Buffet Clai — Restaurant in Trieste

It’s a very small family-owned restaurant located in the heart of Trieste, in a very busy area crowded with both people and cars, which brings to the “bad” part of this business: parking is very difficult to find, but you can very easily reach it via a pretty efficient public transportation.

The restaurant is made of two long and narrow rooms connected with each other. The entrance has a small counter on one side and on the other side there’s a big display window with all their “finger food” and already prepared food. From here you can also see their small kitchen, which is run by only a couple of people who never stop working: it is amazing all that you can do with a small kitchen if you have a real passion for cooking. In the back is the restaurant, which has a few tables: you better place a reservation if you want to dine here!

What they offer is the typical food + “finger food” of the local cuisine. A couple of friends highly recommended we have lunch here one day, but since we didn’t have enough time during our trip, we stopped there one afternoon for a few tapas. I loved both their “tartina di baccala’ mantecato” (open-faced sandwich with “creamed cod”) and their fried zucchini. The wine was very good as well.

In 2022 this restaurant was also awarded by Gambero Rosso as the best “street food” of the region! (Gambero Rosso is a renowned Italian food and wine magazine and publishing group)

The prices are cheap (we had a couple of glasses of wine and tapas for the same price a glass of wine costs in South Florida!) and the staff is very friendly.

I look forward to dining...

Buffet Clai is not in proper downtown Trieste, but still in city, easy to walk to or take a bus. The place is narrow inside, then at the end has a small dining room.

What’s the food? We are talking about great street food, finger food, but also regular traditional Trieste dishes. They really can cook, everything is very good and they are recognized even on national level.

They carry a good variety of wines, with a clear focus on local wines from the North-East.

Service is friendly, food was great, and prices were very good. It’s a place worth going to; even if you don’t have time for sitting down to lunch go at any time and just enjoy some good wine and the delicious food they make nonstop,...

This little Bistro/Restaurant is a gem! When we arrived, there was a punch of people outside, enjoying their food from the popular Bistro/Restaurant. We were served quickly with the most delicious fingerfood for a very good price. We had Tiramisu with pistacchio in the end, it was sooo delocious! Their you can get warm meals such as pasta only for lunch but in the evening you get wonderful fingerfood with pastrami or fish or vegetarian style. The service was good, especially the gentleman behind the bar was very kind and made our stay as nice as possible! There are 5-6 little tables inside and they are closed on mondays and sundays. You have to try this...