Viena

You find yourself in Barcelona, you are taking a beautiful walk down La Rambla when you feel like eating and, to top it all off, there are so many places to the right and the left of your visual field making it impossible for you to decide, but if you have read this post, all will become clear: Viena.

Exactly this happened to me. The good thing and the bad things about places accustomed to mass tourism are that at the time that you select where to eat, it is difficult to manage the large quantity of places that are offered as the best solution for your taste. If you go when you are very hungry, you do not even think about it and you go in the first place that you see but if you go with enough time to attempt to elucidate which is the best of all of those in relation to price and quality, you take it a little raw... Unless you're already advised, and that's where I'm going to influence.

This place perfectly covers the needs of the tourist that searches for fast food but at the same time good quality, adding up to an affordable price.

When we hear fast food (menjar ràpid in Catalan) McDonalds or Burger King burgers come directly to your head, which are totally commercial places and that you eat within a second and it is fairly cheap.

Well then, here you should expand your mind and modify the concept of "fast food", and when applied to the Rambla of Barcelona we can define it as that food in which it is not necessary to dedicate an hour to food. It starts by sitting at a table adorned with tablecloths and rising up after leaving an important tip to the waiter who has parsimoniously attended to you during all that time, prejudices often come out expensive and this is an example of this.

It is for it that, when you travel, you don't sell on credit only for the tourist guides, if you have the possibility and you meet people that live in the place you ask them. So to ask is like if you analyse tastings during various years obtaining the result, the result of all that time in a single question, this is how they advised this place to us.

The Viena "menjar ràpid" restaurant that you can find at the start of La Rambla, it's entrance is a wooden portal with glass adorned with some lateral drawings with different forms that give it a "historic" and attractive touch. The places with the entrance door made from wood and other old materials generate a very effective feeling of antiquity for the owner, which makes the consumer think that its food is a result of traditional family workplace that will affect in the best quality of its products, as it is the case.

When you enter the local, the first thing that surprised me is the uniform of the waiters; white shirt and a vest on top. The latter reminded me a little of the vest of the famous Bando of the Murcian garden but with some differences, the figures and decorations of the vest are different and the colour was yellow-orange but very beautiful, giving great class to the place for my taste.

The main bar has is in a "U" shape and is it where the diners support themselves to eat. There are no tables here, but instead you eat on a stool that is well supported above the main bar or well above the secondary adjacent bars. It is even very comfortable and cozy, but like I have said, it is not a thought of place for a long dining, although you can prolong it as long as you want.

A second floor exists where you will find the bathroom and a very beautiful black piano just before you, situated in a previous room where you can see the rest of the restaurant from above. The old piano gives it the same touch as the entrance door, that is to say, it continues in the same pure and traditional trend of which we spoke of that makes it feel in the hands of great professionals with a historical trajectory.

Looking at the ceiling you can corroborate this style, a precise painting decorated the superior vision formed by angels around clouds above a very beautiful blue sky.

Along the stairs that direct you towards the second floor you could not miss the paintings of famous people that have been there, just as it happens in other gastronomic places of large quality Viena was not anything less. From famous Catalan Politicians, such as Pasqual Maragall or Artur Mas, to gastronomic acknowledgements to the casa Viena (Cuines). And even more, striking are the historical events of the house that are reflected in some paintings, such as the creation of the first sandwich without bread on the market (a kind of dough similar to kebab but thinner than some bread) and the opening of its own bread factory. I forgot to tell you that the New York Times describes its Iberian sandwich as "the best sandwich in the world", a reason why its fame does not remain inside the Iberian Peninsula alone.

In relation to this last thing that caught my attention, the type of bread with which they prepare the sandwiches and hamburgers are, for my personal taste, what marks the difference with other places of similar quality. It is not typical hamburger nor sandwich bread, it is different, more elaborate and better prepared.

During eating hours, I recommend that you order one of the two typical foods from this place: Hamburgers of the house or a "flauta", which is a special type of sandwich.

As I always do when I go to a new place to eat, I asked the waiter about what type of hamburger or sandwich they recommended me, followed by them asking me: do you like onion?, to which I responded: yes! and immediately without asking me anything more he put on his notepad a hamburger for me and a sandwich for one of my friends (to whom they asked the same thing, the rest bet on a sausage flute, more commercial but also liked) closing the conversation, assuming we were going to be fascinated by the quality of your plate.

This impression that he generated on us was fulfilled when, firstly you see the presentation and secondly, trying the food made us realise that it was special "fast food", rather especially good and of good quality, nothing that you can see in other types of hamburger os sandwich places. Better in terms of quality, presentation, service and atmosphere than all these places. Approaching almost more to a place of people of greater purchasing power, at least on the first impression, since the prices are not at all exorbitant, they are affordable for the passer-by.

I ate the bacon and onion hamburger (for my star plate of the place), which was simply spectacular, the meat was excellent, tasty and juicy, as have mentioned the bread was of great quality and the onion and the cheese give it that touch to complete a 10/10 of hamburger.

If you look at the bread of the "flautas" or sandwiches it is fine and it is as if it were passed through the plate, although I did not ask for a flauta, one of my friends let me try it and it was excellent. The difference marks the bread and meat to your point, although the onion is also of a different quality to those I've tried.

The prices are very good, the burger is around five or six euros and the flautas are a little cheaper since they cost between three and four euros, however, I think the hamburger is the best option. It is quite large (I could hardly bite it for you to see) and you do not go hungry; with the "flautas" you can stay a little hungry and you may have to ask for some fries, which are very good and they are served in abundance.

The beer is also generously served, it is very good and cold, however, what I like about these types of places is that they surprise you when you think you have already been surprised. When you start to realize how delicious the hamburger is, you do not think that there may be something in the menu that could be so good, or at least it surprises you equally, well this happened to me with the dessert, specifically with ice cream.

You must ask for this dessert, chocolate ice cream or vanilla in a jar, because it tastes great. It is not a normal ice cream typical of chocolate or vanilla (the rest we could not taste) but it has a more intense flavour and at the same time much better, we were changing the spoons from one container in another as small girls, it was very funny and pleasant time.

In general, it is enough for me to take you as the idea of this site that quality does not exclude fast food, both can be complementary and this union is expressed in Viena.

Viena has 35 establishments spread throughout Catalonia and Andorra, and it is a pity that for the time being, they have not spread throughout the rest of Spain.

To get to the one I was in, just ask for Las Ramblas in Barcelona. When you are on Las Ramblas, it is on the right hand very close to the Canaletas Fountain, which I mentioned in my previous publication, so you can "kill two birds with one stone" and finish the walk trying the food of this interesting place.