Salzburg, a pint-sized city nestled within the fold of the Mönchsburg mountain, is a maze of medieval streets leading from one plaza to another, from one church to another, from one memorable dining experience to another.

With my dear friend Daria in tow, I set out to try some of the city’s best restaurants and most iconic dishes and, as with any great trip, ended up stumbling upon eateries and eats that surpassed my expectations.

A stylish hotel built within the town’s oldest inn, Blaue Gans has been a stop for travelers since 1350. The cozy interior’s white vaulted ceilings meet wood paneling just above our heads. Glancing up at the iron chandeliers and across the room where coat hooks line the wall behind each table, it’s easy to imagine Austrians tucking into this spot on a cold winter’s day and peeling off layer after layer before diving into traditional dishes like Tafelspitz, boiled beef which, at Blaue Gans, is served with fried potatoes, creamed spinach and grated horseradish with apples.

The menu is simple and focuses on fresh ingredients, locally sourced and beautifully prepared. Our starters, a venison carpaccio with cassis and hazelnuts and a porcini crostini with a spread of farmer’s cheese and herbs, are delicious. Next, we sample a bright green lovage soup and a clear beef broth with one lone dumpling. Our initial glasses of sparkling rose, made from Pinot Noir grapes grown here in Austria, soon give way to a crisp Sauvignon Blanc. Then it’s on to a bold red to complement our main course of stewed venison with potato buchteln and chanterelles.

Daria and I haven’t seen each other for more than a year. We take a bite. Talk. Then take another bite and talk some more. It’s experiences like these – unhurried dinners where conversation flows freely – that I treasure most.

It is quite a shock when the waiter comes out telling us it’s time to pay the bill. He gave no warning, offered no last round, and recommended no dessert. In Europe, it seems diners are at the whim of the kitchen. Not even the promise of selling more food and drink – nor all of our “charm” – would encourage the restaurant to stay open longer.

Salzburg is a city that sleeps and one where you cannot get anything you want at any hour of the day. Nothing inherently off-putting about this except that you’ve just met up with an old friend and you don’t want the night to end, not to mention your sweet tooth is making itself known and the dessert menu had looked so good!

One of the things I love about Austria, aside from seeing a side of whipped cream as a standard menu feature, is the ability to get a “friendly” (alcoholic) coffee at most cafes. After the next morning was spent hunting for buchteln, those Austrian doughnuts filled with jam and sprinkled with powdered sugar, and wandering through the DomQuartier, Daria and I sip coffee with apricot schnaps and hot chocolate with rum – a swirl of whipped cream floating in each cup – at the historic Cafe Tomaselli.

In some cafes, you’ll see signs saying wait to be seated, while in others it seems you seat yourself. Sometimes you pick out your pastry before you sit down. Other times, you take your pick from a tray of cake slices wheeled around by a sometimes dirndl-wearing waitress.

How you know whether to self-seat or wait to be seated or whether to select your dessert from a pastry case or wait for the options to come to you is, at this time, beyond me. For what it’s worth, at Tomaselli, you can plan on seating yourself and waiting for the options to come to you.

After another lap around the city, with its narrow, windy cobblestone streets, we are off to lunch in the “suburbs”. Mülln is all of a 10-minute walk from the city center. Housed on the first floor of a pale pink building at the intersection of two converging streets, one side of Bärenwirt is much narrower than the other. It’s late in the afternoon and the light streams in through the windows behind us as we sit at a booth looking out over the Salzach River.

It’s white wine for Daria and beer from the nearby Augustiner Brewery for me. Our lunch arrives and I don’t think I have ever quite admired a food that was so vertically gifted. Two slices of roast pork in pan juices are served in a small cast iron skillet and one enormous dumpling, maybe three inches high, is perched on its rim. There’s sauerkraut on the side. This is one of the best things I have ever tasted. The roast pork is fork tender and so flavorful. The dumpling is unlike anything I have ever had before. Pieces of white bread are packed together and the whole ball is cooked to provide a kind of sliceable bread pudding, but this one tastes faintly of cheese. It’s dense. It’s delicious. It’s perfect.

Daria’s two long and skinny bratwursts come with sweet mustard and a Kaiser roll. We are both so pleased and as the first round turns into a second which turns into a third, the conversation flows and once again the meal passes slowly, as if enabling us to enjoy its every moment. The memory of yesterday’s missed dessert opportunity persuades us to order the hausgemachtes (homemade) apfelstreudel. It comes in a light crème anglaise sauce with two dollops of whipped cream, one on each side, garnished with a few strawberry slices. Heavenly.

