prior to the visit or to go during the weekdays/during the day, when the crowd is less and you can be accommodated quickly.

 

The menu offers plenty of choices, but most of the guests, including us, order their famous Wiener Schnitzel anyway. We didn’t wait long until our order was served. Although I have seen pictures of the Schnitzel on the internet, I was anyhow overwhelmed by its size, which was bigger than the plate on which it was served.

 

 

This Schnitzel is an extremely thin slice of veal, thinner than usual, coated in breadcrumbs and deep fried.

 

 

The coat of breadcrumbs is strangely sticking to the meat, compared to the previous Schnitzels which I have tasted. Those had a fluffy breadcrumbs coat separated from the slice of veal.

 

 

I found the thin slice of veal as being too thin for my taste and preference. It made the taste of the fried breadcrumbs by far more intensive than the taste of the veal. The Schnitzel seemed slightly dry, so it needed a lot of lemon and salad with vinegar dressing as a side dish. We chose both the parsley potatoes and mixed salad with dressing as side dishes; they both go excellent with the Schnitzel, complementing very well each other.

 

This was indeed a unique experience worth trying… once, a sort of “do it once, but never again” kind of experience. I found it to be a good value and quality for money but not worth for the big advertisement and the hours of waiting in line to get in. There are plenty of very nice restaurants in Vienna, which deserve more credit than this one, being less crowded and advertised, but offering more privacy and better environment to the customers. Additionally, I will be sticking to the regular Wiener Schnitzels, which I prefer over this one.