Google for food to try in Ljubljana again yielded me a long list of restaurants or Slovenian traditional dishes that you must not miss out. While I appreciated the information compactness in such article, it is tough to make a decision where to eat with limited 2 days in Ljubljana.
Initially, we thought with the population of slightly more than 2 million in Slovenia and close to 300,000 in the capital city of Ljubljana, the food identity may have been diluted by neighbouring countries such as Germany or Austria. It is partially true, as schnitzels and sausages are aplenty in the menu but there are some local cuisine such as Štruklji and Bled Cream Cakes that set to tantalize your taste buds.
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| Gibanica - Slovenian National Cake in Lolita |
In this post, we compiled some of the food we have tried in Ljubljana.
1. Klobasarna
Klobasarna is a fast food outlet in old town of Ljubljana that sells traditional Slovenian dishes - Carniolan sausages, or Kranjska Klobasa . It is not any ordinary sausages that can buy from the street, but rather a traditional food product protected by geographical indication in the country of origin, in this case Slovenia, issued by European Union. To date, no more than 15 Slovene producers have earned the certificate to make Craniolan sausages.
It is made from pork and at most 20% bacon, then added with sodium nitrate, seasoned with only garlic and pepper then held together with a wooden skewer. It is taut, chewy and flavourful, then eaten along with mustard and wasabi alike white condiments.
Oh we just love the Craniolan sausages here!
At the same time, the shop also sells Štruklji (€4) , a traditional Slovene rolled pastry. It was served with 3 distinctive type pastry and all 3 are topped with some apple taste sauce. Unlike other pastries that has been baked. these Štruklji were steamed.
Klobasarna
+386 51 605 017
Operation hours: 10am - 9pm Daily (except till 3pm on Sunday)
2. Lolita | Kaval Group
Lolita, a modern classic cafe in Ljubljana old town that serves a wide variety of cakes, chocolate bars, biscuits and all sort of pastries is a place that has everything to challenge your sweet temptations. We were left in a conundrum the moment after we saw the impressive display of the cakes there, as everything appear too good to resist!
Anyway, the first thing we were looking for is Gibanica (€5.40), a type of layered pastry that achieved the status of national specialty of Slovenia. It contains cottage cheese, poppy seeds, apples and walnuts that miracle worked out the perfect taste. The poppy seeds in particularly have elevated the taste and caramelized apples gave it a crispy texture.
Another pastry we had was Jabolčni Zavitek (€4), which is actually apple strudel. The taste is similar to the amazing apple strudel we had in Budapest - with soft and thin skin that encrusting the semi-sweet feeling.
Since it is holiday for us, we also thought of going luxury by having a Vroc Poljubcek (€3.80), which translated to coffee + eggnoc + cream. It offers a complicated paste - creamy with a scent of liquor and a complex coffee flavour. The crew did a thoughtful job by serving it with a cup of water to cleanse your palate.
Overall, Lolita is a place that those having a sweet tooth should go and hang out with. It is so Instagraamable with the modern classic furniture and design, and the restaurant even took care to the finest details such as ribbons are tied to all the cutlery being served to the table.
Lolita | Kaval Group
+386 590 16299
Operation hours: 8.30am - 11pm Daily (till 10pm on Sunday and public holidays)
3. Hot Horse
I have seen exotic burger patty, ranging from ostrich, rabbit, turkey to wild boars, yet this is the first times I am seeing horse meat burger.
Hot Horse owns a few outlets across Ljubljana, and one of them is in Tivoli Park. The outlet only serves horse meat, in burger, tortilla with different top-up. So if you are not a hot meat eater, either you go somewhere else or just have a box of French fries.
The horseburger (€6.00) was giant in size and look like those American burgers we see in the TV. Horse meat patty was surprisingly well seasoned and flavourful. We could not tell that it was horse meat if we were served directly the burger without any mentioning. As a matter of fact, there is no way to tell the difference between horse meat burger with beef burger by our amateur taste buds, except the colour is slightly darker.
Hot Horse
+386 31 709 716
Operation hours: 9am - 12am Daily (except till 2am on Fri and Sat, and 12pm-10pm on Sunday)
4. Cacao
Ice cream shop has been our places of pilgrimage in almost all European cities we been to; and we tried Cacao while in Ljubljana. Cacao offers a great range of ice cream and cakes, and indeed it was rewarding to purposely come here in the rainy evening for it. The Affogato Cacao and Borovnica (European blueberries) in a cone was refreshing in taste and come with a pleasant burst of fruity flavour.
Cacao also sells excellent cakes but unfortunately it was closing during our visiting hour, so we only managed to grab a cone of ice cream.
Cacao
+386 1 430 17 71
Operation hours: 8am - 10pm (till 11pm on Friday and Saturday)
6. Pizzerija Šestinka
If you are running a trip with low budget, you can try to check out Pizzerija Sestinka. It is located a stone's throw away from Ljubljana main train and bus station. They dish out huge piece of pizza at relatively affordable price, starting from €2.10.
Above picture is a piece of Pizza Zelenjavna. Although it is a microwave food but it is still a good food that cater well to our hungry stomach, and worth the price of course!
Pizzerija Šestinka
+386 1 230 19 87
Operation hours: 10am - 10pm (till 11pm on Fri and Sat; opens at 12pm on Sat & Sun)
7. Fast Food Nobel
If you really hungry at night and have no idea what to eat, consider go to Fast Food Burek for a good kebab starting from €2.50, and most importantly it comes with a generous portion of meat. It is located next block to Pizza Zelenjavna.
Fast Food Nobel
+386 1 232 33 92
Operation hours: 24 hours
8. Own Cooked Food!
Well, what is more fun that preparing a very own meal at foreign country? That is what we done, after a grocery shopping in local Mercator. The reason that propelled to our decision to have our own dinner is because our love toward the sausages we had earlier in Klobasarna, and thus we decided to get some sausages our own too.
On a side note, own prepared dinner are affordable! This is what we had for 2:
- 4 pieces of Anton Klobasa Kajzarska (€3.79)
- Salad 150g (€1.49)
- Buckwheat Soup (€1.79)
- Zvijezda Mayo (€1.69)
- Mustard Tube (€1.14)
Plus a takeaway of Bacon and Cheddar Fries at McDonald's at Ljubljana train station for €2.50. Gotta
make it looks cooler by having fries right? Anyway, the fries tasted bad as the sauce just does not blend well with the fries.
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Check out Shirleen & Ee Pin's Instagram for more beautiful photos we have taken.
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