Last Updated on 8th August 2019 by Sarah and Justin
We were thrilled to visit Belgrade for the first time. And while we were excited to see and experience a new city in a new country, we were equally interested in its culinary offerings. After this trip we can confirm we are still in love with the food of this region and Belgrade is a great place to try it. This post includes (among some other treats here and there):
- Our favorite Belgrade food (including cevapi and burek of course)
- Belgrade restaurants worth checking out – especially in the Dorcol neighborhood
- Belgrade bars where you can taste Serbian craft beer and the local specialty rakia
We hope you enjoy eating and drinking your way through Belgrade as much as we did!
Belgrade food
Burek in Belgrade
We had to start with the burek. We love burek. And we went a little crazy in Belgrade. Every day we said we wouldn’t eat it and every day we ate it again. You can find burek at any пѐкара (bakery) in the city, but we were especially impressed by a few places with high quality and a great selection.
Чарли
This bakery is on a main street near the main Republic Square. The ladies serving up the tasty treats greeted us with smiles as we stumbled through our poor Serbian and asked to try all the burek they had on offer (it was our first burek stop in the city!). We had meat, cheese, and spinach varieties. The meat was our favorite at this particular place. It has a counter where you can stand and eat your burek (which we did).
Address: Braće Jugovića 16
Buregdžinica Sarajevo / Бурегџиница Сарајево
This bakery is located near the Church of Saint Mark. As the name implies, it serves Bosnian style burek. And they have a lot of different types of burek. In addition to the traditional meat and cheese, they have burek filled with leeks and cabbage. They have a small seating area where you can enjoy your burek in peace. We did, and ended up getting a second helping of the truly delicious leek-filled burek.
Address: Svetogorska 38
Pekara in the Zeleni Venac market
There is a bakery in the southwest corner of the Zeleni Venac green market. We stumbled on both the market and the pekara when we were heading out to walk across Branko’s Bridge. It was a lucky find. The burek was spectacular: enormous, greasy, and utterly satisfying. We ate it standing at a table outside the small shop in the rest of the market, trying to protect it from the birds who also wanted a taste. We tried to tell the proprietors how delicious it was when we left, but they were too busy serving their long line of customers to even look up.
Zeleni Venac market address: Jug Bogdanova; the pekara is located closer to the street called Kamenička
Belgrade restaurants
We enjoyed some delicious meals in Belgrade, even beyond the burek! Here are some recommendations for restaurants where we enjoyed the food and weren’t inundated with smoke. You’ll notice they are all in the Dorćol neighborhood. The whole area is really great for eating and drinking and hanging out in Belgrade.
One thing to know up front about Belgrade is that there is a lot of smoking. Indoors, outdoors, anywhere – smoking is prevalent. We did our best to seek out the rare places that had non-smoking sections, or sat outside when it wasn’t too chilly. But there were some places we wanted to go that we just couldn’t even walk into because the smoke was so bad. If you have similar sensitivities, time your visit to Belgrade when you can do all your dining and drinking outside.
Drama
A small corner spot serving sausages. They come with the most delicious bread and all the different sauces you could want. The staff serving and cooking were super friendly. We didn’t realize there was another outpost until we ventured further afield. But even after knowing that, we still went back our last night as everything was just so tasty!
Address: Dositejeva 7a (note, there are others as this is a chain)
Ćevap kod Dekija
A restaurant specializing in grilled meat including the famous cevapi and the big Serbian hamburger. We also had the most delicious appetizer of grilled halumi and a side of cabbage (of which we actually asked for seconds).
Address: Strahinjića Bana 71
Marukoshi
We found Marukoshi because we were looking for somewhere to eat without smoking. We loved it because we love Japanese food! Sarah was especially happy to find her favorite treat of okinomiyaki. Seriously, never thought we’d be eating that in Belgrade. The Serbian craft beer they had on offer was great too.
Address: Kapetan-Mišina 37
Casa Nova
Casa Nova bills itself as a French-Italian restaurant. We partook in the Italian side of things. Their homemade pasta was solid. It was a good change of pace from burek and cebapi. Funny when a lighter meal comes in the form of pasta, but that’s how things are in Belgrade.
