Restaurants

By Guy Dimond. Photography Jonathan Perugia

Thump, thump, thump came the noise from the adjoining kitchen - the sound of our wiener schnitzel being flattened. Cafe Strudel serves this and a handful of other iconic Austrian specialities, from spätzle (gnocchi-like pasta) to a good selection of well-made Austrian wines - but it's also making use of local, British produce. Our flattened schnitzel (veal cutlet) came from Mill Farm Organic in Hampshire, and the menu namechecks other prominent producers throughout; our saddleback pork came from the well-regarded Denham Estate. This pork made a tasty chop when served with black pudding, roast apple, red cabbage and the so-called 'napkin dumpling' (a dumpling of steamed semolina).

Good produce is one thing, but the precise, production line cooking you find in big brasseries on the continent is quite another. The breading on the schnitzel was moist and wrinkled like a bulldog's neck by the time it reached us; perfectly edible, but the amateurish presentation needed a little work.

Open all day, Cafe Strudel slips seamlessly from full-on restaurant into cake and coffee shop. It certainly looks the part with its globe lights, white tablecloths and tiers of cakes in the window. The selection's brief, and own-made: evident in a cheesecake which had not risen properly (for which the owner Orly Kritzman apologised), to a chocolatey poppyseed cake. The apple strudel had a delicately crisp filo case, but the pieces of apple inside were chunky rather than elegant. The range of hot chocolates and coffees does the Viennese tradition justice: our heisse schokolade was as rich as the Habsburg Monarchy, and the elaborate variations on espresso (with kirsch, with dark rum, etc) make the comparatively tame-flavoured coffees of Starbucks seem like a Lutheran sermon compared to the choirs and incense of a Papal mass.

Service throughout was charming, and our waiter guided us through the list of Austrian beers like an expert.

Time Out Issue 1970: May 16 - 22