Bars & Pubs

By Ben McFarland

You'll find Imbiss in the no man’s maze of Marylebone streets that are north of Marble Arch and flanked by the hookah pipe and houmous highway that is Edgware Road. It's a small bar-cum-deli-cum-coffee shop-cum to think of it, what is it?

Whatever it is, it’s recognisably Austrian but not in a yodeling or apfelstrudel way. It’s opted for an avant-garde Alpine approach; think future ‘Sound of Music’ with mountain-scape pictures, modern art, traditional steins, lots of wood and bovine bits and bobs. It’s actually quite cosy.

Drink in Austria’s impressive brewing heritage, often overshadowed by that of neighbouring Germany, with the superb Steigl (a wheat beer and crisp lager) on draught and a bottled selection from the highly, and rightly, rated Hirter brewery. Austrian wines and Viennese coffees are also served with efficient aplomb and, in the latter’s case, a Milka chocolate.

'Imbiss' is the German word for snack or light meal, but loosen your lederhosen as this is serious artery-clogging Austrian cuisine. The ‘stuff-yer-face-platter’ for six people includes smoked pork and beef sausages (wurst), grilled meatloaf (leberkäse), fried eggs, sauerkraut, bread rolls, sausages filled with cheese (kasëkrainer) and, for serious greedy guts, a mixed salad. There are cakes and pastries too.

In comparison, the regulars are just people. Everyday people. You might overhear them discussing: Why is the Milka cow so lilac? It’s got something to do with Wagner and Milka Ternina, the early twentieth-century soprano. Apparently.

Time Out London Issue 2010: February 26-March 24 2009