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• Worth trekking 25 miles to get to!

Ah! the legendary vegan pub in the middle of the Austrian countryside 25 miles or so from Vienna this place has been on my 'to do' list for about 20 years . Three times I was in Vienna and either failed to persuade my hosts, or the band I was driving that we had to visit this place. Nowadays a pub that does traditional Austrian food all vegan doesn't seem so outrageously unlikely but back in the 1990's it was a big deal, well it was for a 'vegan foodie' like me! So this time after a few repetitions of past tales of woe and failure regarding my getting to Schillinger my benevolent (non vegan) hosts agreed to drive me out there. It's possible they feared I might not make it back alive if I cycled which I was threatening to do! It is literally the village pub, not an old one, but full of dark wood, low lights, local men at the bar watching TV and swigging beer. The menu however is a full on fake meat fest and all 100% vegan.,! There are deserts too, and cake specials ( though only one option - chocolate cake - on the day we visited . The waitress seemed bemused if not amused by the enquiry after a sugar free cake. It has to be said that the food at Schillinger is great, it's tasty it's generous in portions and it's not that expensive. Gerf and I shared the double of everything platter "Hausplatte" and it served us well, we got to try all the meats and chips, salad and a delicious creamy coleslaw. I had the chocolate dumplings in vanilla yoghurt and they went down a treat. The tiramisu that Gerf had was a unique interpretation of this famous dish that I think many would not have recognised, but it's was a very tasty and not too sweet one. I was let down by the drinks. Firstly my Earl Grey tea - full marks for having it on the menu - came with a huge home filed tea bag that once I had taken it out of the cup left me with only two thirds of a not very big cup of tea. Then I ordered an organic blackcurrent juice which included my clearly pointing it out on the menu, I was brought an orange juice. I can't drink that much OJ during a meal so I uncharacteristically pointed out the mistake, only to be brought a blackcurrent juice with soda in..... Argh even worse! I gave up, Gerf drank my evil fizzy juice and I had a glass of water, as Gerf said, there's Not much point in having an English menu if the workers can't understand it. Anyway my pilgrimage to the Austrian vegan Mecca is done, if I do it again, which I hope to I'll cycle out along the Danube to it :)