Best Restaurants
in Sarajevo

Sarajevo is perhaps the most culturally complex city in Europe, and its food reflects that complexity. Four centuries of Ottoman rule, a century of Austro-Hungarian administration and fifty years of Yugoslav socialism have layered a cuisine that draws from Islamic, Central European and Slavic traditions simultaneously. The result is a food culture that cannot be found anywhere else — not in Istanbul, not in Vienna, not in Belgrade.

The Baščaršija, the Ottoman bazaar quarter, is the city's culinary heart. Here, ćevapi shops have been operating in the same locations for generations, serving the minced meat preparation that Sarajevo considers its signature dish with a specificity of preparation that local diners defend with genuine passion. The Sarajevo ćevapi — pure beef, never mixed, served in ten or five, with somun, kajmak and raw onion — is categorically different from its Mostar or Banja Luka counterparts, and the arguments about which is superior fuel more Bosnian conversation than politics.

Beyond the bazaar, Sarajevo maintains a serious fine-dining scene anchored by several restaurants with extraordinary views over the city's amphitheatrical topography. The hills above the old town offer vantage points from which the entire Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian cityscape is visible; several restaurants have been built to exploit these positions.

The Austro-Hungarian influence appears most strongly in the patisserie culture: the Vijećnica cakes, the kremšnite (cream slices) and strudel that appear in the cafés along Ferhadija pedestrian street represent a confectionery tradition that Austria itself has largely abandoned. Sarajevo's coffee culture — derived from Ottoman tradition, served in džezva with rahat lokum — is another dimension of a city that takes its pleasures seriously and at length.