Josefins Salatbar

Review

There we have the salad

In the countryside, the Viennese are considered "salad eaters", and the Viennese women are anyway. Salad eaters are those who cycle, vote green, are in favor of a fair asylum law and against the diesel privilege. Anna Goldnagl comes from Vienna and is homosexual, woke and generally stupid. She first studied architecture here, but then went to a real city for a year and a half, namely Paris. There she attended the most famous cooking school in the world, Le Cordon Bleu, and worked in the banquet department of Le Bristol in Paris, which is no laughing matter either. At some point, however, she felt a longing for home, for family and friends, and returned two years ago. Here she developed a restaurant concept that would certainly do well in Rue Saint-Honoré, Notting Hill or Bryant Park, but is more of an exception in Vienna. Josefin's salad bar is a small, very nicely styled snack bar with a display case in which colorful salads are presented. No pizza, no burgers, no nixtamalized tacos, no high-end kebab - that's almost bold these days. Okay, Anna Goldnagl chose a high-traffic tourist location between St. Stephen's Cathedral and St. Peter's Church, where things are probably generally easier to sell than anywhere else. How a 28-year-old young entrepreneur can afford this is not something we need to worry about. However, there is no cooking in the former tax-free tax refund office anyway, that happens near the Meidlinger Markt, where Goldnagl also gets some of her produce from. What does salad have to be able to do to attract attention in carnivorous Vienna? It has to look good, and the Josefins salads absolutely deliver: the two bestsellers, "Crunchy Cucumber" in green and "Harissa Carrot" in red, are hard to resist. The cucumber is accompanied by avocado, edamame, mint and spring onions, a tahini marinade and crispy caramelized rice, very good (€ 6.50/12.50), the dark red oven carrots are combined with harissa, coriander seeds, honey and feta cream (€ 6.50/12.50). Both salads would perhaps benefit from a touch of acidity for a lively freshness. The halloumi herb hummus salad is also pleasing to the eye, but a little bland (€ 7.50/14.50). The salade niçoise has the whole orchestra of ingredients together with tuna, olives, capers, soft-boiled egg, green beans, shallots and potatoes, thank you, but the salad definitely deserves better potatoes (€ 6.50/12.50). But that's complaining on a high level, with this salad bar, the city is definitely experiencing an addition in the area of good snacks. Into town for a salad? Sounds strange, but at Josefin's salad bar it becomes a conceivable lunchtime scenario.

More in Restaurants, Taverns, Inns
Food & Drink in Vienna