Ballkoni Gorices - UNESCO quarter — Restaurant in Berat Municipality

I recently had the pleasure of dining at Restaurant Ballkoni, and it was a truly enjoyable experience. The restaurant offers a perfect combination of traditional Albanian flavors with a modern touch, all served in a warm and welcoming atmosphere.

The location is stunning — especially if you manage to get a seat on the balcony. It lives up to its name by offering beautiful views that enhance the entire dining experience.

The service was friendly and professional. The staff were attentive without being intrusive, and they gladly offered suggestions from the menu.

As for the food — everything we tried was delicious. The grilled meats were cooked to perfection, the traditional dishes were rich in flavor, and the fresh ingredients really stood out. I particularly recommend the house specialties and their homemade desserts.

Prices were fair for the quality and portion sizes, and the overall vibe was relaxed and pleasant.

If you’re looking for a place that showcases authentic local cuisine with great service and a beautiful setting, Restaurant Ballkoni is definitely...

Full marks for super friendly folks working there (english-speaking, thanks Rei!). Upstairs seating under shade, with breeze, nice view of bridge, river and castle/mountain. The river is green/blue gorgeous color but in July2024, it's very low, veyr shallow, looks a bit sick. Maybe in the fall it widens out, looks better. Downstairs seating is pretty sad. WC is ok, basic. Nothing fancy.

Big parking lot right below gratis (although a bit packed). Background music is local Albanian, nice volume, well done.

Food is, well, not so great. Not terrible, just not great. Rice is bland, chicken serving size too small, stuffed peppers were also tasteless, a bit rubbery and thing. Best thing is the French fries (generally surprisingly good in Albania). The vegetables were not great either, soaked in some black sauce, looking tired. (Eggplant over cooked for sure).

But...np complaints, the price is very good, the drinks are cold (but never trust ice cubes). Highly recommended, lower your food experience expectations. The comfortable view is what you get and...

We came in on a Saturday evening to have dinner on the rooftop. The two young guys working there were way out of their depth with an 80% capacity on the rooftop. They first forgot to wipe the rest of our table clean and then forgot to bring us menus. Once we were able to order, the waiter could not finish a sentence without getting distracted by other new guests or the other waiter asking a question, he kept apologizing so we gave them the benefit of the doubt. The (bottles of) beer came after 10 minutes and they were out of the kind we asked for. Then rest of the food also came late. I had the meatballs which were completely burned on both sides and somehow felt raw in the middle. The fries which were part of our appetizer tasted like the oil was either not hot enough or the oil was too old or both. The other dish we ordered was good. After a rather disappointing meal, it took the waiters a very long time to bring the check. We paid in lek and received euros in return which is frustrating after we paid the conversion fee and...