Taberna de la Mancha

Review

Tapeo of the happy figure

No, Andreas Steinberger didn't have to tilt at windmills. He simply chose the name Taberna de la Mancha because he thought people would relate to it. Don Quixote de la Mancha, Manchego cheese and all that. Until recently, Andreas Steinberger was the director of two inner-city hotels in Vienna. Then came Corona, and as the director of two inner-city hotels in Vienna, you had a lot of time to think. As a result, Steinberger thought: now something of his own, something small, something with passion! And he remembered his four years in Valencia, this beautiful, proud city, where both paella and horchata were invented: iced tigernut milk, the best summer drink (unfortunately almost only available there). Which is why he went from being a hotel manager to running a tiny tapas bar on Lerchenfelder Strasse in just one month, although he didn't specialize in tapas from the central Spanish region of La Mancha any more than he did from Valencia. Like most tapas providers in Vienna, he opted for a Spanish best-of. And the fact that the chef comes from Germany doesn't sound like a guarantee of fantastic tapas. Marinated artichoke hearts in an orange and basil emulsion, tender, bright green and delicious (€ 4.20), the croquetas - a staple of every Catalan tapas series and a wonderfully anti-hip snack with a glass of beer - with three different types of cheese are almost a little better than the ones with Serrano ham (€ 4.80 each). The grilled octopus with fennel, herbs and garlic melted in the mouth (€ 4.50) and the boccarones - sardines deep-fried in a light, thin batter and eaten whole - fortunately didn't melt in the mouth at all, but were fresh and crispy (€ 4.50).
Okay, the correct recipe for tortilla española - a kind of omelette with potatoes and onions - is debated throughout Spain, but the local one is small, round and quite fluffy, and is available with or without thinly sliced chorizo (€ 3.10 or € 3.50). The Taberna de la Mancha is tiny, the design is debatable, a little patience is required, you can't make a reservation, and last week the power went out. But you have to be grateful that someone puts such great tapas on the table for so little money and thus conveys the meaning of tapas as a spontaneous snack absolutely well. And for the oil-baked churros with chocolate sauce anyway. To sum up: not everything has to be perfect in a tapas bar. If the tapas are good, small and inexpensive, that's enough.

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