5 places I recommend•1 in the Michelin guide
These are the five restaurants, coffee shops and ice cream shops in Ljubljana I have eaten at myself and would recommend.
A gostilna, the traditional Slovenian inn, up in the courtyard of Ljubljana Castle, dreamt up by Ana Roš and Valter Kramar of Hiša Franko with Svetozar Raspopović of Gostilna As. The menu is seasonal Slovenian cooking like štruklji and žlikrofi, and it’s in the Michelin Guide.
Address: Grajska planota 1, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
A restaurant in a historic building on Stari trg in the old town, right next door to Valvas’or, mixing modern and traditional Slovenian dishes with homemade pasta and wines from Slovenia’s top winemakers.
Address: Stari trg 9, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
A restaurant on Stari trg in the old town, opened in July 2008 inside an old arched tavern and named after the 17th-century polymath Janez Vajkard Valvasor, who was born in the house next door. The cooking leans Mediterranean.
Address: Stari trg 7, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
The café at Hotel Park on the shore of Lake Bled, about an hour from Ljubljana, and the home of the original Bled cream cake. Pastry chef Ištvan Lukačević created it here in 1953, and it’s still made to the same recipe – a 7 cm square of vanilla cream and whipped cream between layers of pastry, with around 15 million slices sold since.
Address: Cesta svobode 10, 4260 Bled, Slovenia
A café and ice cream place on the riverbank looking across at Plečnik’s colonnade at the Central Market, and one of the best-known spots for ice cream in the city. There are branches in Portorož and Prague too. One of my all-time favourite ice cream parlours.
Address: Petkovškovo nabrežje 3, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
