If you are a vegetarian or a pescetarian, Bosnian cuisine (and the Balkans in general) will not offer all that much to you. Juicy grilled meatballs, meat-filled soups and stews, and meaty pastries fill almost all the space on menus, almost. Thankfully, there are also a few other options to consider. Most notably, not all baked goods are filled with meat, and burek, a particularly tasty and flaky delicacy, can be found meatless across the region. It goes without saying that as a pescetarian, my guide to Bosnian food in Sarajevo will be filled to the brim with burek and barely extend beyond it. Without further ado, let us see where one can get the best burek in Sarajevo, and which bakeries should one stay away from.
Imaret – https://maps.app.goo.gl/MdyiGGmmsgiRx6Gf7
There is a local Bosnian pastry called kifle, and you can try its best iteration in Imaret. This small bakery has a rich selection of baked goodies, but it really is their kifle with sesame seeds that you should try first and foremost. I do not know whether it is the flour or the sesame seeds that they use, but this was an almost annoyingly tasty salty pastry. It is similar to Turkish simit, and reminiscent of pretzel, but it is far better than any one of these. Service is quick so even if you may see a queue, do join in! There is a reason that there is a queue to begin with…
Buregdžinica Sač – https://maps.app.goo.gl/q2YUKZtw4WeJvEAEA
While Sarajevo seems to have more burek vendors than people, only a few are lucky enough to be noticeably more popular than others. Buregdžinica Sač is one such example. To be completely honest with you all, I had much better burek elsewhere. Furthermore, its popularity meant that we had to eat our bureks in a rush as tens of people looked at our plates to hurry us up, since they wanted our spot. Mind you, the burek was not bad, no burek I had in Sarajevo tasted off. It is also pretty cheap, much like any other burek in Sarajevo. However, with how crowded this place is, it simply makes no sense to wait in a queue to eat a burek, when superior burek are just around the corner and can be eaten in peace. Do give them a shot if you stick around Sarajevo for a long time like I did, just keep your expectations to a minimum.
ASDž – https://maps.app.goo.gl/38wV5qhxzJKEMDL69
Yet another popular spot for burek (and more) is ASDž. However, this place has an actual gimmick, which I happened to enjoy. They do most of their cooking using a contraption filled with ember, which means that their food ends up tasting rather smoky in their own unique way. Their burek was not anything special per se, but it was smoky, which does make them a more interesting choice than what Buregdžinica Sač offers in my humble opinion. Also, ASDž offers some of the best roasted potatoes you can have anywhere, though in hindsight, I am quite certain that those were flavoured by some chicken stock at some point. They were just too tasty to be potatoes alone. Well, I sure did not know that when I was ordering them, but it cannot hurt to ask in case you are following a stricter diet.
Maksuz Pita & Soup – https://maps.app.goo.gl/WaFbcCWsVUHNKm9C7
In fact, it honestly cannot hurt to ask Bosnian chefs around the country whether their dishes are actually vegetarian or not, before ordering them. Some supposedly vegetarian stuff just tastes significantly better than their Turkish counterparts, which is ironically a bit concerning. For example, the lentil soup I had in Maksuz Pita & Soup was possibly the tastiest one I had outside of my own home. It was just too tasty to be truly meatless. This is not to say that vegetarian soups are not tasty. They can be, when I cook them at home. But lentil soup is supposed to be rather basic, if not outright bland. I suppose they may be using Vegeta, which I also use frequently in my own cooking, and that would explain the unexpected umami elements in some food I had in Bosnia. I did see Vegeta being openly written in the recipes of some bureks I had in the country, but even then, I cannot help but think that some chicken or beef stock may be at play in some other food that I enjoyed, especially in Sarajevo. Regardless, just asking about this issue directly should clarify any concerns. The staff at Maksuz Pita & Soup is extra friendly so I am sure that they will be happy to accommodate your needs. They will also serve you an excellent spinach filled burek, one of the best in the city!
Restoran Morica Han – https://maps.app.goo.gl/dDpoWVLo7vH19w5U6
So far, we only really covered bureks and an odd roasted potato and lentil soup that Sarajevo offers to its pescetarian and vegetarian visitors. While I am saving the best burek spot for last, I have to say that some of the more touristic restaurants in the Bosnian capital offer a few vegetarian specialities as well. These are often a rather humble mix of certain local vegetables and cheese and thus are not mind blowing in any way. It really is the thought that matters, per se. I do think that they should care more about the amount of protein in a plate though. Also, the prices seem to be a bit off, as in, more basic vegetarian plates can be as expensive as meat filled ones but this is the case across the globe these days.
Buregdžinica Bećiri – https://maps.app.goo.gl/wFEZRmTToEoG2RCU7
Well, if you are staying for a very short time in Sarajevo or you are only interested in eating the best of the best, you can simply disregard what I wrote up until this point. No one can beat the friendliness of Buregdžinica Bećiri’s staff, and no one makes burek better than them. At least no one in Bosnia. My memory is a bit vague about the burek I had in the other Balkan countries I visited so far, but it seems to me that when it comes to potato filled bureks, nothing even comes close to the stuff you can have in Buregdžinica Bećiri. They really know how to do this flaky baked goodness justice. I ended up eating here twice, and my only regret is not doing it more.
