Kapelet Restaurant — Restaurant in Tirana Municipality

I don't usually leave reviews for restaurants unless I have something extremely good or bad to say. Random and usual stuff are just not part of my business, but here is my experience in this place. I got to say that I am a senior server in an outstanding restaurant in the US, where the service in food industry is absolutely uncomparable to what you see in Albania and other countries of Europe, so coming from someone like me, this review is gonna be absolutely helpful for whoever is gonna read it. As an Albanian, I would say that this place was beyond excellent. You can dine in in millions of places in Albania and get a really bad and annoying service, but this was not the case. As a server, I always make sure that the food is up to my costumers' preferences, so I needed the same thing back to myself.

1. I had to go out for dinner with an old friend of mine, but wanted to make sure that the food would be of premium quality and under reasonable prices. Asking quite a lot of people, they recommended me this place. I looked at the reviews and found different opinions, but again, what I heard from my people made me decide to go there.

2. I had to book in advance since there are no walk-ins and I did this one day before. Not only they assigned us to a 4-top (instead of just 2, because we were only two people), but it had an amazing view of Tirana from the window, since it was a side table.

3. Arrived there about 45 min before my reservation, because I considered the heavy traffic that usually Tirana has, but the hosting staff was more than welcome to get us sitted right away.

4. There was no menu and the waiter explained us about the antipastas that they served, the drinks and the main course dishes.

5. The antipastas consisted of traditional Albanian products that I cannot really translate here, since they are authentic over Balkan region, but if you really wanted to try a fancier and a more modern version of Albanian foods that you think that are of your taste, I would say that this place had just nailed it. I dont know whose idea it was to come with such an incredible mixture of foods and that blend of taste, but it was more than amazing. The main waiter of our table explained to me everything about the antipastas, the way how they were prepared, which region of Albania they were coming from and made sure that we were okay with the ingredients and didn't have any sort of allergy (and please keep notes here, whoever reads this, because Albania is one of those places that this topic never comes to the waiter attention, because Albanians don't usually have food allergies, rather than food dislikes. So make sure you let them know what ingredients you might be allergic from, because it is important, or at least, it seems so to me.)

6. As a main dish, we ordered Village Chicken (Alb: zog fshati), and that was one of the best chicken dishes I had ever come across in my life. The red wine was also great and everything went just as smooth as I wanted.

7. The service was overall great and the guys took care of us in a very polite and considerate way. Longer you stay and live in this country, sooner you'll realize that the communication skills is something that the costumer service lacks in general , and this is purely notable from someone who comes from another culture (in my case the US) where the costumer service skills are something that either gets you in or out of the business. I didnt expect to find myself here, going to the costumers at least 3 or 4 times and asking them about the food as we come from a different culture and we hate when people ask us too much (and this holds in general, not food specific), but they did their maximum to get us satisfied and that's what I liked.

8. Including the last course dish and everything else, it summed up to about 60$ and it was a really fair price.

Whoever wants a cool place to go and dine in just make yourself a favor and go to Kapelet because it was worthy! I will be back and...

In short: the food was amazing, the atmosphere was pleasant, and the view was superb. Most of the staff seemed professional and friendly. Unfortunately, our overall experience was negatively impacted by one particular staff member who served us.

My girlfriend and I were seated at 18:30 on June 23, 2025. From the beginning, this waiter came across as visibly unenthusiastic. He spoke very quietly when explaining menu options, which made it difficult to hear, and he seemed impatient when we asked clarifying questions. When my girlfriend politely asked if we could move to a table that had just been vacated by four German-speaking guests (with a better view), his response was “The view is the same,” delivered in a dismissive tone. That said, he did ultimately accommodate our request and was helpful when we asked him to take some photos.

As the evening went on, there were several moments that felt unprofessional. For example, while I was waving away a bee from my plate, he remarked, “We’re out in the open, what do you expect?” which came off as unnecessarily snide. Later, he made a comment about how “Dutch people always seem to smile a lot—probably because of all the soft drugs in Holland.” This attempt at humor felt inappropriate, especially in a service setting.

While we appreciated that his demeanor slightly improved during the meal, the overall service felt rushed. Plates were being cleared before we were fully finished, which we laughed off at the time, but in hindsight added to a sense of being hurried.

The most uncomfortable part came after we had paid. My girlfriend stepped away to use the restroom, and the waiter started a conversation with me about tipping culture in Europe—mentioning how people from some countries don’t tip in Albania and expressing frustration that he relies on tips, not salary. He specifically asked me why Dutch guests sometimes don’t tip. This made me feel singled out and awkward, especially given the overall service we had received.

We came to celebrate my girlfriend’s birthday, and while many aspects of the evening were memorable in a good way, this interaction unfortunately left us with a bad aftertaste. I hope the restaurant takes this feedback seriously, as the location and food truly have great potential—but the service...

Went there to eat with my family . Staff seated us and when we asked to be moved because of sun they started getting annoyed but still accomodated us into a corner . The waiter asked what we wanted for drinks and what kind of meat we wanted since the rest of the menu was fixed . After waiting for a good 15/20 min we finally got the drinks . And some salad on our plates . Another 10 min we got the appetizers which stayed on our table for a good 45 min before we had enough and asked for the other dishes . ( the waiters came and cleaned only half of the table while leaving the rest just stay there... i had to move my own plate from the table ... ) We finished the 2nd dish and again after waiting for 20 min we had to ask for the last dish . They didnt clean anything and just shoved the meat plates into our already full table . And since they already opened the windows in a few seconds we had a full swarm of wasps on our plates and drinks ( 15/20 wasps going around our food ) They didnt bother to check on us until we were already leaving which at some point one of the waiters said we could to another table and bring our wasp infested food there . We declined and wanted to leave. When asked for the receipt they held us another 20 min being difficult about it printing a random ticket with just the end price and barwly anything correct .

And despite this awful experience and ruined birthday dinner in a lazy way they said " the drinks are on us " .

Thats my story The food was good but considering the way things went it became unedible in seconds . If the problem was with the waiters or the manager thats something they should figure out but on this kind of establishment with like 10/12 tables and 7+ waiters going around makes me not want to go there again . 0 stars until they...