St. Peter Stiftskulinarium — Restaurant in Salzburg

Excellent restaurant, Disappointing venue for an event

My husband and I held our wedding welcome dinner here recently. We planned our event with one of the venue’s event coordinators, Lana. It was relatively easy to reserve our event date and select the food and beverages that would be served. The venue was even more stylish in-person than what we had gathered from photos (we were planning everything from the US). The food and beverages were excellent, and (for the most part) our guests raved about the food.

We did encounter a number of issues related to event coordination in the week leading up to and on the day of our wedding which negatively affected our experience, though. Perhaps the biggest were communication issues that seemed to result from Lana being out of the office in the days leading up to and on our event. We were not informed of this ahead of time, and it seems she did not pass along most of our event information. I had developed a seating chart for the event which listed everyone’s meal choices and allergies per the venue’s request. I paid our stationer to have a printable seating chart made which Lana said the venue would print and display. I also had table numbers, place cards, and table number holders created and had dropped them off along with our welcome bags the morning of our event. When we arrived and were shown the dinner hall, though, nothing was arranged the way we had discussed, the seating chart had not been printed, and none of the items I had dropped off that morning had been set up. After voicing our disappointments, the tables were rearranged and set with the table numbers and place cards. However, they could not print the seating chart so it was chaos getting our guests into the hall and seated. We arranged the welcome bags ourselves while our guests were having drinks downstairs (we had been told before this would be managed for us). This all took away from time that we could have been enjoying our event and welcoming our guests.

Then the bar during the drinks portion of the evening ran out of sparkling wine. Rather than take the initiative to restock themselves, we had to request that they restock the bar. However, this meant that no one was serving drinks for 10 minutes when the one person serving went to get more sparkling wine. We still were charged the full flat fee per head for the 2 hours of open bar which was supposed to include sparkling wine.

They also did not have our guests’ meal choices despite the time and effort I had put into organizing all of this information for them ahead of time. Rather than waste more time by having the waitstaff walk around and ask everyone for their meal choices, my husband asked for all those who were vegetarian to raise their hands. This was a mistake, though, as some of our guests wanted the vegetarian menu even though they didn’t observe a vegetarian diet. Thus, many of our guests ultimately received meals that they did not want (and the non-vegetarian meal was more expensive). Some dishes arrived cold. In addition, one child with a nut allergy began eating a dish containing nuts before their parent realized there were nuts in the dish. Luckily, he did not have a reaction. However, these issues and the delays in food service could’ve been avoided if the information I had put together ahead of time and that they had asked me to put together ahead of time would’ve been passed on to the staff working our event.

Overall, it is a beautiful restaurant, in an ideal location in Salzburg with good food and wine. However, their event coordination and management leaves a lot to be desired, especially for the amount that we paid to host...

Disappointing service in a beautiful setting

Last Saturday evening, our party of three visited the charming and authentically styled St. Peter Stiftskeller in Salzburg. Upon arrival, we were warmly welcomed by a blonde woman and seated in a lively dining area filled with other groups, many of whom, like us, were planning to attend a (classical) concert later that evening. At the outset, we politely informed the staff of our schedule and asked whether a two-course meal would be feasible. The young man serving our table reassured us that it would not be a problem.

We started the evening with a glass of bubbly – after all, we were celebrating. The appetizers were ordered: two steak tartares (delicious), trout, and a bottle of Riesling. Everything seemed to be on track at this point. However, from then on, things went downhill fast.

The appetizers were served promptly, but the Riesling never arrived. We waited patiently, as food and wine are best enjoyed together. But the wait stretched on, and despite asking multiple times, the wine was nowhere to be found. The only staff member we could see was the woman responsible for setting tables, and her repeated response was simply, “I’ll pass it on.” Predictably, nothing happened.

At this point, I stood up to address the issue myself since the young man who had initially helped us had disappeared, and the blonde woman was also nowhere to be found. When I finally approached her, she showed no accountability and simply shifted the blame to the young waiter. No apologies, no solutions – just deflection. Meanwhile, the atmosphere in the room grew increasingly tense, with other tables becoming visibly frustrated due to the delays (likely also heading to concerts).

Managing expectations is key in hospitality, and this is where things truly fell apart. If something isn’t possible, just be upfront about it. It’s better to set clear boundaries than to promise the impossible.

To make matters worse, our main courses were incorrectly served: instead of two steaks and an Austrian-style dish, we received two steaks and an overly salty truffle pasta we hadn’t ordered. Due to time constraints, we didn’t send it back but ate quickly to make our concert.

Three key observations stood out to me: Understaffed: The young man serving us seemed completely overwhelmed and was left to fend for himself without support from his team. Poor Communication: Both within the team and with guests. Promising things and failing to deliver only creates frustration. No Accountability: The blonde woman, presumably the more experienced team member, showed no sense of responsibility. Instead of stepping in to support her team or the guests, she avoided the situation entirely.

While the young waiter’s execution was below par, his intentions seemed genuine, and there’s an opportunity for him to learn from this experience. In contrast, the blonde woman’s lack of accountability set a poor example for the team.

In the end, offering a bottle of wine as compensation is a nice gesture, but what truly matters is showing understanding, listening to your guests, and making them feel valued. Ending the evening with a generic, “I hope everything was to your satisfaction,” only highlighted the disconnect.

The only staff member who gave the impression of genuinely trying was the woman setting tables.

This experience had potential but was unfortunately overshadowed by mismanagement. With better communication and teamwork, this could have been a much more...

We came all the way to visit the famous restaurant recommended by not few, but many websites including bloggers, Trip advisor as well as yelp comments. We came here with full expectation for a decent dinner and a quality time together as a family in the purportedly famous restaurant of St. Peter Stiftskulinarium. But from the start when we were seated, the waitress was giving us no patience at all in explaining their course menu. We had asked for recommendations from the menu two seperate times since we have no experience in Austria cuisine, but as we trying to understand the menu, the lady sneered at us unprofessionally claiming that she has already told us the recommendations in our previous inquiry and impaitiently repeated herself again. Throughout our dinner, her attitude has not changed and was serving us food with a perfunctory manner. Though the food is fairly acceptable, it is neither surprising nor impressive at all, and very overpriced. The 1g wolfsbarsch we ordered costs us 90 euro alone, and it is stale and overcooked. On top of that, as we pay for our food, a slight problem came up with our credit card where we didn't expect a pin is needed. Since this is totally unexpected for us, we required time to get cash from our wallet, and during this several minutes, she stood there giving us attitude and disdainful look, like we were trying to get a free meal. This is very shocking and completely unacceptable to us as customers. We didn't demand and request anything difficult, and we have been treating them with respect and good manner. And we definitely do not deserve this kind of service and attitude in such a highly-praised restaurant. I am extremely disappointed and furious about the whole experience in this restaurant, and I have never been treated like this in any country I have visited, neither in Asia (Including fast-paced restaurants in Hong Kong), nor in Germany, nor in the United States, and not even in other local hotel restaurants like Imlauer Sky - Bar & Restaurant we have been to. Hence, speaking fairly, with the same price they are charging us, there are better choices for us. So, like many reviews for this restaurant, if you are just attracted by its reputation of over 1200 years of history, feel free to visit and dine there, but do not expect too much from them. It might seemed impossible for such unpleasant event to happen, but this is exactly what we have experienced. I hope that this is not the experience that foreign visitors have in this restaurant.

P. S. Their reply doesn't even show any sincerity, it is just a standard reply. Anyone who can see this can check on other reviews from this place, it is literally just copy and paste. I am not kidding..

This place is the worst in sulzburg. An antique that has lost its color. (edited...