In an effort to aid digestion and make room for dinner, we take a long walk along the river before returning to our hotel. Thanks to the well-worn foot paths along each side of the river, from which horses once pulled barges up and down the waterway, tourists and city residents can now wander endlessly, pausing on occasion at one of the many park benches to admire the flowing currents and city skyline.

The concert scene in this town that gave us Mozart is remarkable. On any day of the week in any corner of the city, it seems you can find excellent music. We go to the Mirabell Palace, where Mozart once played for Salzburg royalty, to hear the great maestro’s music as well as a few selections from Baroque composer Vivaldi who spent much of his life in Austria.

Leaving the concert hall, we stumble upon a busy sidewalk festival where vendors are serving a light colored milky beverage and people all around are laughing and keeping warm despite the cool October night. It’s strum season. Sturm is, as was described to be by an Austrian, pre-wine. It’s a low-alcohol libation made from freshly pressed fermented grape juice, and it only comes out at this time of year. It’s such a special occasion, there is even a special cheers when drinking Sturm – “Mietzeit!”

A few mietzeits later, feeling convivial as ever, we step into Zum fidelen Affen for dinner. Saturday night and the “Jolly Monkey Tavern”is packed with late night dinners. There a small corner booth Daria and I slide into before pouring over the menu. It seems the “toast” trend is sweeping through Europe; the whole wheat toast with farmer’s cheese, olives, scallions, blistered tomatoes and arugula catches our eye. If there’s a saying about when in Austria, do as the Austrians do, then you must try wiener schnitzel while on your trip. The thin veal cutlets, with the lightest coating of crisp, are served with lemon wedges, a kind of cranberry sauce made from some red berry I’m still not sure about the name of, and boiled potatoes with butter and parsley. Classic – and delicious. The bottle of wine we split, a Taubenschuss Sauvignon Blanc, is so nice I have been trying to get my hands on another bottle ever since. Perhaps not surprising that between the good food, good wine and good company we missed the opportunity to order dessert once more.

No trip to Salzburg would be complete without a funicular ride up to the fortress that stands tall above the city. At the base of the cable car, beside a water wheel that still spins today, there is a bakery that had been turning out loaves of rye sourdough since the 12th century from a wood-fired oven. The next morning, before I left Salzburg, I would buy a loaf and then stop at the Grünmarkt outside University Church for some Black Forest ham and Alpine cheese and enjoy my little snack on the drive to Berchtesgaden.

It’s misty and grey the morning Daria and I visit the castle. It’s been raining and puddles pock-mark the walkways; it all feels so medieval. I can just picture scenes from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves unraveling before my eyes. Taking a tour of the fortress, we learn a great deal about the city, it’s role as a bastion of the Catholic faith, and how it manages to survive the wars that have ravaged Central Europe.

From the historic fortress shrouded in mist through the forest on foot to M32, the modern art museum’s rooftop restaurant, in a few hours we can cover a thousand-year span of history. This has been one of the most interesting things I noticed on my trip, that the past seems so tangible and different periods of history have so clearly left their mark on each city. We sip pumpkin cream soup and sample gorgonzola polenta, mushroom ragout and various preparations of pumpkin. Cheered by the bright lights and privy to sweeping views of the city, it’s an elegant send-off from a weekend well-spent.

Where to eat

Blaue Gans
Getreidegasse 41-43
5020 Salzburg, Austria
Phone: +43 662 8424910

Cafe Tomaselli
Alter Markt 9
5020 Salzburg, Austria
Phone: +43 662 8444880

Bärenwirt
Müllner Hauptstraße 8
5020 Salzburg, Austria
Phone: +43 662 422404

Zum fidelen Affen
Priesterhausgasse 8
5020 Salzburg, Austria
Phone: +43 662 877361

Stiftsbäckerei St Peter
Kapitelplatz 8
5020 Salzburg, Austria
Phone: +43 662 847898

M32
Mönchsberg 32
5020 Salzburg, Austria
Phone: +43 662 841000

Things to do

Mirabell Palace Concerts
Mirabellplatz
5020 Salzburg, Austria
Phone: +43-662-828695

DomQuartier
Residenzpl. 1
5020 Salzburg, Austria
Phone: +43 662 80422109

Hohensalzburg Castle
Mönchsberg 34
5020 Salzburg, Austria
Phone: +43 662 84243011

Places to stay

Star Inn Hotel Premium Salzburg Gablerbräu
Richard-Mayr-Gasse 2
5020 Salzburg, Austria
Phone: +43 662 879662