There’s two main reasons you should visit this tex-mex restaurant (it kind of does look like a Texan ranch house – but a whole lot greener) located on the Prater’s boulevard, the Hauptallee – one is the pork ribs and the other is for its garden’s atmosphere.
With a spacious alfresco garden set under the shady trees, smack bang in the middle of the Prater park, it does inspire that giggly, carefree holiday feeling. And if you’re walking through the Prater wondering where that barbeque smell is coming from that’s making your senses go crazy like they’re dancing to dubstep, we’ve located the source.
The random addition of the coloured-in street lamps scattering the garden is a quirky touch, and the big wooden tables and chairs make for great feasts with groups of friends.
While most of the menu here is made up of tame tapas, and it is pricey, Estancia Santa Cruz does consistently earn its spot in our summer food bucket list every year. And it’s not for the sangria, which perhaps would earn a seven out of ten, after we’d drank seven out of ten liters of it.
It’s those ribs that keep us coming back. But not the ribs themselves, but the perfectly sour, salty and spiced chimichurri marinade that’s generously smeared on top of them.
Sitting there bobbing our head to the Gypsy Kings on the speakers, grease all around our grinning face, we’re amazed at how one ingredient, sauce, dish done well can make a restaurant’s siren call irresistible. We guess it’s like when you become fixated on that one beauty spot located just above somebody’s smile, and you’d do anything to be close to it, draw another dot next to it to make it a happy dot with a dot-partner that will make it as happy as the dot makes you. Ok, we’re sidetracked a little.
The spare ribs serving comes with two racks and a pile of potato-flying saucer thingies which act as the perfect pawns in a quest to get as much of the two tasty sauces – aioli and paprika – to your tastebuds as possible. The sizes of the dish portions are big, so consider sharing or taking some of it home (As they are used to this request, they’ll happily provide the tin foil for packing purposes).
Concerning the hard facts, the service is friendly, occasionally, and we do like some of the waiter’s determination to speak to customers in Spanish.
While in summer the garden makes Estancia Santa Cruz looks its best, the glass house part of the restaurant is a pleasant alternative in winter.
While we felt the need to justify the following statement with the full review above, we could have summed up this place in one simple sentence – visit Estancia Santa Cruz, sit in the garden, order the Chimichurri spare ribs and tuck a large napkin into your shirt.
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