Olinda Bar

Review

Oh, how beautiful!

These bars are becoming more and more popular at the moment: every week, one opens somewhere, people throw around words like "Speak-easy", "hidden", "Botanicals" and "Highball", bartenders no longer mix, but "build in a glass". And of course, at the end, some kind of balloon has to arch over the glass or a room firework has to explode. Call me Boomer, but this mixture of alcoholic excess and children's birthday party gets on my nerves a bit. The Miranda Bar in Esterházygasse was always a pleasant exception. It serves its own creations and "infuses" spirits with various ingredients. But where the bartenders don't act like they're defusing a nuclear bomb when preparing a mixed alcoholic drink. These Miranda bartenders teamed up with Fridolin Fink, one of the Miranda and If dogs run free owners. The two companies separated and the "Miranda" team took over the Thai Kitchen in the fifth district, a Thai restaurant that has been around for ages but unfortunately hasn't operated in the notable area for a long time. The young architect and video clip producer Clara Maria Fickl gave the restaurant an unagitated, relaxed design without any kitsch (which unfortunately seems unavoidable in the current bars). There is a bar room with desks, bar stools and very cosy seating in the window alcoves as well as a room where you can sit at tables. As in Esterházygasse, a beautiful name was found here too: "Olinda", Portuguese for "oh, how beautiful". An "O" is also added to all drinks in which the operators reinterpret a classic drink. The Martini O, for example, which uses verjus and the salty umeboshi plum instead of vermouth, is very good (€ 13). The O Paloma Highball (Highball = Cocktail-G'spritzter) was also great, grapefruit-tart and refreshing (€ 13,-). Colleague Kaltenbrunner had fun with the O'75, a combination of vodka, cranberry, raspberry and champagne in a martini glass. No wonder, as it's the most expensive drink on the menu (€ 17.-). When it came to the bar food, which is already an essential part of the "Olinda" concept, I might have expected a little more than an already good combination of tapenade, beetroot tartare and fennel salad (€ 7.-) or a somewhat soggy broccoli and leek quiche (€ 10.-). Roast beef with cabbage sprouts was unfortunately out, instead there were roast beef sandwiches, impeccable, but no more (€ 8.50). Perhaps the Olindas could do a bit better, it would be cool. A pleasant, unkitschy bar where you can have a good time and get a good drink during the day at the weekend.

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