Doubek - Vienna
They can stand the heat, so don’t have to get out of the kitchen
Rating: 17/20
Where: Vienna, Austria
When: Dinner for 2 on 29 January 2025
Cost per Person: Tasting menu 265 Euro, Wine Pairing 170 Euro
Accolades: 2 Michelin Stars
Why: Every dish prepared over fire or coals; lots of seafood and meat served
After spending an afternoon visiting Vienna's famous art deco coffee houses, one might reasonably assume that Viennese fine dining would have a similar vibe, and take place in palatial surroundings from the 19th or early 20th century. In that case, a dinner at newly two-Michelin-starred “Doubek” will come as a surprise. The restaurant's interior is the exact opposite of art deco: minimal and modern.
Consider Doubek's dining room. Located underground, it has no windows, and all walls are painted black. This minimal interior design focuses all attention on the open kitchen at the head of the dining room. And the kitchen's main features are a wood burning oven and the glowing coals that are used to cook virtually every dish served in the restaurant. Whenever the lights in the kitchen were dimmed, the dancing orange and red flames become mesmerizing. I have probably never stared so much into an open kitchen - it was a dramatic display, all the more so since the flames stood out so starkly from the black background.
But let's start at the beginning. Doubek only served a single tasting menu, so no food-related decisions needed to be made. There was a wine pairing, and most of the wines were very good - wines that I'd drink even without food -, and they also matched the dishes quite well. But what was most interesting about the pairing was that all wines were poured from unlabeled bottles. Our hostess, main server and sommelier explained the flavor profile of each dish and corresponding wine and why they went together. However, no mention was made of what kind of wine it was - origin, grape variety or winery, they all remained a mystery. Somebody more versed in wines than me could have made this into a challenging guessing game, but I found that the absence of labels actually helped me focus on the wines and our sommelier's explanations. No taking photos of the bottle, no fiddling with Vivino, and no preconceived notions about how a wine should taste like based on its label. Decanting all the wines was probably beneficial from a taste perspective, too. A pairing that I’d definitely recommended trying. (And, in case you are wondering, there was a reveal at the end - we did get to see a lineup of all the bottles after our meal.)
Our dinner began in a small lounge, where we were served a snack: puffed beef tendons seasoned with black sansho pepper. Similar to chicharrones, the tendons were crunchy with a light note of savory pepper. Unfortunately, they were also a bit fatty - this “bar snack” definitely called for a liquid accompaniment. (Since the wine pairing started only much later, ordering an aperitif was therefore almost a requirement.) A good snack, but in its simplicity hard to rate higher than a 16.
After a bit of a wait, we were led downstairs to the dining room, where the dinner commenced for all guests at the same time. One not so ideal feature of the dining room were the tables. They were round and had a thick central support that made it impossible to straighten out one's legs underneath them. That made for an unusually uncomfortable seating arrangement during our 4+ hour dinner.
Our first dish in the dining room was a clarified beef “tea” that had been made with wagyu meat and wagyu oil. Warm, flavorful, nicely seasoned and salty, but ironically without much of a beef taste. A nice welcome nevertheless 17.
Next up: a little tartlet made from polenta that was filled with two kinds of hamachi tartare - one from the lean back of the fish and one from the belly. On top were some citrus fruit and crispy seaweed. The tartlet was crunchier than I had expected and the fish quite good but without much inherent flavor 17.
Speaking of citrus fruit - they were used not just with the hamachi tartare, but all throughout the menu. Apparently, the chef grows over forty different kinds in a garden in Vienna.
A filo dough cylinder was filled with a chili-seasoned shrimp tartare. It was topped with a coppa made from air-dried pork shoulder that had been heated over wooden coals. The tartare contributed a tiny hint of spice and a creamy texture, but most of the dish's taste came from the salty, flavorful meat on top. The filo dough added some crunch, making this a nice, rustic bite 17.
This was the point where the wine pairing finally started. Steamed mussels came in a sauce made from white wine, the mussels' steaming broth, some root vegetables and (if I understood correctly) 'nduja sausage. A lovely dish: the sauce was salty and very flavorful, however the mussels provided texture rather than taste 17.
