Hello and happy Sunday!

Last week my boyfriend and I made the most of a long weekend and took the train to Salzburg. We spent two nights in the beautiful Austrian city that is the birthplace of Mozart and the backdrop to some of my favorite scenes from The Sound of Music (I couldn’t help breaking into song until my boyfriend – who hasn’t seen the movie – was able to sing along too 😀 ).

True to my foodie nature, I picked out some vegan-friendly places I wanted to check out. Gabriel, my boyfriend, doesn’t even pretend to try and influence our choice of restaurant anymore – he simply asks me where we should go, and when one place was unexpectedly closed [to say I was disappointed to miss out on vegan Wiener Schnitzel and Knödel at Restaurant Milton is an understatement] he immediately asked me what else I knew (and yes, I did have a backup).

We weren’t there long, but I think we definitely made the most of the vegan foodie scene in between enjoying the cultural offerings of Salzburg. If you ever visit this city – which I definitely recommend for a short city break – you should seriously consider checking out these places:

The Green Garden

This vegetarian place has a young and fresh vibe with quirky plants hanging down from the ceiling inside lampshades. Vegan options are clearly labeled and plentiful enough to ensure indecision. Gabriel went for a wrap while I had the asian buddha bowl – fresh greens, courgetti, avocado, pomegranate, sprouts, radish, seeds, two rice paper vegetable rolls and a delicious dressing – as well as the sweet potato sashimi. The “sashimi” was very intriguing and actually tasted a bit like sushi in combination with the pickled ginger and beetroot wasabi – we both agreed this was stunning. We had to wait a while for our food, as one of the servers had forgotten about one of the dishes, but it was all well worth the wait.

For dessert we couldn’t resist (ok, mainly I couldn’t resist) checking out the Green Garden vegan ice cream parlor right next to the cafe. I had a scoop of blueberry ice cream and a scoop of the best peanut ice cream I’ve ever had! Their ice cream is made with rice, coconut or oat milk and is full of flavor – Gabe enjoyed his more savory-tasting pumpkin seed one.

Spicy Spices

This Indian organic restaurant-and-health food shop is the place to hit up for some good, honest veggie food. Nothing pretentious about it and it seem to operate like a canteen. Our food (dhal with veggies and basmati rice) was brought to us within minutes. They also have a variety of organic teas and juices – my boyfriend went for an unsweetened pomegranate juice, which made him pull a face while drinking 🙂 The guy serving us came several times to see if we were alright and even filled up Gabe’s plate a second time (no extra charge), after asking if he wanted some more.

After our meal I also bought us some Vivani chocolate bars from the store section. If we’d stayed in Salzburg longer I definitely would have come back here again for more Indian comfort food.

Heart of Joy Cafe

This was one of the places I’d chosen for breakfast. I was quite interested by the variety on the menu – from vegan ham to superfood muesli, it caters to a range of vegan desires. I was about to go for porridge, following my boyfriend’s order, but made a snap decision to get one of the chocolate cupcakes displayed along with raw vegan cheesecakes and other goodies – a decision I certainly did not regret. It was wonderfully chocolatey and not sickly sweet – perfect with my oat mylk matcha latte, which was better than any of the recent ones I’ve had in Switzerland. Gabe was happy with his fruit-laden porridge, but had to adopt a competitive attitude to finish the whole thing (it was a very generous serving!).

I was also excited to see they sold my favorite Primal Pantry protein bars (I was addicted to these back in London). I couldn’t resist getting a cacao brownie one for snacking on at Hellbrunn Palace later that day.

Organic Pizza

This place was not originally on my must-eat-at list, but I suggested it after we saw that Restaurant Milton was closed. While it by no means offered us the novelty of eating vegan Austrian food, it was a very satisfying meal all the same. They have a pizza menu with a section for vegan pizzas and offer regular or spelt and flax dough (which I went for – the lower one in the photo). The only minus points this place gets is due to the fact that it was understaffed – the poor guys working there barely had time to come over and let us pay, and had to clean cutlery by hand as they had run out. Definitely a good sign though, if a small pizza place like that is packed.

GustaV

Last but by no means least: our last meal in Salzburg was breakfast at fully plant-based cafe GustaV. Overeagerly arriving 15 minutes before it opened (9 am on Saturday), we soaked up some sun at one of the tables outside while studying the menu. When I saw french toast, the path ahead was clear – while vegan pancakes are (thankfully!) becoming more common, vegan french toast is still somewhat of a rare find. Gabe ordered the muesli with a beetroot latte, which he waited to try until everything was set out and photos had been taken (I’m very impressed by how he’s gone from eye-rolling to actually taking my food photography somewhat seriously). I had a delicious oat mylk hot chocolate with my epic french toast that was topped with banana, apple, orange and maple syrup. Apparently they make a batter using lupin flour and water, then pan-fry the toasts. Definitely one to try at home kids 😉

Judging from the menu this is also a nice place to go for a light lunch – sandwiches, soups, salads and cake etc. I would have loved to try more here.

After GustaV’s we headed to the station and from there took the train to Innsbruck, where we spent a few hours wandering around the old town. The little health food places that I’d wanted to eat at were sadly closed, so we ended up going to Ludwig’s which is a burger joint with locations in both Innsbruck and Salzburg. We both had the vegan burger and sweet potato fries, which were nice, but not something I’d go especially out of my way to have. Back in Salzburg there is another burger place offering a vegan burger (Bio Burger Meister) which we passed, but didn’t try.

That’s it for this trip – as you can see, I really did try to make the most of every meal 😉 And I have to say, I found the options for plant-based eating in Salzburg very impressive.

I hope you enjoyed reading, and please let me know if you have any other recommendations for Salzburg!

xoxo