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For our two nights in
Vienna we were staying at the incredible and splendorous
Hotel Imperial. OPUS is the hotel’s restaurant, and although I don’t usually like hotel restaurants, this was an exception. The food was out of this world.
I opted for the 4-course meal, while Arabella decided to go all out and have the 7-course. With the added amuse bouches and extra desserts they presented us with on top, I had a total of nine courses while Arabella had twelve. Yes. Twelve. We rolled back to our suite that night.
We started with tiny amuse bouches of ham on some sort of edible rock. This wasn’t a great amuse bouche to start with, mainly due to the fact it tasted as though I were eating a piece of the White Cliffs of Dover. The ‘edible’ rock was chalky and hard to swallow, and drowned the taste of the ham.
Our next amuse bouches were both beetroot. Beetroot with quinoa and shaved carrot, which was incredibly photogenic and looked oh so pretty, but sadly I’m not a huge beetroot fan.
Then it was beetroot soup. Now this was surprisingly delicious, it didn’t taste of beetroot and tasted more like tomato. It was a proper winter soup that felt like a hug in a china cup. And it was served in possibly the fanciest china cup you will ever sip soup from.
The great thing about OPUS is that you can pick and choose different dishes from the three different menus, so we went to town on this. I’m not going to narrate the exact order both Bella and I had our dishes in, because it all got a bit confusing due to her having more than me (it sort of worked like, we both had our starter, then I had a break while she had another, then our mains, then another break, then our second mains, then another break, then dessert…if you get my drift). Anywho…
Bella’s first dish from the actual menu was Salmon Trout (almost every dish was incredibly photogenic – the two that weren’t I didn’t even bother getting photos of).
Then it was Scampi which was presented with a hot stone. You then cook it yourself on the hot stone. I love things like this, I really like that you can take part in the cooking of your food and it makes it much more interactive.
Following the Scampi it was Fillet of Brill with a lot of cauliflower, a little too much.
Then it was my second favourite dish of the night after dessert; poached egg with creamed polenta and white truffle. This was just ughhh. Divine. Scrumptious. It was so good I can’t even find the words to describe it. The dish arrived and the waitress came over with her ‘truffle shaving’ kit, and shaved the truffle on top of my egg right in front of me.
Oh la la, just look at all of that delicious truffle sinking into the pool filled with runny golden yolk.
Arabella decided to go all experiential and had Breast of Wild Pigeon next. Apparently it was very good! I’ll take her word for it as eating pigeon, aka vermin, doesn’t really appeal to me.
Following this was my least favourite dish. The Austrian Lamb. They served it in two parts, and usually I adore lamb, however this lamb was…not so great. Bella thought it was ok, however for me it just didn’t taste right. I couldn’t explain it, it just had a very strange after-taste which wasn’t particularly enjoyable.
Thankfully dessert was up next! Bella had the ‘OPUS Style’ Apple Pie, which was a deconstructed apple pie. Again the presentation of it was so pretty, and Bella assured me that it was the perfect end to her perfect meal.
I went for the healthy ‘Blueberries’ dessert option, literally thinking it would be a plate of blueberries, oh how wrong was I! This is what appeared…
The most photogenic dessert I’ve ever had the pleasure to eat. And one of the most delicious. A blueberry mousse cake with blueberry ice-cream and white chocolate.
We thought we’d finally finished our epic meal-marathon, when two complimentary desserts appeared. We’d seen other people with these and just assumed it was another dessert option, but it turns out it’s an after-dinner treat!
Overall our meal at
OPUS was fantastic, aside from the lamb and onslaught of beetroot, the food was completely faultless. The service was also spot on, however the meal took an epic four hours to complete. We had roughly 20 minutes between each course, which really was far too long. It could have been half that time. The staff were really lovely though, and didn’t stop bringing us
champagne and bottled water whenever our glasses were running low. Despite the timings the rest of the service was impeccable.
The restaurant’s decor is sightly off-key with the rest of the hotel, however I quite liked this. It was more modern and fresh, and
nice to have a change seeing as the hotel’s cafe is in keeping with the original style.
After finishing our meal we decided to go to the bar for a nightcap (read: cocktails). The piano man was tinkling on the ivories and while slowly descending into a food coma I opted for a non-alcoholic pina colada and Bella went all out and had some sort of whiskey based concoction. After our drinks we finally headed to bed, ready for our final morning in Vienna before jumping on the train and heading back to
Budapest.
*We were invited to dine at OPUS as guests, and received our meal complimentary. However my views remain my own as always.
Wow! If I had my champagne glass filled consistently for 4 hours I would be on the ground! I loved all your pictures from this trip. So decadent 🙂
Haha, it was a struggle! Aw thank you, so glad you've enjoyed them!
C x
The food looks absolutely gorgeous. Well done for completing the marathon equivalent of a meal! 🙂 How much would this cost?
Haha, thanks Gemma! It was such a mission 😉
It costs 96 Euros for 6 courses with an extra 52 Euros for accompanying wines, and 77 Euros for 4 courses, with an extra 38 Euros for accompanying wines.
C x
Wow, no wonder you were full, what an incredible experience and that dessert just looks amazing. I love it when restaurants think of us bloggers while presenting their food 😉 I've never been to Vienna but I will definitely go here if I do!
Lots of love,
Angie
SilverSpoon London
I know, the lighting was perfect for photos and the food was so photogenic – whoever planned that was a genius!
C x
I feel so hungry right now! All of this food looks so delicious, proper luxury food!
Hayley-Eszti // http://www.hayleyeszti.blogspot.com
What a beautiful dining room, and I love your cocktail photos
Suze | LuxuryColumnist
Darling, you can not possibly go through life thinking pigeon is vermin and not to be eaten! It is truly delicious – and I'm not talking those skanky things that lurk around Trafalgar Square – I mean heavenly wood pigeons from the countryside. Plump birds that never leave their country havens and are actually rather beautiful to look at!
Trust me, doused in a blackcurrent jelly sauce, it's life changing!
Those courses all look beautiful, the puddings had me drooling – so incredibly gorgeous!
Katie <3