Café Restaurant Residenz
Location: Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna, Austria
Food: Light cafe treats and pastries
Atmosphere: Upscale coffeehouse
Traditional Apfelstrudel, only one of many cakes and pastries eaten on our trip through Vienna.
One thing I absolutely adore when eating overseas is tasting the deserts of our host country.
While in Vienna we made several stops at the Landtmann's fiene Patisserie around town, but on the first morning we visited Café Restaurant Residenz at the Schonbrunn Palace. That first day we had only one goal in mind: traditional apple strudel (Apfelstrudel) at the Schonbrunn Palace. It is one of Alex's favorite deserts, and we couldn't be in Austria without having one.
It. Was. Perfection. Warm and gooey apple filling, cinnamon, soft but chewy pastry crust, and home made creme on top and a vanilla ice cream on the side.
Aside from the Apfelstrudel, we tried as many cakes, coffees, and treats we could. Our list included:
The Emperor's Pancake, a sweet, cut-up pancake, served with stewed plums and apple puree. According the our server, this is a typical Austrian dish and recreation of a favorite of the Emperor Franz Joseph I.
Schokomoussetörtchen, a chocolate mousse tart with fresh strawberries and cream.
The Wiener Trio, Mini-Cakes of the Sacher, Mozart, and Raspberry cakes. The Sacher is a chocolate cake with a fruity apricot filling and glazed with sweetly bitter chocolate fondant. Mozart, fondly named after the Viennese composer, was topped with pistachio paste. Lastly, the Raspberry cake was a soft and creamy cake made from raspberry and vanilla mousse.
My favorite cake was the Mango Cream Torte, made with a passion-fruit cream on top of white sponge cake and layered with mango bits, mango mousse and light yoghurt mousse and raspberries.
Our tasty extravaganza was completed by a hot hazelnut coffee, a house-bottled melon-mint soda, and an Irish coffee.
