For an architect to have their work immortalised in buildings we still enjoy today is one thing (to the extent they escape demolition or bombing), but to have a restaurant named after you too, intended for the communal joy of breaking bread centuries later, must be something to really aspire to. Until a few years ago, London had The Gilbert Scott at the St Pancras Hotel, a magnificent Gothic building saved from destruction by Sir John Betjeman. This now houses a Hawksmoor, the well-known steak chain also named after an architect (Nicholas Hawksmoor). Meanwhile, slap-bang on Vienna’s Schottenring, there is Edvard.
Edvard honours Danish-born architect Baron Theophil Edvard von Hansen who was responsible for many of Vienna’s beautiful neoclassical buildings, especially around the Ringstrasse (including Austria’s Parliament). His namesake restaurant is within the Anantara Palais Hansen hotel, the general interior of which today feels a bit corporate with a distinctive whiff of expense accounts. I wasn’t that impressed by Theo’s Lounge, the hotel’s reception-bar hybrid in the ground floor atrium: bright lighting and a constant revolving door of guests, resulting in inattentive service and a half-hearted Negroni, do not make for the most enjoyable of cocktail hours (for a pre-dinner tipple you’re better off at Bar Campari). But I was impressed by Edvard, the fancier of the hotel’s two restaurants. Well, apart from some slightly over-zealous cheffiness and a quirky welcome that involves picking snacks off a plastic tree, it was an excellent meal and somewhere I’d recommend if you’re ever in Vienna.
Edvard is by no means cheap… but it’s worth noting they do a superb value three-course lunch for 69 Euros
Let’s delve into those introductory canapés first. Chef Paul Gamauf certainly has a penchant for the whimsical, starting this visit with an entire Greek salad condensed into a green-coloured ball that explodes in the mouth. This could’ve been one of Willy Wonka’s lesser-known savoury experiments: the flavours were all discernible, right down to the cucumber and feta cheese (and no doubt could complement the Greek Salad Martini currently being served at Kamara in Soho). This was accompanied by a mini ice cream cone of arctic char and a tartlet of veal tartare. Such whimsy closed the meal too, when “caviar” on blinis served with espressos turned out to be condensed blueberries and chocolate, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Gamauf also seems to take an international approach (no Wiener schnitzels here) but with individual flair and a desire to avoid waste. Take, for instance, the Miéral duck (free-range from eastern France) with sea buckthorn plucked from the North Sea coast (which, as was explained to me, yields plentiful vitamin C). This was an unusual but successful dish, with musty tarragon and sweet carrot working in harmony, and a reduction founded on classic French sauce technique. Similarly, chapeau for a mushroom ragout with oozing egg yolk, truffle and hazelnut, bathed in a foam of its own earthy loveliness.
Mushroom ragout with egg yolk, truffle and hazelnut
Miéral duck with sea buckthorn, carrot and tarragon
Femmes de Virunga chocolate with rhubarb and bacon
Later, a dessert of Femmes de Virunga chocolate with rhubarb and bacon astonished. This special chocolate comes from an all-female cooperative based in the Virunga national park in Eastern Congo where the world’s last remaining mountain gorillas reside. Made from rare Amelonado cacao, the chocolate is delicious, and in this intricate and beautifully-presented dessert, with tart and savoury flavours to accompany the caramel, nutty and coffee notes of the chocolate, it was just sensational (I’m not even a ‘dessert person’).
Not everything landed though. An apricot starter with almond and marjoram, while playful having something sweet at the beginning of the meal, was just texturally bizarre and confusing, while a “reimagined” oyster dish served partly in croquette form and partly on a pea and mint sauce didn’t deliver any of that oyster promise. Alas, parts of the menu felt a bit too avant-garde for their own good (at least for me, and a couple of disappointing dishes stings when a meal here can easily cost 200 Euros).
But, service was at all times unfailingly excellent and the atmosphere pleasing (it was full on a mid-week evening but as everyone gets a semi-private table in alcoves the noise levels were fine). They also deserve praise for a blisteringly good wine list, and while they do the same old pairing flight thing that so many restaurants at this level do (five matching wines start at 105 Euros), they also seem to be happy to let you choose wines by the glass from a reasonable selection shortlisted by the sommelier (this option isn’t advertised but you can ask). During this meal I was sticking to glasses, enjoying a range of interesting choices from Austria, Hungary, Germany and northern France (including an obscure Pinot Noir from just outside Strasbourg) but would happily get stuck into the full list on another visit.
Edvard is by no means cheap. Unsurprisingly, you can rack up quite a bill for dinner but it’s worth noting they do a superb value three-course lunch for 69 Euros (arguably less than some of the tourist traps in Vienna).
Apart from some gentle reining in of the crazier culinary ideas here and there, I think architect Baron von Hansen would be proud of Edvard.
Anantara Palais Hansen Hotel
Schottenring 24
Vienna, 1010
Austria
November 2026
