Sarajevo is a fascinating city to explore and get under the skin of. Yet knowing a handful of authentic and inexpensive places to eat at enhances the experience greatly. In this article I am including, of course, a burek and cevapi place, but also a historical eatery serving traditional Bosnian cuisine for a modest splurge (though still very affordable) and a special local patisserie and ice cream parlour for delicious and cheap sweet treats. Let’s begin with the bureks…
1. Buregdžinica ASDŽ
On a street lined with burekerias, as I like to call them, this small eatery is my pick. The Bosniaks who run it are burek experts with enormous spiral disks of fresh piping hot meat, cheese, potato and spinach bureks ready to go from the morning until the late hours of the evening. I stumbled upon this place by accident on my first night in Sarajevo walking aimlessly in the Baščarsija district. This eatery is a local favourite and for good reason. I settled on a mixture of three not insubstantial spiral slices of meat, potato, and spinach bureks served on a metal plate with lashings of some white yoghurt sauce. And it all came to just 4KMs (2 euros).
Plate of bureks
Check out the oven. The bureks and other dishes are cooked in giant closed metal pans covered in coals. The meat and chicken with potato dishes are tasty here too but for me this place will always be remembered for its satellite dish sized spiral bureks.
Whilst I was tucking into my bureks, a group of young Bosnians were sitting opposite me. A boy in the group who looked no older than 17/18 fancied himself a homie from Compton. One moment everyone is talking in Bosnian then apropos of nothing the boy riffs in English, ‘I am gonna bust a cap in yo ass n**ga!’. I almost choked on a morsel of spinach burek when I heard that chestnut.
2. Nune
Cevapi at Nune
On Ferhadija street past the big cathedral is this small family run cevapi place. It is owned by the father of a young local tour guide named Edin who does superb free daily morning walking tours with the local tour company Meet Bosnia Travel. If you want good and cheap cevapi in a hole in the wall no frills setting this is a good place. For as little as 3KMs (€1.50), you get a plate of small mini cevapi sausages in warm pitta bread and chopped onions.
3. Kod Secka
This eatery located somewhere in the heart of the Baščarsija district is a solid reference point if you are watching the KMs and have had enough of cevapis and bureks. Kod Secka’s piece de resistance is roast half chicken and potatoes for 5KM (€2.50). It is heavenly. Cheap, tasty and very filling. And a perfect dose of midday rocket fuel for those long walks discovering and unearthing the rich history of Sarajevo.
Half chicken and potatoes at Kod Secka
4. Inat Kuca
Inat Kuca restaurant is located in an historic building
This restaurant is located in an old house dating back to 1895 by the main Miljacka river. It serves genuine and tasty traditional Bosnian cuisine. This is a solid restaurant to eat at if you fancy a modest splurge, although compared to similar restaurants in other western countries, the prices are inexpensive.
“Bosanski lonak”
When I visited, I ordered the “Bosanski lonak”, a delicious traditional Bosnian stew consisting of beef and veal, potatoes, vegetables and spices. It was also beautifully presented in a metal bowl with chopped parsley. For just 10KMs (5 euros) this is a very good deal. Other staples on the menu include the “Sarajevski Sahan” for a few KMs more which is a mix of traditional Bosnian dishes and “Japrak Dolma” which is similar to the Polish dish “Golabki” and consists of minced meat, veg and rice wrapped in cabbage leaves.
On a blue day it is delightful to sit at a table on the outside terrace facing the river. But inside, the restaurant is aesthetically very tasteful in the old Ottoman era style; beautiful Turkish copper lamps hang from the ceiling and other Ottoman style artefacts and old black and white photographs adorn the walls.
5. Slasticarna Egipat
This Macedonian owned family patisserie has been serving customers since 1949
Ice cream parlours and sweet shops are plentiful in the city but not many can match the authenticity, quality, spirit, and even prices of this local ice cream parlour and patisserie run by a Macedonian family. Located on Ferhadija Street like Nune, this sweet treats place has a history dating back to 1949. Entering Egipat is like travelling back in time to former Yugoslavia of the Tito era during the 1960s and 70s. The walls are covered in retro tiles and it is a corner of the city unaffected and little changed by rampant globalisation.
The spirit here is purely local and reminds me of the old school Jewish bagel shops on Brick Lane in the East End of London. And like those bagel shops, the service can sometimes be indifferent and abrupt but we wouldn’t want it any other way.
There are six flavours of homemade ice cream. On two occasions I tried the “Egyptian Vanilla” and “Egyptian Chocolate”. Both were excellent and have a flavour and texture that is different to any other kind of ice cream I’ve ever had. But I must warn you the sugar content is off the scales but who cares with ice cream this good. Since tasting their ice cream, I made many repeat visits to sample some of their traditional cakes and other local sweet delights.
Sampita is a very sweet Bosnian white cake, like the French Ile Flotante but much heavier with more texture and flavour and less anaemic; a dangerous sugar bomb. The čokoladni rolat is an irresistibly decadent rich and creamy chocolate roll. I also had some rich and tasty heavy cream and chocolate cake. And they also have the famous traditional Turkish baklava cake, which can be found throughout the country owing to its Ottoman past. A scoop of ice cream like most of the other ice cream parlours of Sarajevo will set you back only 1KM (50 cents) and most of the cakes can be purchased for just half a KM more per slice.
By Nicholas Peart
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