Seven North

Review

Schottenfeld is located near Tel Aviv

Photo: Heribert Corn When Miznon opened just behind St. Stephen's Cathedral at the end of 2015, it took a lot of optimism to believe in its success: young people from Israel making filled flatbreads and shouting your name when they're done. And drinks to go with it. But firstly, these flatbreads are incredibly good, secondly, the Miznon's iconic dish, oven-baked cauliflower, has triumphed around the world and thirdly, everything that has anything to do with Tel Aviv is insanely mega and front and center right now.
And Miznon has a lot to do with Tel Aviv, where the Israeli celebrity chef Eyal Shani developed it as a third line under his gourmet restaurant HaSalon and the trendy restaurant Tzfon Abraxas. In addition to Tel Aviv and Vienna, Miznon can now be found in Paris, Melbourne and New York and is buzzing everywhere. And now it's time to duplicate Tzfon Abraxas/North Abraxas, after the young Dutch hotel chain Max Brown commissioned Eyal Shani to equip the recently opened branch in Vienna's Schottenfeldgasse with a restaurant. At first glance, Seven North doesn't look particularly unusual. Lots of old wood, lots of tiling, cement tiles, industrial lamps, central bar, open kitchen, DJ booth, second-hand furniture - just like every reasonably contemporary ski lodge in Ischgl and every restaurant in a hotel chain with a "youthful" attitude around the world now looks, mainstream shabby. The wines on the menu are standard, the beer comes from Ottakringer, so you don't get the feeling that the gastronomic world is trying to reinvent itself. The only difference is that the cooking at Seven North is simply insanely good. The menu was still quite small during the soft opening phase last week, and perhaps when you read "fresh salad from the old city of Jeruzalem", you expect a little more than a bowl of finely chopped tomatoes, cucumber, onions and parsley. But its simplicity is hard to beat (€ 10). Well, the artichoke & aioli could perhaps have been a little more refined than a boiled artichoke with aioli, but the garlic mayonnaise was great and the thistle leaves were also quite something (€ 8.50). The chicken liver with tahini, potatoes and spring onions was a real winner - the liver and potatoes were heavily roasted, with lots of pepper and flavored with sesame sauce - I've never had better chicken liver (€12.50). Incidentally, the portions are not very large and a certain level of hectic chaos is simply part of the corporate identity of Eyal Shani's restaurants. Nevertheless, it will be very, very successful. Summary: After Miznon, celebrity chef Eyal Shani is now also bringing his "more elegant" trendy restaurant concept to Vienna. Seven North 7th, Schottenfeldg. 74, Tel. 01/376 10 70, Sun-Thu 12-1pm, Fri-Sat 12-3pm,

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