Bratislava. We asked the front desk for a recommendation for authentic local Slovakian food and it was fantastic. Less than a 10 minute walk from the hotel in the light snow. We’ve only been here for 4 hours and we already love the experience. We ordered the recommended dishes and were blown away. Definitely rated this one a top 3 meal of the entire trip.
We learned the hard way in Vienna that portions are huge and you don’t need an appetizer. So we put it to the test for our first Slovakian meal and it was a great strategy. We shared 2 main dishes; slow roasted pork belly on bed of red cabbage cooked in dark beer, honey and chili with potato pancakes (more like rolled crepes). The second dish was traditional Slovak potato gnocchi (dumplings) with bryndza (local sheep cheese) with bacon and chives.
Both were delicious. The pork belly was cooked to perfection, and the cabbage the perfect partner, slightly sweet and so uniquely flavored. The potato dumplings were very good, great combination and the bacon was more like guanciale, really crisp with the right amount of fat. I would say the dumplings would have been better as a side dish for us than a main, but it was a fantastic meal.
Then dessert…we didn’t need it but did it anyway. Honestly, we didn’t love either of them. We had crispy pierogies with plum jam, poppy seeds and cinnamon sour cream. The dough was way too thick for a desert, hard to chew. We also ordered the spelt banana pancakes with lemon curd, salted caramel and dried raspberries. They put so much into the plating and the components which were all yummy but there was no real flavor from the pancakes. Just being extremely picky because we are really trying the avoid the sugar (that is, after Vienna’s grand indulgence). In general, the staff, the atmosphere, the other diners, it all made for a great evening. Time for bed.
The Photos
