Mythos, perhaps the Best Greek Restaurant in Vienna

When I was last working in Vienna, I visited Mythos, one of the best-ranking Greek restaurants there. Best-ranking Greek in Vienna, what does that even mean, I hear you say. Well the good people of this Austrian town really like their Greeks. #1 and #25 of the top 25 restaurants on Tripdadvisor are Greek.

An authentic Greek

I didn’t choose them, because they felt a bit too upmarket. I’m being a horrible person, but I want my Greek to come with lots of bones, tentacles, garlic, and onion, not with a demitasse of lamb mousse and tzatziki lobster terrine with wild flowers and samphire on a bed of Jerusalem artichoke ouzo puree. In my twisted mind, Greek, just like German, Thai, or Russian cuisine is best when it’s authentic and comparatively unsophisticated.

#31 of 4,000 Viennese restaurants

Mythos restaurant, Vienna, was awarded a Certificate of Excellence in 2014 and received enthusiastic mentions on many other platforms too. Out of 4,000 local restaurants it ranks #31 on Tripadvisor. It is about as rustic as it gets, including the interior decoration with walls painted with Aegean island scenes, traditional music, and lovely smells from the open grill in the kitchen. It was a weekday during the height of Covid, so there were only two other parties in attendance. Service was very quick and friendly.

Cold starter platter, mixed seafood platter for mains

After lengthy deliberation (so much to choose from!) I opted for the mixed cold starter platter for a very reasonable €9 and the mixed seafood platter “Mythos” for mains (amazing value at €22). The flat bread sat me back a mere €1.40, yes please. I sipped a bit of unspectacular but absolutely decent, full, dry house red, while I was waiting for my starters to arrive.

I was raised on Greek and Italian food

The atmosphere reminded me of the Greek in my Bavarian home town that my parents had taken us kids to. As a child, Greek and Italian were my absolute favourite cuisines. German food was boring. French in my mind was limited to baguette and camembert, Spanish awkward with chicken and seafood in one paella dish. All I knew about Japanese was that apparently they use sticks, which seemed impractical.

Perfection for starters

The starter platter arrived and was absolutely delightful. The tzatziki was beautifully creamy. The pink taramasalata fish roe paste was very intense in flavour, the skordalia garlic cream was packing a punch. I had not been aware that you can get feta like the one on my plate outside of Greece. So much better than the one sold in English supermarkets.

Filled wine leaves, fava bean paste and more

I hadn’t had filled dolmadakia wine leaves in a long time and realised only now what I had missed out on. The red Macedonian Florina peppers added a nice note. Greece’s answer to hummus, fava bean paste, was as lovely as the obligatory aubergine paste. The base layer of the platter was filled with sliced tomatoes, onions, leafy salad, rocket, and small but tasty kalamata olives. I was pleased that I had ordered pita bread, as all the pastes really require bread in order to enjoy them. My starter platter at Mythos restaurant, Vienna, was a clear 5 out of 5.

It’s not a race

I must have spent the best of 30 minutes slowly eating my way through the starters. The very moment I had finished, the waiter removed the empty dish and delivered my mixed seafood platter.

Here cometh the “Mythos” mixed seafood platter

Size and variety alone would have won me over: salmon, king prawns, mussels, squid, and anchovy, all from the grill. There were also vast amounts of boiled, sliced potatoes, sliced onions, and two different pastes.

Dill now I had no idea

Everything on the platter tasted great. Some of the textures were perhaps not perfect, often a tiny tad too dry and overdone, especially the salmon fillet. The seasoning worked very well for me. It was very basic, literally limited to salt, pepper, parsley, and trace elements of dill. The latter, I learned when researching this post, is very common in Greek cuisine, even though I don’t think I’ve had many Greek dishes with dill aside from tzatziki. Dill’s generic name Anethum is the Latin form of Greek ἄνῑσον, which meant both ‘dill’ and ‘anise’.

When I had finished the meal at Mythos restaurant, Vienna, the waiter brought a small ouzo on the house, what’s not to like. 3.75 out of 5 in my book.

Looking for more restaurant reviews? Feel welcome to check out our posts about Café Englander in Vienna, Applebee’s fish restaurant, London, Lafleur, Frankfurt, Gruvelageret near the North Pole (Spitsbergen), and Nabezo Shinjuku Meijidori in Tokyo. For fun outdoor activities you might want to eyeball our posts about flyboarding in Sandbanks, open water swimming and stand up paddle boarding in London, motocrossing in Suffolk, canoeing in Surrey, punting in Cambridge, and hiking in Hertfordshire.