Gasthof Simony

Gasthof Simony is the small historic guesthouse on the south side of the Marktplatz, an 1823 family-owned property of seven bedrooms and a ground-floor dining room that seats thirty. The building belonged to the Simony family (Friedrich Simony was the 19th-century Austrian geographer who first mapped the Hallstatt and Dachstein glaciers) and is still run by a small family team. The dining room is the least formal of the Marktplatz restaurants and, consequently, the easiest place in the village for a solo visitor to eat a proper dinner without ceremony.

The kitchen focuses on short, seasonal menus. Three or four starters, five mains, two or three desserts, rotating weekly. In practice: a lake-fish soup with root vegetables; a whole trout from the Hallstättersee grilled with parsley butter; a slow-cooked Dachstein lamb with potato gnocchi (spring and summer); Salzkammergut goulash with dumplings (autumn and winter); and a Topfenknödel with apricot sauce for dessert. The kitchen closes at 21:00; lunch runs 12:00 to 14:00.

The dining room has a six-seat counter that the owners treat as the house solo-dining bar — two of the six seats face directly through to the kitchen pass, and the chef will often hand across a tasting bite between courses. The wine is Austrian-focused with a handful of Slovenian and German options; beer is Zipfer and Stiegl on tap. Gasthof Simony is the right default for a solo visitor and a worthwhile short-list for a quiet dinner for two.

For Solo Dining: Gasthof Simony's six-seat counter is the village's correct solo-dining station, with open-pass access to the chef and the least formal of the Marktplatz services. A solo visitor can eat a full three-course Austrian dinner with a Wachau Grüner Veltliner for under €55; the family know to keep the conversation light; and at 20:30 the counter is usually half-full with other solo trekkers and lake-returning hikers. It is a kind solo-dining room.