At first glance, this didn’t appear to be much of a locale. The menu was small and the initial look at the exterior revealed nothing special.

I picked up my menu and noticed a special coffee section that included “Austrian” or “Italian” coffee. That seemed like a good sign, so we went ahead and seated ourselves and awaited our waiter. Turns out the coffee was a false hope, but more on that in a moment.

We delighted in the fact that the cafe serves freshly-made soda zitrone, which is simply fresh lemon juice mixed with soda water but perfect for a very hot day.

We ordered an Italian bread salad with arugula and proscuitto and the “wok” salmon, which was served over a selection of braised julienne vegetables with basmati rice on the side. Both were excellent and especially good when one considers that this is a cafe and our total bill came out ot less than 25 EUR.

We finished with coffees. As usual, ithat’s a pretty big mistake here in Vienna if you care to drink good coffee. I ordered an Italian roast grosser brauner and my wife ordered a cappuccino. The coffee was ashtray nasty but served with flourish and style. It was slightly edible, so we drank it.

The service is friendly and efficient by Vienna standards. Even though our waiter never smiled, he brought Maple a bowl full of straweberries and cream.