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Halali | Weinviertel in your neighborhood | Restaurant number 2 of 14 – I recently told you about the Blauer Bock restaurant – number 1 of a total of 14 restaurants participating in the "Weinviertel in Your Neighborhood" campaign in June. If you'd like to read more about it or missed the first article, you can find it here. here Read it again.

Selection of dishes and review at the Halali restaurant

It hasn't even been two hours since I sat in Halali, enjoying my starter and main course and sniffing the delicious white wine from Julius Klein. Now I want to tell you about it. The Halali restaurant has been around since 2006, meaning it's celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, and is run by the successful chefs Hubert Buckl and Hans Reisinger.

Owner Hubert Buckl and I with Weinviertel wine

The restaurant is exceptionally stylish and chic, and you can't help but feel comfortable from the moment you step inside. The competent and friendly staff immediately approach you, take your coat, and offer you a cozy seat at one of the pre-set tables with white tablecloths, fresh flowers, and candles. Alongside the half-height, dark wood paneling, the walls are adorned with numerous antlers, rifles, and hunting implements. This is explained by the restaurant's name. "Halali" was the cry shouted by hunters in medieval times after the hunt was over. ("Halali" – the hunt is over for now, the weapons are silent.).

After taking a seat at one of the 16 tables, which can accommodate a total of 70 people, you are immediately presented with the food and wine menu, along with bread, butter, and homemade liverwurst. The menu offers a variety of appetizers, main courses, and desserts, as well as intermediate dishes and soups. These range from pan-fried shrimp and scallops with mango and avocado tartare (€20), to milk-fed veal loin in a porcini mushroom crust with potato rösti, asparagus, and morel cream sauce (€36), to pan-fried sea bass fillet with asparagus risotto and champagne sauce (€33). For me, the primary focus of my visit was, of course, the current "Weinviertel in Your Neighborhood" campaign. Therefore, my attention was drawn to the wines from the Weinviertel region and the dishes that complemented them.

Starter: Calf's head and smoked eel in a ciabatta crust

Chef and owner Hubert Buckl took the time to tell me about some of his house specialties and recommend the perfect wines to accompany them. Halali has selected four wines for the "Weinviertel in Your Neighborhood" campaign (see below). I chose two wines from the wine list and, with Mr. Buckl's help, decided on the perfect starter and main course. Specifically, I enjoyed a fabulously delicious starter – calf's head and smoked eel baked in a ciabatta crust with yellow beetroot and horseradish cream (€16) – paired with a glass of Grüner Veltliner from Julius Klein | Weinviertel DAC Reserve | Steinbergen | 2013. Take a look at the photo below to see both the wine bottle and the superb starter (a must-try!). The calf's head with eel is listed among the starters and its size makes it the perfect appetizer for the main course that follows.

Weinviertel DAC Reserve

In my case, and again perfectly paired with the wine, I ordered the chef's recommended medallions of Bavarian spring lamb with juniper cream sauce, spaetzle, red cabbage, and chanterelles (for €33). The Zweigelt from Julius Klein is recommended with this dish. The meal was heavenly. I'd love to come back tomorrow and order the same starter with the same Weinviertel wine and the same main course with Zweigelt. The portions are generous, and you'll definitely leave satisfied. Don't forget to ask for a glass of Weinviertel DAC Grüner Veltliner to go with it.

Recommendation from Halali

If May buck and calf's head aren't to your liking, Halali recommends the loin of Iberico pork in a mustard and onion crust with broad beans, potato gratin and cognac pepper sauce (for €32) as a main course with the Zweigelt from the Julius Klein winery, 2011, as well as the fried blood sausages with apple ragout, mashed potatoes and grated horseradish (for €11) with the Gelber Muskateller Platter Rieden, Fidesser winery, 2015.

The Halali from the inside

Hard facts

Halali is open Tuesday through Friday from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM and 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM, and additionally on Saturdays from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM. Card payments are accepted, and parking is available, if you're lucky, directly on Schönfeldstraße or in the side streets. You can reach Halali by public transport using bus line 100 or subway lines 3, 4, 5, and 6 (Odeonsplatz station). Reservations are recommended, even for lunch, as tables fill up quickly. Halali has made quite a name for itself in recent years, and the "Weinviertel in Your Neighborhood" campaign is sure to increase its popularity even further.

The selection of wines from the Weinviertel region at Halali

In June, the following wines from the Weinviertel region will also be available by the glass at the Halali restaurant:

1) 2013 Weinviertel DAC Steinbergen Weingut Julius Klein
2) 2011 Zweigelt Weingut Julius Klein
3) 2015 Sauvignon blanc Sandberg winery Fidesser
4) 2015 Yellow Muscat Platter Rieden Winery Fidesser

I can highly recommend a visit to Halali – absolutely! The ambiance, service, food, and wines are all top-notch, making June the ideal opportunity for you to get to know both Halali and the wines of the Weinviertel region better.

Place visited: Halali
Address: Schönfeldstraße 22, 80539 Munich
Website

Pictures: