In Salzburg, a town known for Mozart, marvellous mountains, medieval manors, and maybe mostly: amazing meals, it’s no small feat to stand out on the culinary scene, but Imlauer Sky Bar & Restaurant does just that. And in style.
SALT FORTRESS ON THE SALT RIVER
My home town Burghausen (check out this post) is only 20 minutes away by car on the Bavarian side of the river Salzach (“salt river”), which also flows through Salzburg (“salt fortress”). I’ve spent a year with the German mountain troops in Berchtesgaden, a stone’s throw away. So I can’t count the times I’ve been to this beautiful town of just over 150,000 residents, which – you guessed it – made its fortune by charging exorbitant tolls on the salt from the nearby salt mines that was passing through it on the river.
IMLAUER SKY BAR & RESTAURANT IS HIGHLY RANKED
Ellie and I also visit the town regularly, when seeing my family. We usually prepare well, do our research, and then pick traditional restaurants in old town, some of which have been serving their customers for centuries. This time around, we had hardly had any time to prepare. We were a bit tired from the flight from London and just walked around near the hotel, when we bumped into this restaurant. Quick check on Tripadvisor (#16 out of 550 local restaurants), and up we went in the elevator to the top floor of Imlauer Hotel Pitter.
GREAT VIEWS FROM THE TERRACE AT IMLAUER SKY BAR & RESTAURANT
We were wearing very casual clothes and must have looked tired. But the friendly staff immediately made us feel welcome and had no qualms with us enjoying the mind-boggling views from the terrace before making up our minds if to choose the bar or the restaurant. Luckily, we ended up picking the restaurant and were led to our table next to the window front.
PLACING OUR ORDERS
No time to be wasted on long deliberations, considering we were starving, so Ms B opted for veal medallions with morel cream, baby spinach, herb gnocchi and mushroom foam (€27.50), while I went for perhaps the most Austrian of all dishes: “Tafelspitz”, prime boiled beef, pan-fried potatoes, apple horseradish, cream spinach and chive-sauce (€21.50). A rather rustic affair.
QUICK SERVICE AND EXCELLENT FOOD
It took less than twenty minutes for our food to arrive. Everything had been cooked to perfection and some thought had gone into the presentation. The braised beef looked as beautiful as braised beef can look, and the flavours were spot on. Clearly, the veal left a lot more options for presentation and no effort had been spared (see feature photo). I absolutely loved my cream spinach and chive sauce. It is not something that I had tried before, but it combined very well with the mashed apple, the horseradish, and the meat.
GNOCCHI & FOAM
For Ellie, the highlight were the herb gnocchi, which were very soft but still retained great texture, moist, but not squishy. The medium-cooked veal steaks were amongst the best we had ever enjoyed, and we couldn’t decide if they were slightly better or just a tad less divine than the ones at Allard in Paris, before Ducasse ruined that French food temple for everyone. Different from much of the fancy foam we had seen at other eateries, this delightful mushroom foam stayed in sterling shape until the plate had been emptied.
In our minds, it is surprising that Imlauer Sky Bar & Restaurant has so far escaped the burden of a Michelin star. We will definitely be back on our next trip to Salzburg: 5 out of 5 in our book.
Looking for more food inspiration? Check out our posts about Café Englander and Café Central in Vienna, restaurant Lafleur in Frankfurt, Berners Tavern and Benares in London.
For travel posts, feel welcome to have a look at our trip to the Sahara, our day trip to the Douro Valley near Porto, Portugal, our visit to the North Pole (Spitsbergen), or my recent rowing expedition in the Northwest Passage.
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