Quality fast food in Innsbruck

You want some inexpensive, good quality fast food in the city centre? Kitchen Hub is the place you are looking for! This small restaurant a couple of blocks away from the old town (Altstadt) in Innsbruck serves various tasty fast food meals, with a healthy twist. Lying between the main train station and the old town in Innsbruck, Kitchen Hub is very easy to find. Apart from the central location, Kitchen Hub stands out with its furnishing – it’s really cozy and relaxing thanks to the greenery on the walls!

As we arrived at the restaurant, we were handed the menu and informed about the self-service policy. The most eye-catching thing about the menu was the vegan section. It is quite unusual for fast food restaurants to serve vegan meals, especially here in Austria! Besides, most of the dishes include ingredients like avocados, salad, tomatoes, onions and such healthy veggies. They even have two separate sections for low carb and high protein meals. The slogan of the restaurant is “happiness is homemade”, which matches the atmosphere of the place.

Following the awkward silence we all have when we take a look at the menu and think to ourselves “can I have everything?”, my friend and I decided to order a cheeseburger and beef & guacamole taco with handmade and sweet potato fries.

Some people say, “you eat with your eyes first” and that is for sure accurate. The longer I looked at my appetizing taco, the harder it got to keep it out of my mouth. It was a wrap bread with beef and several sorts of sauces with fries as a side dish. The bread was neither hard nor soft – just firm enough to hold the taco but soft enough to have no problems chewing it. The sauces in the taco were a whole different story. The mixture of guacamole, salsa sauce, jalapenos and ranch sauce was just right. Spicy but not hot. You could taste some sourness, but in a good way! The salad was fresh and really scrumptious with the sauces. And last but not least, the beef was very tasty. It was not underdone, yet still kind of juicy.

On the other hand the burger: the beef was moist, cooked long enough so it wasn’t too pink or dry. When tasted on its own the quality was very obvious. Not too lean, which adds to the flavor of the meat. The sauce was a spin on Big Mac sauce – a mayo and ketchup base with finely chopped pickles. Caramelized onions add another layer of taste to help balance the flavors. Homemade buns are light and fluffy which allows you to taste all the flavors in each bite.

The burger is served with homemade sweet potato fries. If you ever can’t decide between fries and sweet potato fries, here are my thoughts: those who like fries with peel should definitely give the regular homemade fries a shot. And those who aim for healthy fries should go for the sweet potato fries. They contain some good carbs and they are real crunchy and flavorful. The sauces are ordered as add-ons, and necessary for the fries.

We had the chance to talk to the owner of the restaurant after our meals, because he came up to us and asked if we liked the food. We were surprised how friendly and humble he was and told us that he wanted to bring something new to the market. He wanted to offer good quality fast food so he decided to skip convenience products and depend on homemade ingredients. He also stressed that they make sure everything is regional so every type of meat they offer is from the farmers here in Tyrol. Only a minimal amount of the ingredients is not regional, like the cheese, which they get from Italy. He also recommended the G-Buffala Burger which is on my to do list right now.

I personally loved my experience at Kitchen Hub, especially the vibes and the food, and I think you should definitely give it a try!