In the late afternoon we visited the DOMMAYER Cafe, located in the 13th district. It came highly recommended as a place of importance with regards to experiencing a traditional ‘Viennese Cafe’. The atmosphere has similarities to English pub culture; very comfortable, friendly, a place for families to gather and people to sit alone and read, and slightly ornate with an old world charm. It had the bonus of not having alcohol! Also, to our surprise it was quiet, except the buzz of conversation of locals, families and friends; it is funny to mention it, but a cafe without the blaring music is becoming more and more difficult to find! The cafe atmosphere was very pleasant!
The DOMMAYER Cafe has all those good qualities but unfortunately lacks in the coffee department! We had a very boring, evenly-mono-chromatic, lightly burnt espresso macchiato (1 espresso: 1 steamed milk, in a espresso cup). I suppose for some people this is a perfect sounding cup, but as far as we are concerned coffee beans inherently have qualities of an enourmous range of possible tastes, smells and flavours. Yet if it is not prepared correctly either in roasting, brewing, mixing with the milk etc… then all goes to waste. To top off this unpleasant coffee experience, we were served greasy, cheap, boring food that left us with an unpleasant sick feeling in the body. Hopefully for the cafe, this is not a regular occurrence!
