Lorenc Secret Garden Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Berat Municipality

So our top tip for Berat....don't be tempted to eat at the secret garden. We were drawn in by the beautiful, enchanting and somewhat quirky vibe while visiting Berat in August 2025. After trying several other restaurants we couldn't believe our luck when we stumbled across Lorenc and didn't need a reservation!! This soon made sense!  We had a quick scan of the reviews and we decided to give it the benefit of the doubt and believe the good comments were true.  My god were they wrong. The owner lorenc greated us by sharing his interesting political views on Trump and Putin. Not a great start you may think? Well believe it or not that was the best part of entire the experience, mainly because it didn't involve eating the food! Our daughter ordered the rigatoni with cheese. 🧀 A simple and safe option. What we got was was basic penne pasta with stale cheese and a sauce that tasted like washing-up liquid. The rice in the stuffed peppers 🌶️ was crunchy, tasted like tooth paste  🌶️ gross 🤢. My wife got the chicken in lemon sauce. It was so dry she couldn't swallow it and the lemon sauce was nowhere to be found. I got the lamb I had one mouthful ...one mouthful too much, it was just huge pieces of rock like bone. Luckily there were lots of stray cats for us to secretly feed the meat to...sadly even they didn't like the pasta and we were worried it would make them sick! Eventually the bill arrived - Lorenc  works it out at your table whilst looking at your uneaten food whilst you sit awkwardly looking away and 5 cats sit looking up waiting for more food! (Giving us away) The other customers seemed very glad he was distracted and tried to coax a cat over to eat some of their awful food too. The cats love the place, I now understood why!

It's a shame as the location is amazing and it has so...

We visited this restaurant mainly because they advertised live music, which unfortunately was not present. This was a major letdown, as it was one of the main reasons we chose this place.

The restaurant was clearly understaffed, with only two people trying to manage a full house. As a result, service was extremely slow. We waited a long time for our food, while other groups who arrived later were served much faster—some even received their desserts before we got our main course.

The manager seemed overwhelmed and was not particularly friendly or customer-oriented. One group asked about their delayed dessert, only to be told it wouldn’t be coming at all. In another instance, a guest briefly stepped away from her table, and the manager tried to take her chair without asking, intending to give it to another waiting group.

That waiting group, after a long wait, was eventually turned away and sent to another restaurant.

As for the food: most of it was quite good. However, the shrimp pasta was underwhelming—the mussels were still closed, and the shrimp hadn’t been properly cleaned.

Overall, while the food had potential, the poor service and chaotic management made for a...

Just wow!

We went to Lorenzo's secret garden last night, where we instantly received a very warm welcome. He immediately was telling us some history of his home, which is one of the oldest buildings in Berat.

We told him dat one of us was feeling sick (sun stroke) and that we hoped that a little dinner would do good. I ordered stuffed meat, but sadly my partner wasn't feeling well enough to eat. When my meat arrived, Lorenzo gave my partner some hot water with lemon to clear the stomach. It did the job and after a while, my partner was feeling better. So really really thank you Lorenc! We appreciate it a lot!

The stuffed meat was really good and came in fast. He also makes his own wine, which is a little bit sweet, and I liked it.

If you're looking for a place with good food, in a beautiful garden and with a great host, there's no better spot than Lorenzo's secret garden. The setting is nice and cosy, the host is one of the kindest people we have met and the food...