Srpska kafana — Restaurant in City of Belgrade

Amazingly authentic Serbia kafana. Not your typical tourist spot, so you won’t find english menus (not a bad thing), but you WILL find genuine food that tastes like someone’s grandma cooked it for you, a warm & inviting spot that feels like you’ve gone back in time a bit.

I was originally trying to grab food on Skadarlija, but after striking out multiple times due to an overbooked & crowded NYE weekend, I just started wandering randomly outside the area, & stumbled upon this place.

When I arrived, at around 9pm on a Saturday night (Jan 1 2022), the place looked like it might have been closed for a private event (there was only 1 large table seated at the time). I decided to chance it & ask, & I’m glad I did.

After some fumbling Serbian/ English, I was seated, & the owner/ manager (who had actually been seated at the single table with the large dinner party) came over & explained to me in English that their menu was in Serbian. I told him that was not a problem, as I would just use my iPhone to translate (the Google Translate app is pretty awesome for this task, using the camera). He brought the menu & then told me about a couple specials, & they sounded so good, that I just went with his recommendations for appetizers & main, & bypassed the menu altogether.

I’m not exactly sure what I ate, but it was some sort of cold Serbian whipped cheese (kinda like cream cheese), mixed with peppers, & served with some sort of smashed vegetable (again, mostly sweet red peppers & maybe eggplant?) spread alongside the cream cheese/ pepper spread. Both were tasty separate, but even better when put on the bread together.

The main course was a fantastic veal roast, with giant chunks of meat (I believe cooked in the traditional style “under ash”, where it’s almost like a slow-cooked clay-pot kinda preparation. With roasted potatoes alongside.

Dessert was Serbian snenokle, a tasty, but rich & heavy mix of a sweet, soft, cold egg white meringue covered in a custard pudding.

With a few glasses of rakije (Serbian brandy- their medovaca was VERY good- plum brandy sweetened with honey), a coke, sparkling water & espresso, the total was a VERY fair and affordable 3240 dinar (about $32 USD as of Jan 2022)

Great place to visit if your want an authentic kafana experience, that you might have to “work” a little bit...

Terrible experience! If you want to be ignored, this is the place for you. 😍

The waitstaff couldn’t speak English, which is completely understandable. However, the real issue was their unprofessional and dismissive attitude. When I tried to place my order, they walked away before I could even finish my sentence. Eventually, I resorted to using a translator to successfully order.

The food took about 40 minutes to arrive, which was far from acceptable.

There were two waiters present, and when it came time to pay, they both ignored me. Instead, they kept pushing me off to each other, effectively leaving me stranded in the process. Frustrated, I returned to my seat and sought help from a nearby gentleman who fortunately understood English. He called a waiter over, and they arrived promptly, which made me wonder—was I being discriminated against? As a young Asian woman, I couldn’t help but question whether their behavior was influenced by racism or gender bias.

The food itself was decent, and the decor was nice. A live band was performing during dinner, and while the music was good, it was louder than I personally prefer.

Final verdict: I will never return and do not recommend...

We were looking for a traditional and affordable place to have dinner and experience Serbian cuisine. It's true that we had high expectations based on what we had read about the local food, but we found Sprska Kafana to be a wonderful place that will stay in our memories for a long time. Forever, I hope.

The waiter, an extremely kind gentleman, quickly connected with us (a group of people from 3 different countries). Through gestures, he understood that we wanted to sample a bit of everything, and he did just that: he chose various dishes for us to try.

It's hard to say what impressed us the most. Personally, I would choose the meat: it was perfectly cooked, with a flavor I had never tasted before (and I say this being very particular about good meats).

I don't think I've ever been so moved by food, I felt like I needed to cry by tasting all of that amazing food, made with love to us. It was incredible. As we discussed, it was a meal that made us feel nostalgic for something we had never experienced in our lives.

This place deserves to have lines and lines of people because it's...