There’s no wonder why proposals are sprung regularly at this spinning restaurant propped at the top of the Donauturm, the Turmrestaurant. The sweeping panorama of Vienna that you can catch in between views of the inventive Austrian cuisine on your plate is one of the best in the city, and makes for quite the romantic backdrop.
We’re not exaggerating when we describe how the orange glow of the sunset does literally land on diner’s faces here. It’s all very ‘aaaahhhhh’ inspiring.
The Turmrestaurant serves up inventive Austrian cuisine.
The menu hosts a raft of Austrian flavours, including the likes of the Wiener Schnitzel (after all, this is a place where tourists and locals mingle). However, the kitchen crew reinterprets the Viennese classics and gives them a modern touch. With the impressive food presentation on our plates, we wonder if there’s a bet going on in the kitchen amongst the chefs that their plates can compete with the perfect panoramic view.
It’s a white table cloth and polished cutlery kind of deal. As to be expected, this unique experience comes with slightly higher price tags in the menu.
The chefs get creative in the menu’s ‘Recommendations’ section where the seasonal specialities are kept eg. an asparagus risotto, topped with grilled green asparagus and a tomato vinaigrette, or a buttermilk lime mousse, hanging out on a plate with marinated strawberries, ice cream and angel hair.
The starters will get you started in the right way.
The marinated salmon trout comes with a Nuri fish spread, sour cream, trout caviar and cucumbers.
The ‘Kalbsbutterschnitzel,’ (translation: veal butter Schnitzel) isn’t what you think it is. It’s served up as minced veal butter meat balls that come crowded by creamy mashed potatoes, fried onions and gravy – think of it as somewhat fancy Austrian comfort food. It tastes fancy too.
Also the grilled ‘Zanderfilet’ (translation: a filet of Pike Perch), is a fish dish you’d find in almost any Austrian Gasthaus, but at the Turmrestaurant, they serve it up with balsamic lentils, pan-fried potatoes, and mustard sauce.
Have we mentioned the view?
With its prime location at 170m high above Vienna, and the glass windows that wrap around the dining area, you’ll have a grand 360° panoramic view over Vienna to enjoy with your meal.
The restaurant rotates to ensure you see the view from a variety of angles. Don’t worry, you won’t feel the spin. It moves slowly, with one full rotation taking a little less than an hour. So, take your time eating.
Looking down on the city gives us a god(dess)-like feeling.
There’s something fun about watching all the busy ants aka. humans below in their tiny toy-like cars from high above, and in between mouthfuls of our mashed potatoes exclaiming, ‘bow down before us people of Vienna, we are your rulers!’.
Nobody bows below. And we get a little embarrassed when some chunky potato mash spittle makes it onto the table cloth, and the other diners are looking. We remind ourselves this is classy setting and to behave.
Anyway, the view puts things into perspective, if you know what we mean.
You also notice how amazingly green our big city actually is and how rural-like parts of Vienna are.
And then there’s the desserts…
If you’re like us, then you can’t get enough of desserts and it’s always a shame when you’re with that ‘friend’ who won’t share their dessert. Turmrestaurant has thought about this and taken care of this dilemna.
Here, they’ll give you three small pieces of different kinds of strudels, or three types of sorbets, so you can have more than just one flavour, and share. It’s like a dessert slider. Amazeballs.
The Turmrestaurant is for those memorable moments for when you’re like, ‘f**** it! Let’s go crazy!’
We can definitely see why people come up here for a special romantic night. It’s also god to impress any visitors your have in town. It should definetely be on your Vienna bucket list.
And once you’ve done nibbling at caviar with goat cheese smeared on a exquisite nutty bread (we’ll never forget you bread…we promise) you can do some summertime drinking at the new brewpub, Donaubräu, on the ground floor of the tower. We’ve tried that too and we’d highly recommend combining the experiences.
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