Das Bootshaus

Review

Help, my salad is whistling!

Photo: Heribert Corn Rowing is a great sport. Elegant, silent, fast, efficient - like riding a racing bike among water sports (although you can tip over in a rowing boat and then drown, so I'd rather ride a racing bike ...). And because two sons of Berndt and Irmgard Querfeld, Vienna's undisputed coffee house imperial couple, practice this sport at a competitive level, the Querfelds felt compelled to take over the Neu Brasilien shelter on the Old Danube.
It has to be said that this shelter - founded in 1904 by naturist Florian Berndl with the allotment garden colony "Neu Brasilien" - was one of the few places on the lower Old Danube that had nothing to do with rowing: the boat and club houses of the various rowing clubs were lined up close together here, making Neu Brasilien a pleasant culinary contrast. It was also old and kitschy, with its terrace and pontoon decorated with oleanders, much more tranquil than the Spareribs Mega Center a few metres further on. However, the days of tranquillity on the Old Danube are coming to an end, it seems, and the scent of "adventure zone" and "fun area" is already a little in the air. And accordingly, the Querfelds will be converting the former Neu Brasilien shelter into a hip, bright restaurant with a rowing club atmosphere called "Das Bootshaus" by the summer. And until then, a kiosk has been set up on the terrace, from which young people in rowing club polo shirts are playing pop-up games in the open-air area by the water. This is good, not least because no reservations are accepted and you can easily get a seat on the pontoon (which was almost impossible in the New Brazil days). It's also good because they now serve breakfast, sandwiches and salads, which may not sound overly original, but in view of the Spareribs hegemony on the Old Danube, it promises refreshment. You order and pay, get a piece of plastic, sit down, and when the food is ready to be picked up, the thing starts beeping very energetically. Stressful. But it gets really sad when you see what the boathouse means by Caesar's salad, namely shredded lettuce hearts with white bread cubes (croutons are something else ...), bacon cubes and a few oiled dried tomatoes. This wonderful salad doesn't deserve this kind of treatment, it's not fair (€ 8.50). The pastrami stegtoast - flatbread, beef steak ham, melted cheddar - was at least plentiful and filling, which is important for athletes, but it doesn't make you cheer (€ 11.90). Which, for the time being, doesn't give you the urgent feeling that the situation here has improved. Summary: The New Brazil shelter is dead, long live the boathouse. Or rather its pop-up. The Bootshaus - Pop up 22nd, An der unteren Alten Donau 61 Mon-Fri 12-20, Sat, Sun 10 to sunset

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