Restaurants Recommendations Ljubljana

We dined out twice in Ljubljana and both dinners were excellent.

The first night was at Manna, in the neighborhood of the architect's house. It was a nice walk along the river to get there. we were seated upstairs, on a room decorated with warm colors and soft light ( but not dark). The room was quiet, the service was friendly and professional, and the food was excellent ( but I cannot recall what I ordered!)

The next night was at Špajza, on a quiet street below the castle, but off the tourist path.

http://www.spajza-restaurant.si/en/

My sister chose this one based on personal recommendations from a place they stayed earlier in the trip. I normally avoid restaurants that serve horse meat ( just a personal thing) but in this case I decided to be flexible and I am glad I did.. My John Dory was delicious, and the other three at the table also enjoyed their meals (-and no one ordered horse meat!). The decor is rustic, with dark wood and nice lighting; very pleasant, and more to our taste than the more ornate Manna. The waiter was very happy to discuss the food with us and make recommendations.

Špajza is father down the TripAdvisor review list than Manna, but I imagine that is because it is less well-known. I would rank it higher.

Thank you, Lola! Manna was on my list (from my internet searching) so glad to hear it was good! Appreciate the link to the other one as well and I had the same reaction to HORSE MEAT?! But I see they have lots of other good looking choices on the list as well :) Did you like that one even better than Manna?

Another thanks to Lola for the recommendations since we follow Peggy a few months later! Always great to hear about good restaurants. (We will decline the Horse Meat as well).

We wanted traditional food since we were in Slovenia for a very short time...this place was recommended to us. I'm not an expert on the regional food of Slovenia but the ambiance was really nice and the food was delicious!

Gujzina serves regional food of Prekmurje, a region at the northeastern edge of Slovenia.

Thank you, Anita and Dejan - it looks delicious. Have added it to the list. Not sure what to make of the other things like rental cottages and cars on their website?!

It's a family-run place and they have a lot of other family-run businesses that are related to tourism.

If you are in Ljubljana on Friday (from mid-March-October), visit Open Kitchen. Quite a few restaurants and chefs in Ljubljana or Slovenia are represented.

We also enjoyed Skuhna, a social business that helps African refugees/immigrants. Skuhna serves African cuisine, so if you are looking for "traditional" Slovenian food this would not be an option.

We also visited Cacao frequently for coffee, a glass of wine or gelato. It was popular with our Slovenian hosts.

We also ate at Vodnkiov Hram a couple of times. The service was good and it was probably the best Risotto I had while in Slovenia (Being gluten intolerant, I ate a lot of Risotto or salads).

We are following Peggy in a few months to Slovenia, so thank you for the great recommendations! Sounds wonderful.

Yes, thank you!

Hi Peggy, we were in Ljubljana 5 nights and ate dinner twice at Julija, recommended by our hotel. Both the food & service were excellent. We also did a food tour one night, dining in several places trying food that we would not have tried on our own. That was a lot of fun as well.

My wife and I just returned from a visit and I wanted to add a non-traditional recommendation. While looking for a place that served a traditional local pasta along the river, we noticed a waiter with a burger pass us by. The burger looked phenomenal. A woman at the first outdoor table behind him, happily enjoying hers with her family, saw us and gave an enthusiastic thumbs up. We asked a waitress whether we needed to be seated. She replied, "If you can find a seat, take it!" The place was packed, but we found a great people watching spot and thoroughly enjoyed our meal at a large outdoor shared table where we conversed with other diners including two pilots from Athens. The burger didn't disappoint, and the onion rings were a standout as well.

The highlight, though, was the Slovenian craft beer. They had quite a few in bottles and more on tap. We had an incredible rum barrel aged stout.

The place was called Pop's Burger Bar. If you're thinking burgers aren't quite authentic enough for your vacation, choose another place. We had lots of great Slovenian food on our vacation. This place was authentic because of the local vibe and local beer. After days of traditional dishes, this was a welcomed break.

We were only there one night unfortunately and went to Güjžina. it’s about 50 meters from the fountain. Excellent food and service. Great food is so cheap in Slovenia!