The next course was the bread course, and it was paired with a glass of champagne - which at first sounded like a bizarre choice (expect maybe to stress-test the mantra that “champagne goes with everything”). But at Doubek most things happened for a reason. The bread was served warm and had been made from oats and prepared in a way similar to sourdough bread. The crunchy loaf had also been rolled in oats and caraway seeds, the latter giving the bread most of its flavor (its insides tasted pretty plain). On the side were a lightly salted butter from France, and a smoked, whipped crème fraîche that was topped with caviar and amaranth. The butter went quite nicely with the bread, but the crème fraîche and caviar were on another level. Eating them with the bread, I was reminded of the traditional serving of caviar and crème fraîche on blini. (The aftertaste of the caraway seeds broke the illusion somewhat, but not by much.) And for such a caviar preparation, champagne was the obvious pairing. It was nice to see how much thought had been put into something as “simple” as a bread course 18.
One common motif among the dishes at Doubek was their minimalistic aesthetic, often consisting of only a protein and a sauce or two. Obviously there was a lot going on under the hood, but it really focused the attention on the ingredients. The next course was a good example. Here, we got a steamed and lightly marinated king crab, served lukewarm over a crab bisque - an emulsion of tarragon, dill, fennel and chili. The crab meat looked a bit like pasta, but was (unsurprisingly) much more tender. This dish was intensely flavorful, with the sauce being a near perfect embodiment of concentrated crab flavor. Delicious 19.
A carabinero tail was topped with Meyer lemons, finger limes and powdered grilled carabinero legs. There were two sauces here: a tamari sauce made with egg yolks, and a sauce made from the carabinaro's juices. The carabinero tail and the tamari sauce were both creamy, the tamari sauce added some umami notes and the citrus fruit some acidity. But most notably, this was another strongly flavored dish. The carabinero sauce in particular was so intense that I couldn't even think of an adjective to do it justice. But even though there was a lot going on, all parts of the dish combined seamlessly when eaten together. Only nitpicks here, then: each bite ended on a slightly bitter note (no idea why), and the dish was a bit earthier than I would have preferred. Otherwise simply great 18.
Next up: A briefly fried scallop that came with an onion sauce, a sherry foam and the restaurant's homemade XO sauce (which contained some scallops as well). The scallop was good, but the sauces were even better - a bit sweet, and delicious even when eaten by themselves (maybe a 18 or 19 for the sauces alone). I wish that there had been more of the XO sauce, it was used only sparingly and its flavor was very subtle as a result 17.
A five-day dry-aged filet of turbot had been smoked over the fire and was topped with meat from the back of the turbot and a nut butter. Next to it was a pil pil sauce. The fish was full of flavor, and the nuttiness from the butter worked actually pretty well. The sauce could have been warmer, but eaten together with the fish it was a “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” situation - very good 18.
More seafood followed: a langoustine glazed with shio koji and dusted with fermented yuzu powder. It sat on some mustard seeds and came with a mustard green sauce and a yuzu koshō butter sauce. The langoustine was cooked perfectly: juicy and with a lemony flavor. The butter sauce was a bit heavy for this dish - while its lemon flavor was quite good, it was just too fatty, and the langoustine actually tasted better without it. The mustard seeds cut through the heaviness of the dish a bit, I only wish that there had been more of them. The green sauce was also a nice accompaniment - again, more would have been even better 17.
The next dish did not come with a paired wine, for the simple reason that it was essentially a soup. An egg custard was served with chicken meat, an oyster and a tea-like sauce. That tea had been brewed from chicken feet, galangal, lemon balm and lemon grass among other ingredients. Crispy sliced shallots and a crispy chili oil completed the dish. I was reminded of Thai cuisine, probably thanks to the lemon grass and the spiciness of the dish. The chicken, with a texture similar to ground chicken, was very flavorful since it soaked up the flavors from all the other ingredients. The shallots were not that that crispy, but the egg was nicely creamy 17.
Cod had been steamed in sea water for an hour before being cooked over a 300°C fire. It was topped with young green peas that had been grilled over coals, and was seasoned with a kaffir lime leaf oil and a dashi beurre blanc made from browned butter. The nicely cooked fish was full of flavor, and the peas of good quality with a pronounced pea taste. The sauce was lovely as well, although it had less acidity than most beurre blancs and more of a brown butter taste. A dish that was best eaten with a spoon in order to combine all the different components in every bite 18.
