What to Eat in Belgrade: A Dish-by-Dish Guide

Belgrade eats with total conviction. This is a city where the grill is a way of life, where breakfast pastry is non-negotiable, and where dinner in a kafana — the traditional tavern that doubles as the city's social institution — can stretch happily past midnight. Portions are enormous, prices are gentle, and vegetarians will need a strategy. Here is what to order, dish by dish.

Key facts

• Currency: Serbian dinar (RSD); carry some cash for markets and bakeries
• Best months: April–June and September–October
• The institution: the kafana — tavern, living room and concert hall in one

Ćevapi: the essential first meal

Finger-length rolls of grilled minced meat, served by the five or ten inside somun flatbread with raw onion. The classic upgrade is a spoonful of kajmak melting into the bread. Grill houses across the city center and in the Skadarlija quarter serve them all day; follow the smoke.

Pljeskavica: Serbia's burger, only better

A broad, hand-formed patty off the same grill, often stuffed with cheese or smoked meat. Street windows sell it wrapped to go — it is Belgrade's definitive late-night meal.

Kajmak and ajvar: the sacred condiments

Kajmak is a rich, slightly tangy dairy spread somewhere between clotted cream and young cheese; ajvar is a slow-roasted red-pepper relish made in autumn. Order both with bread at the start of any kafana meal and you'll understand the Serbian table immediately.

Burek: breakfast of champions

Coiled, flaky pastry — filled with cheese, meat or spinach — sold by weight in bakeries from dawn, traditionally with drinkable yogurt. Belgraders argue fiercely about the best bakery; the honest answer is the nearest busy one.

Sarma and karađorđeva šnicla: the hearty classics

Sarma (sour cabbage leaves stuffed with meat and rice) is winter comfort at its deepest. Karađorđeva šnicla — a rolled, breaded schnitzel oozing kajmak, named after a Serbian royal dynasty — is the kafana showpiece. Arrive hungry.

Where to eat it all: Skadarlija and the kafanas

Skadarlija, the cobbled nineteenth-century bohemian street, is Belgrade's answer to Montmartre, lined with historic kafanas such as Tri Šešira and Dva Jelena, where live bands work the tables. Yes, it's touristy; it's also genuinely old, genuinely fun, and the food is honest. For deeper history, the tavern known simply as "?" (Znak Pitanja), operating since the early nineteenth century, is widely considered the city's oldest kafana.

Finish with rakija

The Balkan fruit brandy — most famously šljivovica, from plums — opens and closes meals here. Sip it slowly with meze, never as a shot, and toast with eye contact: "Živeli!"

Tip: Visit the Kalenić or Zeleni Venac markets in the morning to taste the raw ingredients — young cheeses, kajmak, honey and seasonal fruit — then book a kafana table for the evening; weekends fill up fast when live music is on.