Steigl Brauwert Restaurant

As you can see, the atmosphere is traditional Brauhaus, wood-paneled and spacious. Service was prompt and polite, and we got a lot of attention. Maybe they thought I was a real journalist.

Before dinner, they brought us a free sample of their seasonal beer. This one was quite unique, being made with Emmer wheat, an ancient grain which is the ancestor of modern wheat (and one of the only "non-genetically-modified" foods in existence). The beer was a "dinkel", unfiltered, sweet and somewhat fruity.

As another local tradition, our bread (rye) was served with bacon fat as well as butter.

As a classy restaurant, we got an amuse-bouche before the meal. This is a small piece of freshwater salmon in cream and parsley sauce. The sauce was very interesting; I'll have to case my German cookbooks for it.

Sorry for the blurry picture here. This is a pumpkin soup, rich and savory. Garnished with the ubiquitous cream.

Stefan had a modernization of a very traditional Austrian meal: wurst with liver pudding. The ingredients are traditional but the techniques and presentation are 21st century. This is a welcome trend in Austria, since it means you can get "traditional" Austrian foods and haute cuisine at the same time. The American South could learn from this.

I was feeling a bit up-to-the-eyebrows with meat (which I don't eat at home) so I ordered a trout dish. The fish was fried fresh, and served on a pile of potato and beet cubes. It turned out to be an excellent choice.

Of course, being Austria, the best part of the meal was dessert. This was a German souffle pancake studded with piquant preiselberries (also known as longanberries). Yum.

This dessert, while very interesting-sounding, didn't turn out as well (which is a shame, since they made it up special for us). They are dumplings in poppy sauce, with sour plums and chestnut ice cream. Unfortunately, the poppy sauce was overcooked and bland, which dragged down the whole dish.

Overall, I think the Steigl restaurant was a good choice for fine dining in Salzburg, and I'd go there again.