Austrian food may not be as famous as its neighbours', but Salzburg has one thing you won't find anywhere else on earth: Salzburger Nockerl — an egg-white pudding shaped like Alpine peaks that has to be eaten hot, within 15 minutes, or it collapses for good. Wiener Schnitzel and apple strudel, meanwhile, are the dishes that have made people around the world fall for Austria for hundreds of years.
#1 Wiener Schnitzel
The most famous Austrian dish in the world: thin veal or pork pounded flat, breaded and fried golden and crisp. The rule for the real thing is veal (Kalbsschnitzel) — if it's pork, it has to be called Schnitzel Wiener Art. It's served with lemon slices, boiled potatoes, or a pickled cucumber salad, and it's big enough to spill over the plate. The flavour is simple, but the crunch of the breadcrumbs against the soft meat inside is Austrian food at its most complete.
- Ask whether it's Kalb (veal) or Schwein (pork). Veal schnitzel costs more but is clearly the tastier one.
- Squeeze the lemon before every bite — the acid cuts through the oil from frying beautifully.
- In local restaurants down the side streets it runs about 12-18 euros, 30-40% cheaper than the places facing the main square.
#2 Salzburger Nockerl
Salzburg's signature dessert, which nowhere else in the world makes quite the same. It's made from egg whites whipped fluffy with sugar and a little egg yolk, then baked until it rises into three peaks shaped after the three Alpine summits you can see from Salzburg. The inside is soft as a cloud, lightly sweet, served with apricot or raspberry sauce. A warning: you have to eat it the moment it arrives — it collapses within 10-15 minutes.
- Order ahead, because it takes 20-25 minutes to make — tell the server when you order your main course.
- Eat it the instant it arrives, don't linger over photos — the whipped egg white sinks very fast once the air cools.
- It's enough for two, at around 14-18 euros a dish — well worth it for an experience you can only have here.
#3 Apfelstrudel
A world-famous Austrian pastry: paper-thin dough rolled in many layers around a filling of apple cooked in butter and sugar, raisins, cinnamon and breadcrumbs, baked until golden, crisp and fragrant. Eat it hot with Schlagobers (fresh whipped cream) or vanilla ice cream. Good Strudel dough is so thin you can read a newspaper through it, as Austrian legend has it. The flavour is warmer and more familiar than other Austrian desserts, which makes it a good choice for anyone not yet used to European tastes.
- Order it with Schlagobers (fresh whipped cream, not the canned kind) — good places whip the cream fresh and serve it right away.
- Long-established cafes often have a Strudel dough recipe noticeably thinner and crisper than the usual places.
- At 4-7 euros a portion, it's much cheaper than Nockerl — a snack you can have any day without feeling guilty.
#4 Mozartkugel
Austria's most famous round chocolate, created by Paul Furst, a Salzburg confectioner, in 1890. The centre is green pistachio marzipan, wrapped in chocolate nougat and coated in dark chocolate on the outside. The real thing from the Furst shop is handmade and wrapped in silver foil, while the other brands in the supermarket are the industrial version — the difference in taste is clear.
- Buy from the Original Mozart Kugel Furst shop (the branch in Alter Markt) only, for the genuine handmade version — pricier but worth it.
- Watch out for the red-and-gold wrapped product, the Reber brand sold worldwide: that's the industrial German version, not the real Salzburg one.
- Buy a large box as a gift at the airport — the price is close to in town, so there's no rush to buy in the old town.
#5 Kaiserschmarrn
The Austrian emperor's dessert, said in legend to have been a great favourite of Emperor Franz Joseph. It's made from a fluffy egg-white pancake batter baked in butter, torn into small pieces and fried further in the pan until golden and crisp, then dusted with powdered sugar and raisins and served with fruit sauce, usually plum or apple. The flavour is sweet and warm, soft and fluffy inside, crisp outside — a dessert that suits Austria's cold weather perfectly.
- It's enough for two, and some places serve it as a main course — don't order another dessert alongside it.
- Choose a place that uses Zwetschkenroster (Austrian plum sauce), not strawberry jam — the two are very different.
- Eat it hot the moment it arrives — the fluffy batter sinks and hardens if left too long, like Nockerl.
#6 Austrian Goulash
A beef stew Austria took from Hungary and made into a national dish. Beef is braised with onions, sweet-and-spicy paprika and stock for several hours until the meat melts, in a deep-red sauce that's rich, heavy and warming, served with hard bread (Semmel) or Spaetzle (Austrian egg noodles). Austrian goulash differs from the Hungarian in that the sauce is thicker and less spicy — well suited to Salzburg's cold weather.
- Choose a place that braises its goulash fresh every day rather than reheating a ready-made sauce — you can ask straight out whether it's frisch gekocht (freshly cooked).
- The best goulash often isn't in the places that put everything out front in English — try a spot where the menu is mainly in German.
- Order Spaetzle instead of bread if you want to stay full longer — Austrian Spaetzle is softer than pasta and soaks up the sauce beautifully.
Where to stay in Salzburg for this trip
A well-located hotel means less commuting and more sightseeing. Here are real, top-rated stays in Salzburg — compare Agoda · Booking · Trip.com in one click.
Hotel Sacher Salzburg
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Altstadt Hotel Stadtkrug
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Star Inn Hotel Premium Salzburg Gablerbräu
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Austria Trend Hotel Europa Salzburg
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Tours, tickets & activities in Salzburg
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Before You Pack
The best Austrian restaurants in Salzburg are often tucked down side streets off the tourist routes. Ask the hotel staff to point you to the places locals go, not the ones with a translated menu out front, and don't forget to order a Radler (beer mixed with lemonade) to go with the meal.