Address: Gospodar Jovanova 42a
Here are some other Belgrade restaurants that were either recommended to us by locals or which we read a lot about. We didn’t have a chance to visit them during this trip, but would give them a try on a return visit.
Manufaktura
We read about Manufaktura on almost every blog and restaurant website about Belgrade. It probably got famous because it has one of those umbrella streets where you can take pretty pictures. But we read the food is really quite good as well.
Address: Kralja Petra 13
Tri Šešira
We befriended the woman running the Rakia Bar and she highly recommended this restaurant. It’s in a slightly more touristy area of Belgrade, Skadarska Street. But it’s touristy for a reason – it’s quite cute and atmospheric. We were told this place has delicious Serbian food and that locals actually do go there. She told us to order local specialties of Karađorđeva (rolled meat stuffed with cheese, breaded, and deep fried) and Beogradska krempita (a cream cake). We were a bit too tired on our last night to have a big meal, but would love to check it out next time.
Address: Skadarska 29
Walter
Walter is another cevapi place in the Dorcol neighborhood and came highly recommended from someone we knew plus Google Maps. We passed by and the place looked casual and the menu options were great, but their outdoor terrace was under construction and we didn’t want to sit inside among the smoke.
Address: Strahinjića Bana 57
The best ice cream in Belgrade
Crna ovca
We never thought we’d find some of the best ice cream in the world in Belgrade. But we did at a small shop called Crna ovca. We were first intrigued by the ridiculous number of interesting flavors, but were ultimately wowed by the quality. The ice cream was creamy but not too rich and not too sweet. Our favorite flavor was the one they’re known for: sesame ice cream with chocolate espresso beans. We recommend going as soon as possible after getting to Belgrade so you can go again during your stay.
Address: Kralja Petra 58
Belgrade bars
Serbian craft beer
Krafter Beograd
Krafter is a small spot on one of the main streets in Dorcol. We were able to sit outside, which was great because inside was an unventilated smoke box. They have a great selection of local craft beer from Belgrade and Serbia in general. And they give you a small bowl of nuts to accompany your beers (always a welcome treat).
Address: Strahinjića Bana 44
Passengers Bar
Passengers is a larger spot with an indoor and outdoor space. They have a smaller offering of local beers, but it’s still quite good. Plus they serve food. It’s located in the same building as a hostel, but the environment was quite chill when we were there.
Address: Simina 5
Samo Pivo
We read really great things about Samo Pivo, but alas, it was just too filled with smoke when we tried to visit. It was bustling when we popped our heads in and looked like a fun spot. If you want to give it a try, note it’s a bit hard to find being upstairs in a somewhat derelict, abandoned looking building.
Address: Balkanska 13
Rakia
Rakia Bar
Rakia is a local Serbian fruit brandy. The easiest place to try and enjoy rakia in Belgrade is the aptly named Rakia Bar. We had no choice but to give it a try as it was right next to our hotel. We went after dinner on a quiet evening and enjoyed tasting different types of rakia and chatting with the woman working there. She gave us great recommendations for both rakia and Belgrade restaurants and bars. We highly recommend a visit.
Address: Dobračina 5
Belgrade coffee culture
We had heard that Belgrade has an incredible coffee culture. And we hadn’t heard wrong. On almost every corner of the city we found another super hip spot with super hip people drinking coffee. We do like coffee, but usually save our splurges for beer and food. But in Belgrade, we did like the locals and got our caffeine fix on whenever we could.
We most enjoyed visiting the outposts Koffein and Kafeterija. Even though they are chains, we didn’t feel too bad about visiting them since they are local and of course new to us.
The coffee choices were staggering. At our first spot, after struggling to understand one of the menus, we relied on the expert advice of our waiter. It all worked out.
We used this guide to the best coffee in Belgrade to do our research. If you’re a coffee fan/addict, definitely check it out (there are a ton of similar guides for other cities too).
Like this post? Pin it!
