Amador’s Wirtshaus is the new restaurant of Chef Patron Juan Amador, located just outside the historical centre of Vienna in Austria. The restaurant in the 19th district is housed within a vaulted stone cellar. The exterior of the building does not suggest that there is a beautiful wine cellar with adjoining fine-dining restaurant behind it – a hidden surprise that waits to be discovered.

German Chef Juan Amador is one of the new famous stars of the fine-dining cuisine in Austria. He has restaurants in Frankfurt and Singapore, and he moved his restaurant from Mannheim in Germany to Vienna in Austria, following the roots of his wife. With Amador’s Wirtshaus he created a place where one discovers the essence of modern gastronomy: a product-driven cuisine mixed with contemporary kitchen techniques. The new foodie destination is housed in the building from vineyard owner Fritz Wieninger. Amador has created two dining rooms under red brick archways, one is the fine dining restaurant and the other is the more no-nonsense part with a rougher interior. This part, called Greisslerei, refers to a small grocer. The place is open for lunch or dinner and you can purchase both wine and foods on the premises. The fine-dining room is located in the old vaulted wine cellar, which is elegantly renovated with a wooden floor, minimalistic white and red colours, and subtle lighting.

Juan Amador was born in Waiblingen close to Frankfurt in 1968. His parents are from Spain so he was born into both the German and Spanish cultures, which have proven to be a perfect combination for his cooking. Amador’s cuisine is something personal, an experience offered by a chef with integrity and skills far beyond the standard. A lot of the cooking is executed with the latest kitchen techniques and is experimental on several occasions, but the foundation of the multi-cultural cuisine is of a more a product-driven French classical origin. However, you can rest assured that Amador is not a traditional haute cuisine restaurant. In addition to the use of as much as possible local produce, the chef uses Mediterranean ingredients and Asian influences as well.

Chef Patron Juan Amador is not someone you can easily label. His sophisticated, creative and avant-garde style of cooking is something which will fascinate you as well as make your taste buds happy. The food is intensely flavoured and artfully presented, dish-by-dish. Some examples of his dishes are an extremely well balanced combination with a perfectly baked Carabinero shrimp with tripe, green curry, mango and parfum de siam, or a simple but very tasteful dish with Mieral pigeon breast, coco and a sauce of purple curry and pigeon blood.

Given the location, wines are an important aspect of the experience and guests have the opportunity to sample wines from the Weingut Hajszan-Neumann and Weingut Wieninger as well as many other bottles mainly coming from Europe. Service in the restaurant is laid-back but professional and efficient.

Amador’s Wirtshaus impresses with creative dishes, great products, and a unique location inside a beautiful vaulted wine cellar. This is one of the best restaurants in Vienna, or even Austria, and it clearly gives a taste for more to come from this great upcoming food-region.

Written by Sven & Frank