Honest Review: Mozart Dinner Concert In Salzburg

If you are planning to head to Salzburg, you should know it’s the birthplace of famous classical musician, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It’s home to the Mozarteum and one of the best music schools in the world. They revere and celebrate the man’s work and legacy here, even if his image is a bit overused in all the chocolate balls sold everywhere.

What’s Special About The Mozart Dinner Concert?

The Mozart Dinner Concert is a 2.5 hour long dinner and intimate opera dinner that takes place in the famous Baroque Hall of St. Peter’s Monastery. The Skiftskulinarium is the oldest restaurant in Europe and is a gorgeous setting, that for a few hours, transports you back in time. Logistically, the program roughly looks like this:

• 7:30 – 8:00 pm: Starter is served
• 8:00 – 8:25 pm: First set (Selected pieces from ‘Don Giovanni’)
• 8:25 – 8:50 pm: Main Course is served
• 8:50 – 9:15: Second set (Selected pieces from ‘Marriage of Figaro’)
• 9:15 – 9:30: Dessert is served
• 9:30 – 9:50: Third set (Overture from ‘A Little Music Night’ and selected pieces from ‘The Magic Flute’)

What’s unique is that you get to experience a dinner reminiscent of what was served during Mozart’s time and an up-close taste of lively opera with the singers and musicians dressed in period pieces.

There’s two things to note about the opera here.

The first is that it is very intimate and up close. If you seated in one of the four front tables, you’re practically within a few feet of the singers during the performance. Even if you are at the back, you are no more than 30 feet or so away from the front. It’s a cosy venue, in the best way.

The second is that the sets are 20-25 minute long, which is a perfect amount of time to appreciate the music and then have time to focus on the dinner course in front of you. I genuinely think most people attending appreciate this whether they realize it or not.

What To Expect At The Mozart Concert Dinner

This is not your best of Mozart playlist concert but will cover many recognizable favorites especially if you’re a fan of his operas. They do arias and duets from The Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro, and Don Giovanni.

Despite these classics, it’s not your typical opera. Instead of a massive theater, you are in an intimate room lit mostly by candlelight. It’s really quite magical.

Let’s talk about the dinner, a three-course meal with recipes from the 18th century.

Bread and butter is already on the table when you arrive and you can order your drinks at this point, which is not included in the concert dinner fee.

They’ve got a selection of beer and wine, with a heavy emphasis on the wine library that carries selections from all around the world.

If you’re not a big beer drinker, I suggest going for a Radler, which is a blend of beer and lemonade and is always tasty.

Before the first set, we started with a lemon chicken soup with curd cheese and rosemary dumpling. I found it very light and refreshing and well-seasoned. The aroma of rosemary comes through in the dumplings without being overwhelming.

The main is a breast of roasted capaun (chicken) with a red wine glaze, a layered potato gratin and vegetables. I generally prefer chicken thigh for its fattiness, but the leaner breast was fine with the glaze and the potato gratin was very fluffy on the inside with a bit of crispiness to the outside.

Dessert was a semi-frozen wild honey parfait with a berry and apricot reduction. It was really good, with the subtle flavor of the honey in the creaminess of the parfait. It was fine, until I was distracted by the giant meringue over at the Exclusive Tables.

The famous Salzburg specialty is the Salzburger Nockerl, a giant dessert souffle with the biggest meringue I’ve seen.

Update: They’ve since standardized the dinner menu to be the same with just different seating options. The dessert is now the Nockerl, which used to only come with the Exclusive dining package.

Is It Worth Upgrading To The Premium or Exclusive Option?

The standard rate for the dinner concert as of 2025 is €85 per person. The premium option is around €96 and gets you closer, while the Exclusive option is priced at €115, with the best seats in the house.

Guests are seated at tables with up to 8 people, depending on how many people attend that evening. For the premium, you can be at a side table by the stage with 4 seats, or one of the middle of the room tables facing the stage. With the exclusive, you are seated privately with 2-3 guests at a table right in front of the stage

If you can afford it, I say go for it, but otherwise most seats are fine.

Note that the concert dinner is not open on Wednesdays.

How Was The Music?

Delightful. I feel like that’s the right word when you attend something like an opera. All the musicians are graduates of the Mozarteum music school. I am not an opera expert by any measure, but I am a classically trained pianist and I found the performance to be very good.

Coupled with the smaller venue, and you get a very unique and warm sound that can’t be replicated in larger concert halls. I won’t dare to say better, but I’ll say it’s different and for me, quite enjoyable.

I loved that I could see the expressions on the faces of the musicians and singers as they interacted with each other, something that I often miss even sitting in the Orchestra section of an opera house.

As for the music selection, I’d be curious to find out why certain pieces were chosen, since I’m not a Mozart buff. I know that Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute are all very well-regarded operas. Within them, I can’t say which are the “best” duets or arias, but it was interesting to see that all the pieces from The Magic Flute either had Papageno or Pamina in it.

Maybe it’s me, but I never really cared for Tamino, the main character of The Magic Flute – so this was great.

It would have been nice to hear the Queen of the Night’s ‘Vengeance’ aria, but maybe that’s asking for too much.

I found the whole evening very enjoyable, and partially because it’s a very famous piece, but I was eagerly waiting for the 1st Movement // Allegro from A Little Night Music that came just after dessert.

Is The Mozart Concert Dinner Worth It?

I usually don’t go to these classical music concert dinners because most of them are generally tourist traps. I sought this one out in particular because of the combination of the historical venue and on the advice of friends who have attended before and said it was much better than they expected of a concert dinner.

They were right and now I can fully agree with them. I left that evening with a smile on my face because it exceeded my expectations.

The best part that it was a short walk back to our retreat at the Auersperg Boutique Spa Hotel.

Unique Things To Do In Salzburg

I highly recommend putting this on your list of things to do while in Salzburg along with Bavarian Salt Mines, the Red Bull Hangar 7, and the Sound of Music Tour, especially if you’re a fan of the movie and like to sing-a-long with strangers.

Updated on May 5, 2025