Der Steirer

Der Steirer — 'The Styrian' — is the restaurant that made modern Styrian cooking a national category. Opened on Belgiergasse in 2008, it was the first serious kitchen in Graz to centre its entire menu on Styrian pasture beef, local trout, pumpkin-seed oil, and the Schilcher rosé that most Austrians still find unsellable outside the province. The bistro aesthetic — chalk-board menu, wooden communal tables, industrial lighting — was borrowed from Vienna and Berlin but the cooking is aggressively regional.

The menu changes monthly. A typical winter sitting runs: Käferbohnen salad with pumpkin-seed oil and red onion; Styrian beef tartare with Almo egg yolk and rye; Styrian boiled beef (Tafelspitz) with apple-horseradish and bone-marrow cracker; and a Kürbiskerneis (pumpkin-seed ice cream) for dessert. The two-course lunch at €22 is the value proposition that draws the Graz bar association every Wednesday; the eight-course chef's menu at €89 is the sit-down reason for a longer evening.

The wine list is the other signal of seriousness. A dedicated Schilcher section featuring single-vineyard bottles from Domäne Müller, Weingut Strohmeier and the cult producer Reinhold Langmann Jr. runs for two pages; Styrian Sauvignon Blancs (Sattlerhof, Polz, Tement) fill the next three. International wine is intentionally short. Der Steirer is the Graz restaurant every visitor is sent to after their host realises they have not eaten a pumpkin-seed dish yet.

For a First Date: Der Steirer is the Graz restaurant a Graz local would choose for a first date. The room is warm but not intimidating; the communal elements of the bistro design make conversation easy; the pricing sits below the fine-dining tier so nothing is being tested. Above all, the menu is a conversation piece of its own — the Schilcher, the pumpkin-seed oil, the Alm-ox tartare all generate questions that answer themselves. A first date at Der Steirer is also a short introduction to the city.