Gostinstvo Mak, David Vračko s.p. — Restaurant in Maribor

This is quite an experience. I wish I knew more about it before going. My expectations were certainly far too high so it ended up being a disappointment.

This restaurants feels like you are going to someone's house to have a meal. There were 19 guests on this day. Everyone eats the same thing at the same time. The website offers 2 choices. M and L. In the end everyone is served XXL.

I lost track after a while. There were around 25 "things" to eat of variable sizes. It was far too much food. We nearly felt sick at the end and it was the case as well for other guests.

The food is also a bit unique. The chef is somewhat a little crazy. Everything is surely a LOT of effort and work. A lot of the 25 "things" are complex with many ingredients (often far too many in my opinions). Some flavor combinations are trying to be smart, but didn't go well together (the simplest example is the cucumber and mint sorbet with watermelon as a palate cleanser between a fish course and a meat course). Some courses we good but nothing mind blowing. Some "things" were useless (the porc fat on top of a stale slice of bread as an example).

I think the chef has great potential. My suggestion is less courses, more focus, purer combinations... Probably less food overall. I can't recall a single meal in my life were I had more food. And this is out of 30000+ meals !  So make really 2 or 3 different options (M, L, XL).

Waiters were nice, but to serve 25 things, empty 25 plates, give 25 pieces of cutlery and fill many glasses of wine, they were completely overwhelmed and had to run for around for 4 hours. For quite a few dishes we weren't told what we were going to eat and for quite a few it is far from obvious.

The bill ended up to be quite high. It felt like more a reflection of the quantity of food that we didn't really want (correction : that we really didn't want), than the quality of the food. There are other restaurants in the area that offer much high quality at a lower...

Really an unbelievable experience. I've been to fine dining restaurants all over the world, and I had just been to a Michelin star restaurant in Vienna three days earlier. The experience there vs. here could not have been more different--in a good way.

It sounds pretentious, but David Vračko and his staff are really at the forefront of gastronomy and art. And yet despite this, the restaurant is extraordinarily down-to-earth and never felt stuffy or formal. If anything , it was playful. It was also a slower day at the restaurant, and there were three groups of us speaking variously in Slovenian, English, and German, and the waitstaff made it work.

I intentionally chose not to take photos of all my dishes and just absorb the experience for once, and wow. I can't possibly remember how many courses I had, and the creativity and playfulness of the dishes and the staff were unparalleled... everything from an almost caveman-esque first course of flame grilled local pork cured meat on an edible stick to molecular gastronomy, and everything in between.

Our waiter was also essentially a sommelier except by name, and I had some incredible wine pairings that are notable enough that I intend to travel to rural Slovenia in the future to the wineries that produced some of them.

.If you're in Maribor and enjoy fine dining restaurants, you should--you must--go here. If you're traveling through Maribor (e.g., on the way to Ljubljana), you should make a day trip to Maribor just to go here. I was originally traveling just to Graz, but decided to hop over to Maribor to visit this restaurant, and I do not regret it.

10/10, highly recommend. You won't experience an evening like this anywhere else...

We discovered Mak before our trip to Slovenia and were so excited to try it based on all of the reviews. We knew somewhat what to expect after reading them. First and foremost, dining here for lunch and dinner requires a reservation. Expect to spend 3-5 hours at the restaurant for the medium meal. We were welcomed with a glass of sparkling wine outside (they do charge quite a lot for this, which surprised us a bit). There was a family of five dining with us that evening. We were served beautifully prepared dishes, all in all totaling around 10-12 plates. The only negative thing I can say is that they gave the family (dutch speakers) significantly more attention than us. It appeared this was due to a language barrier (we are english speakers). The dishes weren't usually explained to us in any detail, which is maybe part of the mystery. The check out was also a bit confusing. He took the family outside and told us to wait. They stood outside and drank and chatted, and we sat for at least 30 minutes just waiting to check out. The check out took another 30 minutes for us. It took us 5 hours from start to end. As others have said, don't be surprised at the large bill at the end. The food is excellent and the chef is quite the character. You will need a sense of humor to eat here! We...