The food and beverage facilities within many of Vienna's museums are often simple, self-service snack bars, but this one, nestled within the MAK, is a deeply respected culinary destination in its own right. It occupies a pair of rooms on the museum's street level, one of them an enormous and echoing room that's capped with one of the most elaborate coffered and frescoed ceilings in town; the other a smaller, postmodern, glass-sided room with a ceiling that rolls back during clement weather for a view of the sky. There's also a garden terrace that's not immediately visible when you first enter; so if you want to dine outside (and in summer, almost everyone does), be sure to make your wishes known. Since 2006, the culinary inspiration behind all this is Helmut Österreicher, a chef who has helped to redefine the tenets of modern Viennese cuisine -- a lighter interpretation of what dining with the Habsburgs really meant. The menu is divided into two categories, one featuring "classical" and the other "modern" Viennese cuisine. Favored dishes (for example, personally recommended by Herr Österreicher) among the classical choices include zwiebelrostbraten, roast beef with onions and sautéed potatoes; Wiener schnitzel; and tafelspitz -- in this case, two types of prime boiled beef with fried grated potatoes, apple horseradish, and chive sauce. Recommended modern choices include artfully presented versions of roasted chicken in a creamy paprika sauce (utterly delicious) with small creamed dumplings; salmon-trout in a muesli crust served with potato-based noodles; and pikeperch on a bed of tomato-flavored cabbage with parsley potatoes. Menu items change frequently with the inspiration of this gifted chef.
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