The final savory course used a five-week-aged duck that had been filled with hay and elderflowers during the aging process. Two slices of duck breast came with a duck liver sauce, a duck jus, green peppercorns, smoked juniper and juniper oil. The duck was pretty good, with a little, but not too much fat. But flavorwise it was only a supporting player in its own dish. The main stars here were the intense sauces, which were very savory, with plenty of umami and earthiness thanks to the duck liver. Halfway through the course, we were served a Japanese milk bread (shokupan) filled with duck leg meat. The bread was meant to sop up any remaining sauce. By itself, the bread was a bit dry due its filling, which curiously had some Christmassy spices 16.
As a quick intermezzo - or palate cleanser, maybe - we received a dried slice of an Amalfi lemon seasoned with lemon salt and sansho pepper. There was a hint of sweetness, some acidity, but mostly plenty of spice, so much that it had a bit of a numbing effect. Surprisingly intense for a palate cleanser, but thankfully tempered by the paired demi-sec champagne 16.
A little mochi ball was filled with roasted black sesame, ginger and lemon grass and was served with a muscovado sugar sauce. This was also a surprisingly spicy dish, probably due to the ginger, but it was again cooled down by the off-dry champagne. There was a bit of nuttiness from the sesame, and the sauce tasted essentially of molasses. Sweet, but not too sweet 17.
The next dish also looked like a palate cleanser. Sour cream ice cream with kaffir lime zest and bergamot. Cold, lemony, creamy, but maybe a bit too sour and with a bit too much granita. It was paired with a house-made limoncello that felt too sweet for this dish 16.
What looked like a s'more (and was charred table-side with a glowing coal), was a choux pastry filled with a cardamon/mascarpone cream, topped with white chocolate and a toasted meringue. Tastewise, though, it was quite unlike a s'more. The main flavor was of cardamon, with a bit of smokiness. A pretty light bite 16.
A vanilla canelé came next. Unfortunately, its exterior was not crunchy at all. The inside texture was better - it was appropriately undercooked, but there wasn't much of a vanilla flavor. A bit disappointing, since I love good canelés 15.
Finally, we got to a large selection of petit fours. A chocolate tartlet was topped with dried raspberries and lemon salt. This mini-cake was warm and freshly baked, the raspberries had a good flavor, although the dish might have been even better with fresh raspberries 16. A pate de fruit made from blood oranges and topped with a rosemary sugar was quite sweet 15. Sour cherries soaked in rum tasted of rum but sadly weren’t sweet at all 13. Little cinnamon buns were excellent - I wish that I could get them for breakfast every day. They might have been even better if they had been served warm(er) 17. A hazelnut/cocoa praline was very soft, without any crunch, and with a nut butter flavor 16. A praline filled with marzipan and salted almonds tasted more of almonds than most marzipan would 15. Finally, a selection of fruit was fine, but not revelatory - January is probably not the best time for such a dish 14.
There's no doubt that chef Stefan Doubek's cuisine is highly focused - all dishes, even the desserts, were prepared using fire. Cuisine-wise, the minimalistic dishes took some inspirations from Scandinavian (and less so, Japanese) cuisine, but the pervasive use of fire was definitely beyond what Noma & Co would do in a single menu. In that respect, Doubek is actually closer to San Francisco's Saison of the late 2000s and early 2010s. The main difference is that Saison used vegetables prominently, whereas Doubek focuses mostly on animal proteins.
Overall: Delicious Scandinavian-inspired cuisine that used fire and embers in all dishes. I loved the single-minded focus of the menu - there really was a thread running all the way through our dinner. Nevertheless, the result didn't feel repetitive; all the dishes were quite different. Some of them were up in three-star territory, making this an extremely strong two-star entry. The service was wonderful as well, and I liked the thought that had gone into “the little things” that other restaurants might have done on auto-pilot, like the bread course that was also a caviar presentation, and the label-less wine pairing. Definitely a place to watch 17.
